Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing is the coordination of a variety of promotional vehicles (e.g., print/broadcast advertising, public relations, direct marketing, in-store promotions) and multiple stages in a promotional campaign to ensure that the marketing message is consistently received by the greatest possible number of people in the target market.

Sephora is very successful when it comes to intergrated marketing. To survive in any company or business, you must have effective Promotion (Communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response.)




Promotional Strategy - Is a plan for the optimal use of the elements of promotion: Advertising, Public Relations, Personal Selling, and Sales Promotion. Sephora expertises in all these elements.




With Advertising, you can find Sephora advertisments on billboards, the internet, magazines etc...




With Public Relations, Sephora's team keeps a good image of Sephora. When you here about Sephora you do not here any negativity. The reason being is because Sephora's Public Relation team stays on top of their image.




With Sales Promotion, Sephora promotes new products, coupons and sales. You can actually print out sephora coupons online and sign up for alot of offers tht help you save money.




Competitor advantage is the set of unique features of a company and its products that are percieved by the target market as significant and superior to the competition. The features include High Product Quality, Rapid delivery, low prices, Excellent Service, or a Feature not offered by the Competition.




Since Sephora is indeed a cosmetic company they have a lot of competition. Like any company they see competition is a way to advance a head. Instead of copying what other companies do, they take other companies mistakes and make them wonderful ideas. For example, lets say it takes two days to recieve a Revlon product that was ordered online, Sephora will make it that if you order their product online it will only take a day to recieve. Or another good example and Fact is low prices thats Sephora offers. Both Sephora and Mac offer a Hello Kitty line. The major difference between the two lines is the price. Sephora offers Hello Kitty Lip Gloss for $16, while MAC (one of Sephora's many competitors) offers Hello Kitty Lip Gloss for $27.49... A HUGE difference in price and a major factor when it comes where a person will shop.

Not only does Sephora stores expand Sephora products, they also help expand other products as well. In Sephora stores you can find SEPHORA brand products but in Sephora stores you can also find brands like Stila, Smashbox, Lorac, and Lancome. With that being said Sephora's integrated marketing communication strategy is great because you can now look at Sephora stores as a place that holds a cosmetic army because the brands that Sephora stores offer work together to make Sephora a great place to shop and find what you are looking for.

Product Concepts

Sephora sells a variety of different product. After reading up on different types of products, i've come to the conclusion that Sephora specializes in Shopping products, specialty products and unsought products.

Shopping products - A product usually more expensive than a convience product and is found in fewer stores.
Now when it comes to cosmetics,you can find them in a lot of places, pharmacies,discount stores,beauty supply stores and etc...but when buying a sephora product the stores you can buy them at decreases.When buying a sephora product one must go to a sephora ,macys or bloomingdales.

Speciality products- When consumers search extensively for a particular item and are very reluctant to accept subsititues.
Now sephora offers a lot of products, now to focus on sephora lip glosses, sephora offers a variety of different types of glosses and shades. I feel sephora offers speciality products through experience. The last time I was in sephora a lady was looking for a certain lip gloss from sephora that was made for people with dry lips, sephora didn't have it and the lady's friend suggested going to a different cosmetic store and the lady said no that she would either order the product online or come back tomorrow.

Unsought products- A product unknown to the potential buyer or a known product that the buyer does not actively seek.

Sephora always offers new products but sometimes the product isn't known by everybody. Being that i am a loyal costumer of sephora i recieve emails about new products weeks in advanced but if you aren't a loyal costumer you wont know about certain products until they get advertised.

Sales Promotions and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion is marketing communication activities, other than adversting, personal selling and public relations, in which a short-term incentive motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value.

On my last blogpost I talked about Advertising.

ADVERTISING offers a consumer a reason to buy, while SALES PROMOTIONS offers an incentive to buy. For example, Sephora could be promotiong a new lip gloss on a commercial today and because the lip gloss is new that gives me a reason to buy it, because I would want to try out the new product. Now two weeks could pass and Sephora could be promoting the SAME product but now they could be selling it for half price, that would give me the incentive to buy it, because not only is the product still new, it is now cheaper.

There are alot of Consumers and Sales Promotion goals.

• Type of buyer: Loyal Customers which are people who buy a certain product all the time. (I consider myself a loyal customer and I am pretty sure the staff of the Sephora on 42nd st. would agree)
• Sales Promotion Examples: Loyalty marketing programs such as frequent buy cards or frequent shopper clubs. (I have a Sephora shopper's card and whenever I purchase anything from Sephora I am guarenteed 5% off my next purchase. I also get emails from Sephora about new products and upcoming sales.)
• Desired Result: For the consumer to stay a loyal costumer. 
   

• Type of buyer: Competitors customers which are people who buy a competitor's product must or all of the time.
• Sales Promotion Examples: Sampling products so that future consumers can get a feel of the product and what a company is offering. (In Sephora stores before you purchase a product they have samplers around, and tools that you can yuse to sample a product)
• Desired Result: To pursuade the consumer to switch to your company.

• Type of buyer: Brand Switchers which are people who buy a variety of products in the category. (Usually these are people who don't have a preference if they like make up they will buy make up from any cosmetic store.)
•  Sales Promotion Examples: Any promotion that lowers the price of product, such as coupons. (Lower prices may be likely to give a person the incentive to buy the product a company is selling.)
• Desired Result: To get the consumer to buy their product.

•  Type of buyer: Price buyers: Which are people who consistently buy the least expensive brand.
• Sales Promotion Examples: Coupons, refunds and or trade deals that reduce the price of the brand to match that of the braind that woukd have been purchased.
• Desired Result: Appeal with low prices or supply added value that makes price less important.

Sephora offers a lot of Sales promotions.

Sephora offers a variety of coupons, rebates and premiums.

Coupons: A coupon is a certificate that entitiles consumers to an immediate price reductions when they buy a product.

Last week when I bought my super shimmer lip gloss from sephora, I brought in a coupon that takes off $2 dollars. The lip gloss was reguarly priced at $10, so with my $2 I saved and my 5% perent reduction from using my sephora card, I only paid about $6 dollars for the lip gloss

Rebate: Rebates are similar to coupons, they offer the purchaser a price reduction, because the consumer must mail in a rebate form and some proof of purchase, the reward is not immediate.

Premiums: Premiums are an extra item offered to the consumer usually in exchange for some proof that the promoted product has been purchased. (Sometimes at Sephora when I buy a certain product or product or products I get a free gift. This past week I bought $30 worth of lip gloss and blush because of my purchases I was given a free blush brush.)



Me and my free Blush Brush I received from Sephora. Also, in case anyone is wondering I am wearing Sephora's line of "Colorful Mono Eyeshadow" the color I am wearing is "City Fog 02" it sells for $12 and the blush I am wearing is Sephora's collection of "Blush me! Mono" the color I am wearing is "Framboise Attraction 3" it sells for $12.



Advertising and public relations

The company of Sephora is a well known cosmetic company. You can find advertisements for Sephora all over. They invest about $100,000+ on billboard ad's around the world. They advertise and market themselves in magazines, posters, billboards,blogs and etc. With Sephora staying on top with their advertising techniques Sephora's popularity is on the rise and staying on top.

Retailing (Shopping at Sephora)

So today was my short day at school and I decided to do a little shopping. Of course I decided to go to Sephora because Sephora is one of my favorite stores. I hopped on the 2 train and got off on 42nd-Times Square. I went to a Sephora store and went on a hunt for my Sephora's Super Shimmer Lip Gloss. When I entered the store I was greeted by one of the many sales associates. Karen (which was the sales associate, I always look at name tags) first told me about the new items in stock and if I would like to try a sample. I took my time and looked at the samples (I am definitely going back to buy some Sephora Nude Lip plumper tomorrow). Anywho she then asked if there was anything specific that I was looking for, I told her I was looking for Sephora's Super Shimmer Lip Gloss, she proceeded to take me to the section where that specific lip gloss is. She then asked me what color am I looking for and I told her RED VELVET. Unfortunately that color was sold out, instead of Karen pushing other products on me, she gave me two options. The first option was to order the lip gloss online. Then she reminded me that there was another Sephora store down the block that should have what I was looking for. Before I left she took the time out to call the other Sephora store to see if the product I wanted was in the stock this way I wouldn't waste time making an unneccessary trip. Thankfully the other store had it and in less then ten minutes I purchased the item I wanted. It was a great Sephora experience, I definitely have no complaints.



 

Consumer decision making

The cosmetic industry is expanding and with so many companies on the rise Sephora comes up with new gimmicks and products to keep consumers wanting more. When you think of make-up you usually think of teenagers or women, but Sephora products are timeless. Sephora came up with "Hello Kitty at Sephora". This line appeals to all ages. Hello Kitty was introduced in 1974 (it was introduced in 1976 in the United States). With her feminine and fun appearance she is found irresistible by a female of any age (even though it was originally aimed for the pre-adolescent female market). With that bit of information on Hello Kitty you can see why Sephora decided to incorporate Hello Kitty into their line of products.Some lip products you can get from the Hello Kitty line are:

• Hello Kitty Lip Balm - $9.00
• Hello Kitty Sweet Gloss - $16.00

Developing a Global Vision (More information)

On my last blogpost I focused on the Breast Cancer Awareness that Sephora contributes to. The major fact that I forgot to mention was the "GLOBAL" aspect of the company. Sephora has stores in many places outside of the United States. You can find Sephora stores in France, England, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Romania, Czech Republic, Russia, the United States and ETC. Sephora also caters to the countries because Sephora makes an effort to try and translate their products names, ingredients and directions to the language of the country they are selling to. Also, Sephora is partnered with a other stores so it makes their global effort expand. When you see a Macy's or Bloomingdales, if you go to their cosmetic section you are sure to find Sephora's line of cosmetics.