Strategic Planning for competitive advantage.

Most people are aware of the cosmetic company SEPHORA. That is because Sephora's strategy of advertisement is would I would like to call GENIUS. Sephora has a variety of products. Sephora sells perfumes, eye shadows, nail polishes etc. My favorite product of all is their lip glosses. The reason is because of the variety of lip glosses. Now I know that other cosmetic companies like MAC offer a variety of lip glosses, but Sephora's variety expands to more than just shades of colors. In 2008 Sephora's team of marketers and executives went around to a chain of stores including Macy's and J.C Penney. They found out about what customers look for when buying lip gloss and also things that prevent sales. The discovery was that most of the prevention of sales was not because of the lip gloss but because of certain insecurities that female shoppers have about themselves.

DISCOVERIES/FEMALE THOUGHTS:

• Some females feel that because their lips are too small, some lip glosses don't look as good on them as they would on a female with fuller lips.
• Some females feel that their complexion is too light or too dark for certain shades.
• Some females deal with dry and cracked lips and feel that lip gloss will make it worse.
•  Some females think that lip gloss wears off too quick.
• Some females prefer lipstick.

After finding out the thoughts of females and potential buyers Sephora expanded their lip gloss and took it to new limits. Sephora now creates lip gloss that helps with with a lot of the insecurities that were stated above. Sephora offers a variety of lip plumpers, lip gloss therapies (which are lip glosses that contain aloe vera for people who suffer from dry lips), they offer about 250 different shades and tones for different skin complexions, they offer lip gloss that looks like lipstick and they offer lip last lip gloss (which is lip gloss that doesn't wear off quickly) Sephora's strategic planning is a success because they ask what the consumer wants and then Sephora provides. From a 2010 survey in Allure magazine 4 out of every 5 females choose SEPHORA over MAC.