Sephora Direct: Investing in Social

Media, Video, and Mobile

Group 1:
Aabhas Bhatnagar (PGP17002) | Akshay Vashishtha (PGP17005)
Kanika Verma (PGP17035)| Shashank Kulkarni (PGP17038)
Varun Mallik (PGP17077) | Pulkit Singhal (PGP17190)
5C Analysis
• Company
• Started in 1969, and acquired by LVMH in 1997, nearly 1000 stores by 2010
• Customers
• Target Segment: 25-35 year old women
• Competitors
• Ulta, e-commerce, Chanel, MAC, Macy’s, Nordstrom
• Collaborators
• Those brands whose products are carried in Sephora Stores
• Context
• Beauty & Personal Care Industry
• Decision Problem
• To allocate media spending and measure its effectiveness

• Alternatives
• Continue spending as much on Traditional & Print Media Marketing since it
was loved by their customers
• Continue the foray into digital with an experimental mindset
• Place emphasis on Digital Marketing as a driver of sales and strategize media
spending accordingly

• Framework Used
• SWOT
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
• S1O1 & S1O3: • W1T1: Premium • O1: Cross-brand • T1: Ulta stores,
Largest online Positioning promotions Amazon.com,
beauty site • W2T2: Unable to • O2: Social media Beauty.com
• S2O2: VIB program effectively measure expansion • T2: Dynamic Digital
and Beauty insider - ROI for Digital Spend • O3: New e- Landscape
loyal customers commerce
• S4O4: Premium partnerships &
product mix Collaborations with
other departmental
stores
• O4: Increase
specialized
departments
Recommendations
• Continue with the VIB Program – in line with “Super Consumers”
• Tinker with current media spend allocation:
• Reduce the size of one catalog and allocate that money towards Digital and
evaluate how the response is
• Facebook & Beauty Talk: Instead of Beauty Talk being an alternative
to Facebook, it should be complementary. Facebook can even be used
to promote, and direct customers to, Beauty Talk.
• YouTube: Tap Super Consumers for roles as Influencers and Vloggers
to merge UGC into Company YouTube Stream. Sales through such
channels can be easily be monitored through traffic data or
specialised codes.
Opportunity Costs
• The additional spend on Digital Marketing could instead be used for
Product Giveaways, for freebies to VIBs, or for in-store promotional
events, to name a few
• The additional budget could instead go towards Traditional & Print
Media Marketing
• Alienating Android-using customers
That’s All!