Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

The way Sephora approaches sales is not just the marketing of their own product lines but also, they offer other brand names for sale as well. For example, they offer the consumer a package of 10 small different women's perfumes bundled for one reasonable price.  In this box, they have their product and other famous brands of perfume as well.  This also represents, just one example of how Sephora build alliances with other companies who otherwise might become their competitors.  In addition to marketing for these other firms, Sephora also relies on external companies to expand its distribution channel.  For example, Duane Read and CVS offer Sephora brand nail polish for sale.  They are given an exclusive agreement to do so, so that other than in a Sephora store, these are the only places you can find this special brand of nail polish for sale.

Coupled with this, Sephora utilizes a strategy of targeted exclusivity.  What we mean by this is that while some of their products are offered in different stores thus building strategic alliances with multiple companies, others of their products, such as products in their skin care line, certain accessories and tools, and some of their more high end makeup, Sephora only offers these for sale in a Sephora retailer store. This makes the trip to Sephora something special, where the customer, for certain specific products feels that Sephora is the only place to go.

They also sell their services too.  For example, customers pay an amount of money to get a makeup lesson at the Sephora store. Their strategies are centered not only around products but also around a few highly developed service skills. They know that to keep current customers satisfied is just as important as attracting new ones. This is the Sephora approach to business marketing.

Sephora combines an in-store approach with an online approach offering a detailed website to help consumers access all that they offer online. To do this, they have both their own website and also different facebook pages for different countries.