Sephora is one of the largest reputed beauty product retailing company in the world and is owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). The Sephora Direct group is directly responsible for the complete digital and direct marketing initiatives of the Sephora Group, including its online and retail initiatives. (Ofek & Wagonfeld, 2012, p. 1) The company has a presence in the US since 1998. Sephora paid special attention to the look of its stores as well as the concept of trying on makeup as a method to get users to like the brand. As far as the competition went, in the traditional retail segment, Sephora faced a stiff contest from established stores such as Macy and Nordstrom as well as single brand stores such as MAC and multi brand stores such as ULTA Beauty. In the online segment, Sephora had faced competition from online retailers such as Amazon, Beauty.com, and a few hundred smaller sites. (Ofek & Wagonfeld, 2012, p. 3) The problem that Julie Bornstein and her team faced was to find out the precise media platforms that they should use in order to have the maximum brand and sales impact, but within budgetary constraints.
The established names in the business, particularly ULTA, were already breathing down Sephora’s neck in terms of competition. With the traditional media marketing modes being replaced by online methods, Sephora had to ensure that they had a robust social media as well as internet and mobile phone web presence. Bornstein knew that any future opportunities as well as prospective competition would come from the online modes rather than the retail sales mode. Can Bornstein and her team succeed in striking a balance between the retail and online as well as maintaining the brand image of Sephora? The assumption would be that Sephora under Bornstein would be able to secure the $1 million funding from LVMH. The two plans presented here will give solutions to this problem followed by our recommendation.
