Sephora

Background:

 Retained by LVMH, Sephora was first funded by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970,

Paris. It started out as a small perfumery, called shop 8. Later on, dominique decided that
he wanted to expand the place to become a setting customers have the chance to try out
the products before purchasing it. As their motto goes, “we belong to something
beautiful” (Sephora, 2019). They broke the mold of the classic beauty counter and
invented an in a class by itself impartial beauty experience. For that reason, it’s popular
for its original, creative concept of in store sampling, with good quality and costumer
freedom. The company has now launched over 2,700 stores running in 35 countries
worldwide.

Products:
 High end makeup
 Skincare
 Body lotions
 Fragrances
 Haircare
 Beauty tools & brushes
 Bath & body

Segmentation:
 “Market segmentation is a marketing notion where a company bifurcates its market
audience into smaller subgroups of like-minded individuals.” (Bdc, 2021)
 There are 4 different segmentation types: Demographic, geographic, behavioral, and
psychographic
 Demographic refers to qualitative data about a group of people.
Sephora uses demographic segmentation by targeting mostly women. On its official website,
there are dozens of products and only a separate link for men’s items, which consists of only hair
products. The company divides its audience based on age groups consisting of 18-24, 25-34, 35-
49, and 50 and above. Other than that, their target audience is mainly middle – high income and
upper-class women, this is due to the high-end brand sold at the store. (Samuely, 2022)

 Geographic categorizes consumers based on geographic perimeters

As for geographic segmentation, Sephora uses this strategy by possessing multiple stores almost
all around the world. Other than that, they differentiate their website based on the consumers
behavior of buying in that region to offer a more personalized experience. For example, at the
same time that the Brazilian website adapted the Black Friday Deals, the Italian website on the
other hand featured a Halloween makeup offer. Despite all this, they chose not to open stores in
popular countries with a lot of demand such as the UK, as there are existing similar stores which
would bring up a lot of competition. (Admin, 2021)
  Behavioral focuses on the actions of customers
Behavioral segmentation plays a crucial role in Sephora’s marketing. They use this to design a
pool of altered listeners and viewers to expand and improve numerous discussions during the
journey of being a costumer. At Sephora, there is a segment for loyal customers whom are
registered and receive news on the latest offers and personalized announcements. Additionally,
the existing loyalty program rewards costumers with a certain number of points for every one
dollar used. It was found that loyal customers tend to account for about 20% of the costumers,
while spending the greatest amounts. (Samuely, 2022)

Target strategies:
Elementally, a targeting strategy includes assessing each segments fascination and deciding on a
segment based on it. Other than that, the company decides based on which segment which
segment will bring them the most profit. (Langford, 2022). There are 3 main strategies used:
Differentiated, undifferentiated, and concentrated.
In terms of their targeting strategy, Sephora concentrates on the differentiated strategy. It
creatively divides the target market into smaller segments. The company tends to attract women
who are of higher income, who value quality and are eager to pay despite the price. Also, young
millennials who are not explicitly faithful to a certain brand, those who care about their
appearance while persistently keeping an eye on the upcoming beauty trends. They “offer their
customers and affiliate partners the largest and most diverse selection of beauty products”. (

Positioning strategies:
 The positioning strategy is a strategic process referring to how a brand wants its portrayal
to be perceived by the costumer’s consciousness. The company decides to excel in one or
two main areas.
Today, Sephora is perceived as a prestigious, powerful beauty existence in countries worldwide.
In terms of sales, it is the No. 1 professional beauty retailer. This is due to its unique assortment
of cachet products in every section, equitable assistance from its experts, and constantly
enlarging the array of methods that clients can shop by. Sephora uses their positioning strategy
based on quality, this is to create a desire, so customers want the product regardless of the price.
(Sephora, 2019).