Sephora Case Study

SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE

Behind the Glass Case A Sephora Case Study Marisa Rodriguez Auburn University Dec. 7, 2014

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! 1. Research: The Client Mission Sephora’s mission is to build the most knowledgeable and professional team of product consultants in the beauty industry (“About Us,” 2014).

History Founded as a modest French perfumery, Shop 8 grew by employing a revolutionary model that transformed the way customers shopped for cosmetics into a globally recognized perfume and cosmetics retailer. Dominique Mondonnaud founded Shop 8, a specialty perfumery store in France’s Haute Vienne region in 1970 (Kreber, 2011). Shop 8 was revolutionary for a retailer during the 1970s, due to its innovative design and operation. Previously, department stores utilized a commission-based model for perfume and cosmetics sales, but Mondonnaud set out to create an innovative and unique way to sell perfume (p. 1).

By 1979, Mondonnaud had created a self-service retail model that changed the way customers shopped by featuring a large, open floor plan that allowed customers to roam the store and discover products. This self-service model was innovative due to the accessibility it provided customer, unlike department stores that placed products out of reach of potential buyers in glass cases, making the selling process frustrating for some customers (Hix, 2014). Mondonnaud created a new approach to the traditional perfume selling process by grouping products by notes and scents, rather than by brand (Kerber, 2011). This new grouping of perfume allowed consumers to identify perfumes they enjoyed easier than ever before, making the shopping experience more enjoyable (p. 2).

Mondonnaud’s innovative business model was successful and allowed Mondonnaud to open four additional Shop 8 stores by 1984. Despite Shop 8’s success, Mondonnaud faced

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! financial challenges due to rapid expansion in new regions of France (p. 3). As a result, Mondonnaud retired in 1993 at age 50. By 1997 all Shop 8 stores were sold to the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) group, one of the most prestigious luxury goods groups in the world (“About Us,” 2014). Following the acquisition of Shop 8, LVMH attained approximately 129 stores and continued to embrace Mondonnaud’s unique selling vision by adding elements to each retail store, primarily cosmetics. Following a rebranding in 1993, Shop 8 was named Sephora, which combines the Greek word “sephos” which means beauty and “Zipporah” Moses’s wife (Putnal, n.d.).

Between 1993 and 1997, LVMH expanded Sephora into new countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Czech Republic. The first flagship store in the United States opened in New York City, New York in 1998. In 1999, Sephora launched its online retailing in the United States. In 2006, Sephora expanded further by opening small boutique stores inside of J.C. Penny department stores. The successful partnership with J.C. Penny was combined efforts by Sephora and the retailer to expand to J.C. Penny’s younger cliental, allowing them newfound access to Sephora. Today Sephora, is regarded as the leading chain of perfume and cosmetics stores in France, and serves as a powerful beauty presence in countries around the world (Kreber, 2011).

Products and Services In order to stay innovative, Sephora must offer an extensive array of products and services, including best sellers and the most innovative and trendy products in the beauty industry, as well as numerous services to support its marketing and public relations efforts.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Sephora currently offers approximately 11,000 makeup, skin care, fragrance, bath/body, nails, hair and tools/brushes products across 250 brands. Image 1 showcases best-selling products in each of these categories (“Best Sellers”, 2014).

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Image 1 Sephora Products

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! In addition to its impressive product range, Sephora also offers unique services designed to cater to customers. Sephora offers a customer loyalty program that includes three levels. These free point-perks programs encourage spending by awarding customers a point for every dollar spent that can be used to redeem free deluxe samples and are marketing efforts, as they are in place in order to sell products. Image 2 lists each level of the program and includes the advantages to each (“About Beauty Insider,� 2014).

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Image 2 Sephora Services

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! In addition to Sephora’s loyalty program, the company offers personal beauty consultations through its Beauty Studio. These consultations include individual interactions with a Sephora beauty consultant and customers. Sephora’s premium services include custom makeovers by beauty consultants and personal beauty advisors. Sephora’s custom makeovers include 45-minutes in the beauty studio and transforms customers look and allows them to learn expert techniques from Sephora staff. The custom makeover is complimentary with a $50 minimum purchase, or free for VIB Rouge members (“Custom Makeover,” 2014). The personal beauty advisor experience is a 90-minute consultation that includes a custom makeover and personal shopping session. The personal beauty advisor experience is complimentary with a $125 minimum purchase, or free for VIB Rouge members (“Personal Beauty Advisor,” 2014).

Complimentary mini-makeovers are also offered and include 15 minutes with a Sephora beauty consultant to help customers transform their look. Walk-ins are welcome and services for the mini-makeover include a smokey eye, everyday eye, essential eyeliner, faux lashes, polished brows, perfect lips, brush + bronze, treat + conceal or flawless foundation + color IQ (“Mini Makeovers,” 2014).

Sephora offers IQ Services that include Skincare IQ and Color IQ. These IQ services include individual consultations between Sephora beauty consultants and the customers. The Skincare IQ consultation uses innovative technology to provide high-tech skincare advice.

Skincare IQ cross-references Sephora’s range of skincare products to help customers locate perfect product recommendations available in the store. Customers can select their skincare concerns, filter based on their needs and receive custom solutions (“Skincare IQ,” 2014).

Sephora’s Color IQ uses innovative technology to provide customers with their Color IQ number to take the guesswork out of picking the perfect foundation color. Sephora beauty

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! consultants use handheld Color IQ devices to take photographs of the skin in pitch darkness that allows the tool to focus on skin’s physiology and eliminate several variables that can distort the shade selection. Once customers receive their Color IQ number, a beauty consultant can find their scientifically precise foundation match from over 1,500 options. The Pantone Color Institute research and map 110 skin tones to build the Color IQ library. The chart, created exclusively for Sephora, categorizes skin’s surface tone and undertones to determine the perfect foundation match. A beauty consultant can then apply the foundation to the customer’s face, giving brush/tool recommendations and then providing a sample or the product for the customer (“Color IQ,” 2014). Image 3 lists highlights of Sephora’s Beauty Studio and IQ Services (“Beauty Services,” 2014).

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Image 3 Sephora Services

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Internal Structure Sephora operates in 30 countries with 1,700 stores. Currently, there are more than 700 stores in the United States, of which 368 are boutiques inside J.C. Penny. According to Loeb (2013), Sephora’s North American sales exceeded $2 billion dollars in 2013, with total revenue exceeding $4 billion (Loeb, 2013). Sephora’s North American headquarters is located in San Francisco, and the company maintains corporate offices in New York City, New York and Montreal, Canada.

While Sephora has typical CEO, CMO, CFO and Human Resources positions, Sephora does not employ a strict hierarchal structure. The company communicates via a flat hierarchy (“Office Culture,” n.d., para. 1). The “corporate headquarters” of Sephora is known as the Field Support Center, and maintains a flat hierarchy communication style between the company’s central offices and its stores. Instead of creating stark divisions between company levels, the horizontal communication utilized by Sephora’s Field Support Center facilitates store work.

Becky Gunn, a fragrance consultant working at the Bridgestreet Sephora located in Huntsville, Alabama, further broke down the communication style at the store level (Gunn, personal communication, Oct. 17, 2014). Gunn (2014) explains there are regional managers, store directors, assistant managers and then managers for each department, which are called worlds. Worlds include fragrance, color (makeup) and skincare. Store directors ensure that instructions from the Field Support Center are being implemented and regional managers make visits to each store to guarantee this.

Gunn (2014) further explained that Sephora employs a very open communication style at the store level. Employees can easily talk to managers when they have a problem or suggestion.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Internal Culture As Sephora strives to become the most knowledgeable and professional team of consultants in the beauty industry, the organization has created an internal program titled “Science of Sephora” designed to develop a professional team of product consultants –consistent with its mission. The program ensures that all employees are skilled at identifying skin types, posses knowledge of skin physiology, the history of makeup, application techniques, the science of creating fragrances and most importantly, the ability to interact professionally with Sephora’s customers (“About Us,” 2014).

In addition, Sephora offers Sephora University, designed to deliver effective makeup advice and personalized support to all store associates (“Sephora University,” 2014). Employees receive customized-brand training through hands-on learning with products. Through these efforts, the company’s cultural norms are established and maintained.

Values include the collective knowledge base and indicate what the company values (Schaefer, 2010). Sephora values its employees and recognizes important milestones in their lives such as birthdays, baby showers and engagements are seen as excuses to have a great party (“A Family Affair,” 2014). Similarly, Sephora hosts a monthly event, called “Beauty and the Brunch,” that allows co-workers to gather and catch up on life outside the office (“Beauty and the Brunch,” 2014). While makeup and fragrances usually take the center stage at Sephora gatherings, “Beauty and the Brunch” is an effort by Sephora to showcase what the company finds important, its employees.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Management’s View of Public Relations Sephora’s management views public relations efforts as necessary to secure its brand as the best in its industry, the company accomplishes this through its customer interactions and its employee and community relations programs.

In addition to its reputation as a beauty trailblazer, Sephora is regarded as a social media master, boasting a strong online presence. Sephora has reinforced its brand on social media platforms in an effort to maintain customer loyalty and differentiate itself from competitors.

Sephora’s social media efforts echo its brand mission, to build the most knowledgeable and professional team of product consultants in the beauty industry (Paris, 2013). Sephora maintains multiple successful and innovative social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, while also offering a smartphone app, mobile point-of-sale systems, a successful social shopping platform and a camaraderie among beauty enthusiasts through its review pages on its website (Paris, 2013).

In addition to its social media efforts, Sephora recognizes that traditional public relations practices, such as individual communication between its beauty consultants and customers, are equally important. Sephora offers multiple aforementioned beauty services in their Beauty Studio that enhances relationships between customers and employees. These beauty services also support Sephora’s mission of building a knowledgeable team of product consultants, and encourages its beauty consultants to share this knowledge with customers.

Sephora gives back to the community through their Values Inside Out program, which matches individual Sephora stores with local non-profits (“Sephora Gives Back,” 2014). Each store has the opportunity to identify a charity and support it by providing funds, raising awareness and volunteering. However, Becky Gunn noted that the Bridgestreet store has not

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! taken part in the Values Inside Out program for over two years, citing a lack of available personnel to implement the initiative (Gunn, personal communication, Oct. 17, 2014). This lack of participation in the Values Inside Out program is a huge missed opportunity for the Sephora Bridgestreet store to garner relations with the Huntsville/Madison community.

Image Sephora has worked hard to establish a distinctive company image. Sephora’s strict color pallet of black, white and red aid in delivering a clean, yet exciting brand image that complements its high-end luxury products (Konopa, 2013). As Sephora does offer predominantly high-end luxury beauty products, its day-to-day image is professional and luxurious.

Current Reputation Sephora has remained consistent in being regarded as a luxurious, high-end brand with knowledgeable staff and superior customer service (Konopa, 2013). Further, Sephora’s international scope aids in its solid brand consistency and recognition over competitors such as Ulta, which strictly operates on the national level (Konopa, 2013).

Financial Status As a privately owned company, LVMH reported net profits of $2,197,028 as of June 2014. The revenue of the selective retailing group, of which Sephora is a part of, reported $5,593,256 at the end of June 2014 (p.2-3). Sephora demonstrated excellent performance, increasing revenue for the selective retailing group by nine percent, and continued expansion across all world regions by the continuing development of Asian tourism, which boosted business particularly at its stores in Hong Kong and Macao, as well as the United States (p. 4).

Going forward, Sephora’s growth looks very promising. The report states that Sephora will continue revamping and expanding its network of stores by establishing a presence in Indonesia

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! as well as Australia (p. 14). Further, the report states Sephora is expected to open 86 stores worldwide between June 2013 and June 2014 (p. 14).

2. Research: PR problem/opportunity Public Relations Problem/Opportunity As mentioned above, the Bridgestreet Sephora location has not participated in the Values Inside Out program for at least two years due to a lack of personnel to carry out this mission.

Creating and implementing a campaign that utilizes and incentivizes existing Sephora Bridgestreet employees to carry out the Values Inside Out program could easily solve this public relations problem. Sephora could partner with non-profit organizations that work with domestic violence victims or with non-profits who work with youth self esteem issues. One such organization that serves the Huntsville/Madison area that Sephora could partner with is Crisis Services of North Alabama.

The Values Inside Out program has the opportunity to be elevated to a higher level. This public relations problem can be easily rectified and would benefit the Huntsville/Madison community greatly. This public relations effort has the potential to garner better relationships between the Sephora company and the community.

Audiences Affected Various stakeholders will be affected by this new opportunity for Sephora –employees, investors and consumers are all included. Employees will be affected in that they will have to learn about, volunteer for and encourage customers to volunteer for or donate to this non-profit.

Consumers will be affected by this new opportunity in that they will be asked to support the nonprofit be either volunteering for or donating to the cause. Lastly, as a private company owns

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Sephora, the board of directors and executive committee of LVMH could see effects on the growth of Sephora if this new opportunity is successful.

3. Objectives To reach its key publics, Sephora must set specific goals and objectives to enhance its community relations.

PR Opportunity Despite Sephora’s global presence, the Sephora located in Huntsville, Alabama at Bridgestreet Town Center is lacking in community relations. This lack of attention has resulted in the Values Inside Out Program, that corporate has set up for Sephora, to no longer be in existence. A new community relations strategy that addresses domestic violence in the Huntsville area could benefit both Sephora and the Huntsville community. Sephora’s new community relations program aimed at raising awareness of and ending domestic violence, named Sephora’s Strength, would include: 1. Reviving the Values Inside Out program at the Bridgestreet location by partnering with Crisis Services of North Alabama, a shelter that serves victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, to establish the Sephora’s Strength program.

2. Enhancing community relations programming in the Huntsville/Madison area.

Informational Objectives 1. To inform/educate Sephora Bridgestreet employees about Sephora’s Strength.

2. To inform/educate the Huntsville, Alabama community of Sephora’s Strength.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE!

Behavioral Objectives 1. To encourage Sephora Bridgestreet employees participation in the new community relations initiative.

2. To encourage the Huntsville community and customers of the Sephora Bridgestreet location to support the new program.

4. Programming and Evaluation The PR problem/opportunity lies in the fact that the Sephora Bridgestreet location has failed to participate in the Values Inside Out Program for the past two years due to a lack of personnel available to take on this responsibility. It is recommended that Sephora revive the Values Inside Out Program at the Bridgestreet location by implementing Sephora’s Strength, a new initiative that seeks to raise awareness of and end domestic violence.

An existing employee, currently holding a leadership role, will be appointed as director of the Sephora’s Strength program. Existing Sephora Bridgestreet employees will be encouraged and incentivized to support and volunteer with the Sephora’s Strength program.

In order to accomplish the aforementioned goal, Sephora must establish tactical objectives, followed by measurable strategies and specific channels that have been developed particularly for the Sephora’s Strength initiative. After the establishment of these objectives and implementation of these strategies, the program must be evaluated.

The following pages contain plans for implementation of all objectives through strategies.

Each strategy details the channels used, a further description of the action, a rationale to justify selected channels and a method of evaluation for each strategy. All objectives, strategies, channels and evaluation are provided in a long-form narrative.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE!

Objective 1: To educate Sephora Bridgestreet employees about Sephora’s Strength.

Strategy 1: Create an employee-training program for Sephora’s Strength.

1. Individual Channels: a. Use one-to-large group and one-to-small group channels to inform employees of their roles and responsibilities in the new community relations program through focus groups and shift meetings.

Rationale: Information will come from direct supervisors, who will be briefed in a one-to-one meeting from the director of Sephora’s Strength on how to explain the end of domestic violence initiative to employees. Employees that have questions or concerns can utilize a one-to-one channel to speak with their direct supervisor.

Evaluation: In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the employee-training program, focus groups should be conducted with employees and surveys should be administered in order to gauge employee’s attitudes toward the program and employee’s involvement in the program should be monitored.

2. Personalized Message Tool: a. Send employees an email that includes a statement from the director of the Sephora’s Strength initiative at the Huntsville location, a statement from corporate that details the importance of the Values Inside Out program, a description of the Sephora’s Strength initiative, mission statement, goals and how employees can support the end to domestic violence efforts in their community.

Rationale: Statements from the director of Sephora’s Strength and director of the Values Inside Out program encourages employees to participate in and seek out

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! success with the Sephora’s Strength program. Statements of the mission and goals of this community relations initiative make employees aware of why this initiative is being implemented.

Evaluation: In the aforementioned survey, that seeks to better understand how employees feel about the community relations program, include a specific question that asks employees how appreciated they felt by management for participating.

3. Publications: a. a. Send employees an infographic with information and statistics on domestic violence as a whole, and domestic violence in the Huntsville area. In addition, administer a booklet to all employees that details Sephora’s Strength and includes information on how each Sephora Bridgestreet employee can volunteer.

Rationale: Statements of information and statistics concerning domestic violence makes employees aware of the impact domestic violence has in the country and in the Huntsville area. Information that details this new initiative and how employees can volunteer offers clear communication between the organization and employees regarding expectations.

Evaluation: In the aforementioned focus group, questions should be asked addressing how clear the employee’s felt the volunteer program and expectations were communicated to them.

4. Special Event: a. Invite employees to a special event held after hours at the Sephora Bridgestreet location that debuts this new initiative and excites employees about participating in the program.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Rationale: Hosting a special event specifically for employees will educate Sephora employees on Sephora’s Strength. Employee understanding of the initiative is imperative before explaining it to customers.

Evaluation: Monitor employee attendance at the special event. In the aforementioned survey, include a question that asks employees if they felt the special event excited them in participating in the program.

Objective 2: To inform the Huntsville, Alabama community of Sephora’s Strength.

Strategy 1: Promote the partnership between Crisis Services of North Alabama and Sephora’s Strength.

1. Individual Channels: a. Engage with Crisis Services of North Alabama by having Sephora Bridgestreet employees meet the Crisis Services of North Alabama employees/volunteers to discuss the work they do in an effort to end domestic violence.

Rationale: Engaging Sephora employees with Crisis Services of North Alabama employees/volunteers, Sephora employees are better able to see the work the Crisis Services of North Alabama employees/volunteers do, enabling Sephora employees to become better advocates of the initiative to Sephora customers.

Evaluation: Arrange focus groups with both the Sephora Bridgestreet employees and employees/volunteers of Crisis Services of North Alabama in order to gauge the effectiveness of this engagement between the two.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! 2. Publications: a. Distribute brochures to current and past domestic violence victims that have sought help at Crisis Services of North Alabama informing these victims of the new partnership with Sephora and the Sephora’s Strength initiative.

Rationale: By informing current and past victims of the partnership with Sephora, Crisis Services of North Alabama will ensure message acceptance within this public.

Evaluation: Distribute a survey to current and past domestic violence victims that gauges the effectiveness of the brochure in disseminating information of the new partnership. b. Distribute media kits to local media outlets and make this media kit available on the Crisis Services of North Alabama website as well as the Sephora Values Inside Out page on the Sephora website.

Rationale: Distributing media kits to local media informing them, and hopefully the public, of the Sephora’s Strength initiative spreads word of this initiative to individuals that do not shop at Sephora, thus creating more opportunities for volunteers/donations to Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Evaluation: Monitor media placements and stories generated as a direct result of the media kit.

3. Mass Media: a. Announce the Sephora’s Strength initiative with a press conference. Have both the director of the Sephora’s Strength program and the head representative from Crisis Services of North Alabama present.

Rationale: Announcing Sephora’s Strength through a press conference enables the

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! media to be made aware of this initiative and provides the opportunity for free publicity of Sephora’s Strength.

Evaluation: Monitor media placements and stories that are generated as a direct result of the press conference. In addition, monitor the attendance at the press conference.

4. Advertising: a. Advertise in the Huntsville community via newspapers and on radio and TV stations, who might be willing to donate the airtime for the cause, informing the Huntsville community of the partnership between Sephora Bridgestreet and Crisis Services of North Alabama and their efforts to end domestic violence in the Huntsville community.

Rationale: Advertising on local TV and radio stations and in the local newspaper promotes the partnership between Sephora Bridgestreet and Crisis Services of North Alabama and creates an opportunity to gain volunteers and donations.

Evaluation: Monitor the advertising reach, mail out surveys to the community and conduct focus groups in order to track the effectiveness of the ads. Track the web traffic on both the Sephora’s Strength and Crisis Services of North Alabama webpages before, during and after the advertising campaign in order to determine any changes in activity.

5. Special Event: a. Host a special event at the Sephora Bridgestreet location for members of the Huntsville community to attend to learn more about the Sephora’s Strength program, talk with the director and employees of both the Sephora store and Crisis Services of

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! North Alabama organization and see how the Bridgestreet location is promoting this new community relations effort.

Rationale: Hosting a special event promotes the partnership between Sephora Bridgestreet and Crisis Services of North Alabama and creates an opportunity to gain volunteers and donations.

Evaluation: Monitor attendance of the Huntsville community at the special event.

Create a hashtag for members of the community to use on social media to post about the event and track this hashtag. In addition, track media reach and placement of stories/segments on the special event in local media.

Strategy 2: Target community leaders to enhance support for Sephora’s Strength and increase visibility.

1. Individual Channels: a. Visit with community and opinion leaders in Huntsville in order to inform them of the Sephora’s Strength initiative and ask for their support in the effort.

Rationale: Personal visits will include speaking at meetings and having one-on-one discussions with opinion leaders to gain input from them on how to best implement the end to domestic violence initiative in the Huntsville community.

Evaluation: The evaluation for this channel will be three fold. First, focus groups will be conducted with the community and opinion leaders on the effectiveness of Sephora’s Strength program. Second, follow-up surveys will be distributed in order to collect responses. After the focus groups and surveys are complete, content analysis will be performed on the responses.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! 2. Special Event: a. Invite community leaders as special guests to the special event being held at the Sephora Bridgestreet store.

Rationale: Inviting community leaders as special guests to a special event promoting Sephora’s Strength encourages community leaders to support this initiative. By gaining the support of community leaders, Sephora’s Strength has the potential to gain support in Huntsville by community leaders influencing the community.

Evaluation: Monitor the attendance of community leaders at the special event.

3. Publications: a. Distribute brochures and fact sheet/infographic that were distributed to employees to community leaders informing these leaders of the new partnership with Sephora and the Sephora’s Strength initiative.

Rationale: Distributing brochures to community leaders allow leaders to refer back to information about Sephora’s Strength and provide a piece of literature for community leaders to pass along to members of the community.

Evaluation: Administer a survey to community leaders in an effort to gauge how effective the brochures and infographic were in disseminating information and educating community leaders on the partnership.

Objective 3: To encourage Sephora Bridgestreet employees participation in the new community relations initiative.

Strategy 1: Promote Sephora’s Strength by engaging employees in community relations and encouraging participation in Sephora’s Strength, placing a key emphasis on incentives.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! 1. Individual Channels: a. Have direct supervisors encourage employees to participate in Sephora’s Strength through positive language and reminders of participation incentives at start-up of profit.

Rationale: Positive language from direct supervisors will encourage employees and ensure message acceptance and willingness to participate in this initiative.

Evaluation: Arrange focus groups and distribute surveys to Sephora Bridgestreet employees in order to gauge how well the program was received. Include a specific question that asks if the involvement of direct supervisors helped motivate employees to participate.

2. Personalized Message Tool: a. Have the director of Sephora’s Strength send employees a personalized letter regarding the new initiative. This letter will also encourage employees to support the end of domestic violence in the Huntsville community by informing employees that an internal rewards system is being created.

Rationale: Sending a personalized letter from the director of Sephora’s Strength conveys the importance of this program to employees. Frontline supervisors are the key communicators in an organization and information from these key communicators will ensure message acceptance among employees.

Evaluation: Arrange focus groups and distribute surveys to Sephora Bridgestreet employees in order to gauge how well the program was received and if the personalized letter helped motivate employees to participate.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Strategy 2: Create a new internal rewards system that encourages employees to support, volunteer and inform in-store customers of the Sephora’s Strength program.

1. Publications: a. Distribute an information packet to all employees that detail the incentives they are able to receive through supporting the Sephora’s Strength initiative.

Rationale: Creating and distributing an information packet to employees detailing incentives rather than communicating these incentives via individual channels ensures that employees have a copy of these incentives to refer back to at any time.

Evaluation: Distribute the aforementioned survey and include a question that specifically asks employees if the information packet was effective in disseminating information on incentives.

Objective 4: To encourage the Huntsville community and costumers of the Sephora Bridgestreet location to support the new program.

Strategy 1: Promote Sephora’s Strength program to in-store customers and encourage customers to support, engage in and financially contribute to the Sephora’s Strength program.

1. Individual Channels: a. Have Sephora employees talk to customers, as customers roam the store or check out, promoting the Sephora’s Strength initiative. Sephora employees will describe the initiative to customers and encourage customers to support, engage in the initiative by volunteering at Crisis Services of North Alabama and asking if customers will donate money to the program at the checkout.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Rationale: This includes one-to-one discussions with potential volunteers/donors of Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Evaluation: Have employees working at the cash register ask customers if they were helped by anyone that day. In addition, ask the customer if an employee approached them to discuss the Sephora’s Strength initiative. Record these results.

2. Personalized Message Tool: a. Send customers of the Sephora Bridgestreet store an email that introduces the Sephora’s Strength initiative and encourages customers to volunteer or donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Rationale: Sending an email to customers explaining and encouraging customers to participate in Sephora’s Strength provides the customer the opportunity to read over the information on their own time and aids in ensuring that a customer has information to reference later.

Evaluation: Send a follow-up email, with a survey included, to those customers who either signed up to volunteer or donated to Crisis Service of North Alabama. In the survey, ask these customers if the email encouraged their participation in this community relations program.

3. Publications: a. Create an infographic and place it at the checkout counter that includes statistics of domestic violence in the Huntsville area in order to make customers aware of the impact domestic violence has in their community. The infographic will also encourage customers to ask an employee for more information on how the customer can support Sephora’s Strength.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Rationale: The checkout counter is an excellent place to promote the Sephora’s Strength initiative because you have a captive audience. As the employee is ringing up the customer, wrapping/bagging their items, accepting their payment and adding samples to the bag, the customer is standing idle. Placing an infographic in front of idle customers will encourage greater recognition of the program.

Evaluation: Create a system in which employees can easily log if a customer appears to be reading the infographic, makes a comment about the infographic, asks for more information after reading the infographic or signs up to volunteer for or donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama. This system would be placed behind the register for employees to easily log this information after the checkout process.

4. Mass Media: a. Create a website that contains all the publications, press releases, media kits and infographics, regarding Sephora’s Strength. The website will also allow customers to sign up to volunteer at Crisis Services of North Alabama and allows customers to donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Rationale: A website designated to the Sephora’s Strength initiative will act as a hub for all information regarding the initiative as well as easily facilitate volunteer sign ups and track donations made.

Evaluation: Monitor web traffic by tracking visitor’s flow and clicks. Record how many visitors to the website sign up to volunteer or donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama. b. Implement Sephora’s Strength into current social media strategies on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, for both Sephora and Crisis Services

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! of North Alabama. This would include frequently posting information about the mission of Sephora’s Strength, Sephora’s Strength event announcements, encouraging the community to donate to and volunteer for Sephora’s Strength and Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Rationale: Social media postings will reach out to customers who have not shopped at the Bridgestreet location recently and will inform these detached customers of the Sephora’s Strength initiative and encourage these customers to donate and volunteer.

Evaluation: Monitor and record the amount of likes, retweets or pins that social media postings about Sephora’s Strength receives. Create a hashtag to be used when posting about Sephora’s Strength, such as when members of the community attend special events or volunteer, and track these hashtags.

5. Advertising: a. Advertise Sephora’s Strength in local newspapers with a full-page ad. Seek out a donation of this full-page ad, as a full-page can be costly.

Rationale: Full-page advertisements will explain Sephora’s Strength and direct readers to donate to or volunteer at Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Evaluation: Monitor the advertising reach, mail out surveys to the community and conduct focus groups in order to track the effectiveness of the ads. b. Secure radio and TV spots that focus on how individuals can support Sephora’s Strength by volunteering and donating to Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Rationale: Radio spots will be 30-second spots that explain Sephora’s Strength and direct listeners to donate to or volunteer at Crisis Services of North Alabama.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Television placement will include local talk show or news segments lasting five minutes or less.

Evaluation: Monitor the advertising reach and conduct focus groups with the community on the clarity and effectiveness of the ads.

6. Special Event: a. Host a special event at the Sephora Bridgestreet location for members of the Huntsville community to attend. At the special event the community will learn more about the Sephora’s Strength program, meet employees/volunteers of Crisis Services of North Alabama, sign up to volunteer at Crisis Services of North Alabama and encourage customers to donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama by offering a discount on items purchased that night when a donation of a certain amount is made.

Rationale: Hosting a special event specifically for customers will educate Sephora customers on Sephora’s Strength. The special event will encourage the Huntsville community to volunteer at and donate to Crisis Services of North Alabama, accomplishing established goals for Sephora’s Strength.

Evaluation: Monitor attendance of the Huntsville community at the special event.

Create a hashtag for members of the community to use on social media to post about the event and track this hashtag. Track media reach and placement of stories/segments on the special event in local media.

Strategy 2: Target local civic organizations and work with such organizations in promoting Sephora’s Strength program to the Huntsville community.

1. Individual Channels: a. Reach out to local opinion leaders and community organizations that meet regularly.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Rationale: Utilize a one-to-small-group channel to promote Sephora’s Strength and ask for input on how to best implement the program in the Huntsville community.

Evaluation: Distribute surveys to local opinion leaders in order to gauge how well Sephora Bridgestreet was in working with these organizations on the Sephora’s Strength program.

2. Personalized Message Tool: a. Send a follow-up letter to the local opinion leaders and civic organizations thanking them for their input and providing contact information to continue offering advice.

Rationale: Utilizing a personalized message tool establishes a personal connection between the director of the initiative and local opinion leaders and civic organizations.

Evaluation: In the aforementioned survey, include a question regarding the followup letter that asks community leaders if they were encouraged to continue to offer advice to this community relations effort after receiving a personalized message.

5. Conclusion Through Sephora’s Strength, Sephora Bridgestreet can position itself as a luxury retailer in the Huntsville community, as well as a community corporate citizen. This community relations effort will simultaneously improve its reputation and relationships with the Huntsville/Madison and Sephora Bridgestreet employees.

Many PR maxims have been considered and implemented through the Sephora’s Strength community relations program. These maxims include: 1. A self-interest approach is the most acceptable in PR.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! 2. Communication through personal contact is the most effective PR channel.

3. In PR, understanding a subject before you attempt to communicate it to others is imperative.

4. Understanding personality needs and peer identity affect acceptance of messages.

5. A degree of clarity, simplicity and symbolism has a direct and measurable effect on message acceptance.

6. Subsequent events that reinforce the original stimulus for opinion or behavior change will tend to increase the degree and durability of the change.

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Chauhun, A. (2013). Sephora Marketing Plan. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/ashimachauhan/docs/marketing_plan_ashima Color IQ. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/contentStore/mediaContentTemplateNoNav.jsp?mediaId=19200 069&icid2=color_iq_copy_hed_image Custom Makeover. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/store-locationsevents?icid2=sephora_social_footer_082914_image Hix, L. (2014, May). From Retail Palace to Zombie Mall: How Efficiency Killed the Department Store. Retrieved from http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/how-efficiency-killedthe-department-store/ Kerber, N. (2011, November). Sephora: A Brand Case Study. Retrieved from http://home.ubalt.edu/nicole.kerber/pbds705/sephora_case_study.pdf Konopa, R. (2013). Battle of the Brands: Sephora vs. Ulta. Retrieved from http://www.theagencysd.com/2012/11/battle-of-the-brands-sephora-vs-ulta/ Loeb, W. (2013, April). Sephora: Department Stores Cannot Stop Its Global Growth. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2013/04/18/sephora-department-storescannot-stop-its-global-growth/ LVMH Interim Financial Report. (2014, June). Retrieved from http://www.lvmh.com/uploads/assets/Comfi/Documents/en/Reports/LVMH2014HalfYearFinancialReport.pdf Mini Makeovers. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/store-locationsevents?icid2=sephora_social_footer_082914_image Office Culture. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/companies/sephora

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SEPHORA CASE STUDY: BEHIND THE GLASS CASE! Paris, J. (2013). A Lesson in Thought Leadership from Sephora. Retrieved from http://www.marchpr.com/social-media-2/2013/04/a-lesson-in-thought-leadership-fromsephora/ Personal Beauty Advisor. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/store-locationsevents?icid2=sephora_social_footer_082914_image Putnal, O. (n.d.). 15 Brand Names Decoded. Retrieved from http://www.womansday.com/life/15-brand-names-decoded-100977 Schaefer, R. (2010). Sociology, A Brief Introduction. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Sephora Gives Back. (2014). Retrieved from http://shop.sephora.com/m/p/email/jump.asp?p=valuesinsideout.html Sephora University. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/companies/sephora/office Skincare IQ. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/skincare-iq?mediaId=19600034 Store Events. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sephora.com/store-locationsevents?mediaId=16400021&tab=events

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