Sephora Archives - The Drew Blog

Let’s just start with the fact that Sephora has nearly 4 million fans on Facebook and over 700,000 followers on Twitter. Clearly this is a company that is doing something right on social media and well worth a closer look. Thanks to the kind folks at Pivot, I got the chance to interview Bridget Dolan, VP of Interactive Media at Sephora, prior to her presentation at the conference next week. I am certain you will find her comments as enlightening as I did.

Drew: What role(s) does social media play in Sephora’s overall marketing strategy? Do you assign different roles to different platforms?
Social media plays a major role in Sephora’s overall business strategy. We value the engagement and conversations we have with our customers through our multiple social channels and encourage this social engagement throughout the organization. After seeing how successful the Sephora Facebook and Twitter pages have been, we implemented a Pinterest integration when we re-vamped Sephora.com in April 2012, and have also since created a Sephora Instagram account. Both have seen a lot of organic growth over the summer and we are always looking at new social platforms for other ways to engage with current and potential clients.

Facebook and Twitter allow us to hear from our clients real-time and react one-on-one; we respond to every single customer question and give our clients a voice. We then learn from our clients and use that information to inform our strategies throughout the organization.

Pinterest and Instagram allow us to react to micro-trends, like showing your spirit with Olympic nails. We also provide Sephora fans a look behind the scenes of what it is like to work at Sephora, be at our shoots, and which products we are obsessed with. BeautyTalk allows us to foster a beauty community on our site, to get customer questions answered by Sephora experts and other beauty enthusiasts. Tumblr lets us tell our trend and brand stories from another angle – insights from our beauty editors. YouTube lets us share our expertise and teach customers how to apply makeup and see the latest trends – which encourages them to shop, play and enjoy makeup.

Drew: A recent Forrester study said social media drove less than 1% of sales for most companies. Is Sephora performing above that average and if so, why do you think that is the case?
Sephora is a huge company, and driving 1% of overall sales is still a big piece of the pie. I do believe that social media is influencing a lot of sales that can never be tracked: watching a Sephora YouTube video, then shopping at the store on the weekend, or liking an Instagram post on your phone in the coffee line, and buying the products online when back you’re at your desk.

Drew: Have some social platforms proven to be better at driving Sephora sales than others? If so, please explain.
Facebook is our largest social media platform, and is still driving the most sales for us by far. But the velocity of Pinterest growth combined with its shopping-centric nature have made it a very promising sales channel since we launched on that platform 6 months ago.

Drew: Is driving sales the wrong metric for social and if so, what metrics do you use to rationalize your investment?
Whenever we can measure direct sales, we do, but it isn’t the only metric to consider – really social media is about engagement. We are fostering a long-term relationship with our customers. We want her to be inspired to try new things, find information through sources she trusts, find products that really get her excited, and help her to use the product to its fullest with confidence post-purchase. Social media helps her with the entire purchase cycle, and keeps her engaged with our brand for all of her beauty needs. If you can create a venue to engage your most valuable customers, and enlist them to be evangelists for your brand to all of their friends, plus they will answer all of your other customers’ beauty questions because they are just that passionate… it is priceless.

Drew: A lot of brands would kill to get nearly 4 million fans on Facebook. How have you been able to attract so many fans? Media? Promotions? Both?
Bridget: Sephora has truly passionate fans that love beauty and love Sephora. The beauty category is a natural fit for social – our customers have always talked amongst their friends about beauty products they loved, but Facebook makes it much easier to connect with other Sephora fanatics. We have done a bit of advertising and a few promotions, like Fan Fridays, but we mostly view Facebook as a place to have fun with our customers, and I think they can tell how much we love talking to them.

Drew: Is there one Sephora social program that you are particularly proud of?
I think BeautyTalk is one of the more innovative undertakings we’ve done in social media. We created a robust community on our site where our clients can come to ask any beauty question or talk about beauty, organized by category. This allows our customers to find really rich answers with multiple points of view, combined with real-time advice from our experts.

Drew: How has Fan Fridays been working for you?
Fan Fridays has been a great program, and our customers love it. When we have an early access product or really hot promotion, we can be out in as little as 20 minutes. We keep trying to support the growth, but it can be hard to anticipate which Fan Fridays will go wild until your wall lights up and you realize you need even more for next week… again.

Drew: You have over 100,000 followers on Pinterest which is way more than most brands. What are you doing on Pinterest that is gaining so much traction?
Beauty is inherently a visual category, but right now things like nail art and gorgeous product shots are inspiring our customers to re-pin our images. We also have integrated Pinterest deeply in our site so every product and brand image is pinnable. We do all of our own photography in house, and that investment pays off in a place like Pinterest.

Drew: Is there a brand out there that you think is just killing it in social? If so, which one and why?
I think it is the “brand” that Eva Chen created for herself. She is literally on every social media channel – trying innovative things, living the life, inspiring people every day with videos, pictures, products, quotes. And she is creating a unique footprint in each venue that is relevant to that platform and her followers in each.

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Things have not been exactly rosy for the perfume industry in the last two years. Many big brands suffered huge declines in sales as consumers turned up their noses. Meanwhile Clean Perfume, an indie fragrance from NYC-based Fusion Brands, enjoyed double-digit growth, building up a remarkable fan-base on a minuscule budget. How the Clean team, including CMO Roslyn Griner, pulled this off is a potent reminder of the beauty of SIMPLE, especially when it comes to the marketing of consumer goods.

S is for Story

A number of successful niche brands like Tom’s of Maine and Nantucket Nectars have a compelling story about their creation. Clean is no different. Founder Randi Shinder, not a fan of perfumes, took notice when people commented on how good she smelled, a smell that was simply her soap. Unable to find a fragrance to match “that universal fresh out of the shower scent,” she developed her own in 2003.

That simple start launched a line of products with wonderfully evocative names, such as Fresh Laundry, Warm Cotton and Summer Linen. “Everyone can identify with the idea that you just used a bar of soap and smell really good or the smell of towels coming fresh out of the dryer,” explains Griner, “we were one of the first perfume brands to be successful on HSN because we had a wonderful story where people could imagine what it smelled like.”

I is for Involve

A lot of brands pay lip service to their fans, offering token opportunities for involvement. Clean, on the other hand, works hard at nurturing all of its fans from the lone customer to the highly influential blogger. “Be good to the people who really make your brand and reward them every once in awhile,” counseled Griner, who supports a vibrant Facebook community with contests, special offers and quick responses to inquiries.

Clean also created a product testing “advisory board” from among its Facebook fans. “We recruited people who were Warm Cotton fans to test a new type of Cotton fragrance as a disaster check, because if your real avid fans don’t like the fragrance, you’re in trouble,” advised Griner. Amazingly, over 1,000 people applied to be on the advisory board, demonstrating both the strength of their fan base and their fans unbridled enthusiasm.

M is for Minimize

With retail strategy, for smaller brands sometimes less is indeed more. Rather than striving for broad scale distribution, Clean minimized its approach, concentrating its efforts on a single outlet, Sephora, a decision that has paid off many times over. One of over 200 perfume brands on Sephora shelves, Clean is now in the Top 10, making them a priority product for this retailer. “Sephora gives us prime real estate, allows us in all of their promotions and provides huge merchandising opportunities,” explained Griner.

With such a strong retailer relationship, Clean is also able to test new products and push through large seasonal promotions. Griner noted that Clean is currently testing Bath and Body products in 25 Sephora stores, though perfumes remain their top priority. “We had amazing point-of-sale opportunities including end-caps for our summer perfume and the launch of our Outdoor Shower Fresh which gives you an indication how strong the brand is performing.”

P is for Promote

At the risk of being obvious, niche brands simply can not gain traction without some well-planned and well-executed promotions. Clean gained over 13,000 fans in two-weeks by offering a free sample to anyone who became a fan on Facebook. Clean spread the word initially via email and then encouraged referrals with a sweepstakes. With an acquisition cost of under $2.00 per fan, this program provided a cost-effective foundation for their on-going social media program.

In-store promotions at Sephora also played a crucial role in Clean’s success. Noted Griner, “our primary drive to acquisition is through sampling so we created 30,000 gift sets, half of which sold through in two weeks!” Part of Sephora’s “Steals and Deals,” the gift set bundle was an incredible value offering three scents of Clean perfume for $10.00, enticing existing Clean fans as well as targeting new customers to try the product or share it with their friends.

L is for Leverage

Like David before them, niche brands need to make the most of their opportunities, finding leverage wherever they can. One place Clean gains leverage is through a partnership with HSN (Home Shopping Network). “We’re on HSN at least 9 times a year selling gift sets that are very different than what we sell at retail,” explained Griner. “We were a ‘Today’s Special’ two weeks ago and sold out of 17,000 gift sets, providing us a million dollar day,” she added.

In addition to the immediate sales generated, HSN also provides an extraordinary halo for Clean. A delighted Griner offered, “being on TV as much as we are with HSN, it’s basically our form of advertising.” That said, working with HSN can be challenging, explained Griner, “there is a lot of complexity but we plan this months in advance.” Griner’s team also created a scented towel to make the HSN gift set truly unique, helping to leverage the relationship.

E is for Emotion

Niche brands seem to have an inherent understanding of the emotional relationship consumers want to have with their products and respond accordingly. Offered Griner, “you have to be genuine as a brand, because people can spot fakery.” Griner believes that marketers should be careful not to delegate social media communications to outsiders who might misrepresent the brand. “The marketer has to be the one responding to the consumer,” added an emphatic Griner, “because the consumer can smell phoniness.”

In addition to honesty, Griner is a big fan of using humor. To this end, Griner created the Clean etiquette guide which offered tongue-in-cheek advice on texting, tipping and hand washing among other topics. Consumers responded with content of their own which in turn inspired bloggers and Real Simple magazine to join in on the fun. Concluded a delighted Griner, “I just think it’s about creating emotion.”

Final note: As anyone who has ever designed a marketing program will tell you, keeping it SIMPLE is anything but. Fortunately for Clean, the idea of simplicity speaks to the very essence of the brand itself. (This article first appeared on FastCompany.com).

Tag: Sephora

The SIMPLE Route to Niche Marketing