Focus on happiness, trust, surprise, delight and anticipation
Sephora, the french beauty chain, is to enhance its Beauty Insider loyalty offering to include even more emotional perks for members.
In an interview with Forbes magazines, Sephora VP of Loyalty, Allegra Stanley explained: “The way we think about loyalty is that our clients are the core of everything we do. We are driven by what our customers love and want more of. So it’s not about what their loyalty demonstrates to us, but what we can deliver to our clients that creates the most meaningful and connected experience with our brands,” she continues.
Stanley sees most programs focused on transactional loyalty, doing whatever it takes to make the next sale which usually hinges on a discount. But for Sephora, the Beauty Insider program is designed to leverage emotional drivers of loyalty.
“Research has found that almost 75% of what drives customer engagement and loyalty are emotional perks. Now more than ever customers, especially the younger generations, decide to engage with brands based on emotional loyalty drivers,” she believes.
Those emotional drivers including happiness, trust, surprise and delight, anticipation and especially in the luxury realm, pride. “We believe these emotional rewards are the new currency of loyalty,” Stanley says and adds that its program will always have a transactional component as well.
“The right balance of transactional and emotional is required,” she continues, but Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is more heavily weighted to the emotional side.
“Research has found that almost 75% of what drives customer engagement and loyalty are emotional perks. Now more than ever customers, especially the younger generations, decide to engage with brands based on emotional loyalty drivers,” she believes.
Those emotional drivers including happiness, trust, surprise and delight, anticipation and especially in the luxury realm, pride. “We believe these emotional rewards are the new currency of loyalty,” Stanley says and adds that its program will always have a transactional component as well.
“The right balance of transactional and emotional is required,” she continues, but Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is more heavily weighted to the emotional side.
Evolution of a programme
Initially launched in 2007, the free Beauty Insider program was designed to reward members for purchases with select product samples and was very much a trend-setter.
The program was extended in 2009 to include a higher tier, called VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider), for the most highly engaged members who spent more than $350 per year and offered extra rewards.
In 2013 a third tier (called Rouge) was added for the highest spenders who parted with more than $1,000 a year at Sephora. It gave first access to new products, limited editions and invitations to special events.
An exclusive Rewards Bazaar was added in 2016 as an exchange platform where members could redeem points for a wide range of curated products and sets.
Leaning into emotions
The shift from transactional to emotional loyalty came in
2017 with the launch of its online Beauty Insider Community.
“As we learned more about our clients, we saw the opportunity for beauty lovers to come together, ask questions, post inspirational beauty looks and get product recommendations, not just from us but for them to share with each other,” Stanley told Forbes. “It’s a real-time, real-talk social forum that has become a great resource for them and for us, because we reach out to them quite often about what they think and what they love.”
Through 2018 and 2019 the Rewards Bazaar was expanded across more products and categories and a Sephora credit card was added.
Even more emotional in 2020
The Sephora evolution continues in 2020 with an expansion of the experiential component of the program. Although Loyalty Magazine suggests that this is where it gets a little ‘samey’.
“The wants and needs of our clients continue to change,” Stanley says. “We are listening to our clients and hearing what is most meaningful to them.” And today that is experiences which deliver greater emotional and memorable rewards.
Such experiences include a Brow House Call with Jared Bailey, LVMH’s Benefit brand spokesperson and resident brow expert; a Francis Ford Coppola Winery tour and wine tasting for two that also comes with a special collection of Sephora items; and a signed copy of The Rihanna Book, along with a collection of Rihanna’s favorite Fenty beauty products (Fenty Beauty has been an LVMH brand since 2017).
“We want to bring to life personalized experiences where our clients can choose what best suits them,” Stanley shares, stressing that the 2020 additions to the program are designed to elevate the emotional drivers of loyalty.
Emotional drivers will continue to grow in importance, for Sephoro which is going to offer birthday gifts which this year will include options from Briogeo, MILK makeup and Sol De Janeiro brands.
Sephora’s 2020 Birthday Beauty Insider giftCOURTESY OF SEPHORA
Measuring success
Currently, Beauty Insider boosts 25 million members, and though Stanley doesn’t reveal the membership at different levels, she did share that a significant amount of sales and growth comes from its top tier $1,000+ Rouge members.
The goal of the new benefits to the program are, of course, to add new members, as well as to encourage them to move up in the program. But more importantly for Stanley and her team is to see engagement and participation growing in all that the program offers.
“Are they redeeming rewards in the Rewards Bazaar? Are they engaging in our community? Are they taking advantage of the experiences? We measure our success by the level of engagement across all the benefits that we serve up and showcase for our clients,” she says.
Understanding that Sephora’s clients are on a continuing beauty journey, the Beauty Insider loyalty program is joining them on their journey by staying current and guiding them to the future by identifying future trends.
“What I am most passionate about is our unique experiences,” Stanley concludes. “They bring to life the emotional component of loyalty which is so important and really drives the majority of engagement with our clients.”
