Amanda Liu

As I was reviewing my classmates’ marketing blog, I came across Jerry Chung’s blog entry on “Hello Kitty @ Sephora”. I agree that it is a creative marketing idea in many ways.

It catches a lot of people’s attention; in fact it sure did grab mine when I was shopping at Richmond centre and Metro town. Sephora puts a poster on their window of a professional model, wearing the exclusive cosmetic colours that are currently in the trend; simultaneously dressing like a playful and adorable girl with a pink oversized bow tie on her head. As the ad relates cosmetics to the Hello Kitty image, it allows consumers to easily draw a connection between Sephora and Hello Kitty.

Sephora puts up these appealing posters on their windows, it has attracted many consumers to enter their stores and check out their new products. When I walked in and saw their ultimate bountiful Hello Kitty Makeup product line, I was just so into their packaging design. They package their products, such as fragrances, nail polish, makeup brush sets in Hello Kitty containers, or lipsticks in a cat-themed design in chrome and sparkly tubes and compacts, using dazzling Swarovski crystals to the surface of the containers. This really adds value to the product because it makes it unique and exclusive relative to other cosmetic products selling at MAC, DIOR, LANCÔME, etc.

I also agree to Jerry about cobranding and how the Hello Kitty collection makes people feel younger and refreshing. As Jerry stated, this exclusive cobranding really differentiate Sephora from any other beauty product retailers because it integrated the Hello Kitty idea to Sephora’s cosmetics product, so the collection carry both well-known brand names, Sephora and Hello Kitty, which adds value to the product as it guarantees consumers their product quality and reliance. However, I personally believe that it also benefits both companies because it offers consumers a beauty collection that is nowhere available in other stores, exclusively sold at Sephora.

Moreover, Jerry talked about how the Hello Kitty beauty collection allows Sephora to not only target young consumers, but also older women. I want to add that older women who purchase beauty products use it to cover their flaws to present themselves as a younger image in public. As adults see the Hello Kitty shaped containers and designs, it causes them to psychologically feel younger.