Read “Ultimate Showdown at Ulta”

November 11, 2009

The article by that title is posted at BeautyBunch, the blog for the team at Paula’s Choice. I admire this company for the products they create and for their transparency in dealing with the consumer.

Daynah Burnett, a Paula’s Choice employee recounts her tale of embarrassment and insult at an Ulta store. Can this store be this dumb?

Recently, my favorite beauty blogger was escorted out of a Barney’s store. All the woman does is swatch makeup colours, Lipstick Queen’s line this time. How humiliating could that be? I don’t think Poppy King would want her client base treated this way. She probably has a clue about the power of consumers talking to one another for amplifying sale numbers exponentially.

Whether you use Paula’s Choice skin care products is not my issue. There are plenty of good choices. There are plenty of horrible choices too. Why women would spend money without researching a product, given that nobody else on the planet is providing the information this company does, now that is quite beyond me. But that’s another story.

The point here is that they could have treated any consumer the same way. It could have been you or I. What did the staff members feel so threatened by? Did they take it upon themselves to make these idiotic marketing decisions or were they told to? Is there a behind-the-scenes agenda?

These stores haven fallen out of the idiot tree, hit every branch on the way down, and written themselves off my shopping option list. Read the story and imagine being told that you have to behave their way and follow these crazy rules to shop there. Would you conform? I doubt it.

On a lighter note, a new colour analysis post at 12 Blueprints. Louise and Stevan belong to the same season but look very different. How can that be?

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis, Money, Paula's Choice

Comments

2 Responses to “Read “Ultimate Showdown at Ulta””

Daynah on November 12th, 2009 2:58 pm

Glad to hear you feel the same way. I was floored when I heard what happened to Karla. The thing that baffles me the most is that what we do ultimately helps bring them business (providing their products are good ones…) It’s like a restaurant telling a food critic to eat somewhere else. What gives?
Christine Scaman on November 14th, 2009 7:12 pm

Daynah,

These situations resonate with me because it speaks to how we treat other human beings. You don’t look like an arms dealer. What on earth did she think you were going to threaten her store with? You could have been taking notes for a Christmas list.
I’ve never been in an Ulta store, and will now never enter one, but it seems so clear that one of the biggest reasons that women avoid cosmetics counters altogether is the enormous sales pressure. Marketers who feel like they have to control every aspect of the buying experience, and can’t just back off and trust consumers to talk to one another, are doomed to spiral down to non-existence. The power of the consumer is too great. Sephora understands this so clearly. They let you have fun. They borrow from many cosmetic lines to achieve your satisfaction. They never dictate or pressure.
So although you had a CRAPPY day, now having had time to think about it, you’ve seen a whole new angle to this whole deal. And a fascinating one. I wonder what that woman told herself after you left the store?