Sociolla, the retailer brand that will make us ready for any situation, whether a date, a day out, or a day just loving yourself!

By: Alex Marvin (Student of Global Business Marketing)

Sociolla is a retailer brand that owns the authority to sell and distribute a myriad of different brand of skincare, make-up, and other beauty products such as hair spray, curlers, and more. They are very well known among Indonesians, especially women of all ages regardless of their social status, wealth, or other related factors. Why is it like that, you ask? In order to answer that we would need to dive deeper into their merchandising plans in their retail activities.

This retailer focuses on specific goods. However, they are still able appeal towards different age groups and social classes, due to their merchandise assortments that consist of a wide variety. The products range from cheap products like Senka Face Wash, which only costs around Rp 25.000 until products such as SK-II Facial Treatment Essence that will force customers to dish out around Rp. 1 million usually only purchased by women in high society. Furthermore, they also have products catered towards the male audience, thus are able to penetrate more than just one segment of the market thanks to the assortment of merchandise.

Regarding other merchandising plans that Sociolla implement, it is apparent that they have a centralized way of merchandising, so this reveals they put a lot of effort in their integration and dish out a consistent image to the public eye. They also have innovativeness implemented as they recently launched Lilla by Sociolla to attract the attention of older women and mothers even more with a product line specifically developed for them.

What about their pricing strategy?
One thing is for sure, that the price range of Sociolla is so wide that it can cater towards multiple segments, including the target market of price-oriented consumers, but also the customers of high social stature. It seems like the CEO of sociolla just wants it to be the biggest make-up retailer ever and not lose to anyone else, as they stock up on make-up and skincare that are sold at retailers such as Guardian or Century, which are more budget friendly as they are mostly drug store quality products, but also stock up skincare sold in Metro as well which are more exquisite and high end.

However, there is one pricing strategy that they definitely use, which is the discount orientation. They often hold sales up to 50% that apply to all of their product lines, whether it is the products available on the counter in their offline stores, or the one display on the homepage of their website (e-commerce). This may seem contradicting for the higher end products as they are usually meant to be high class and having a lot of discounts may diminish that image of those products such as SK-II FTE, but in my opinion this is exactly why it is a good pricing strategy of Sociolla as it furthers the market that would buy that product. People who were previously unable to purchase the miracle water due to the extravagant price are now given a change all thanks to Sociolla’s discounts. A key in successful retailing is offering a good value in the consumer’s mind, thus being able to purchase such an unusually highly priced product at a discount may ease their conscience and make them less likely to regret on the splurge as they picked it up on a discounted rate.

External factors that allowed this to happen is definitely the lower price they were able to obtain from bulk buying at SK-II and other products manufacturers/wholesalers/suppliers. The current and potential customers also had a heavy impact as they must have realized that this was the best way to gather the largest market. If the consumers are already happy and satisfied with the brand it would lead to them often purchasing even during non-discounted periods such as my elder cousin does. The government also affects retail pricing, but I doubt that discounting their goods would lead to anything against their laws. It seems that the products are more elastic in price, and this way Sociolla is able to aim at status-oriented, assortment-oriented, and personalized/convenience-oriented consumers all in one.

And their promotional strategy? Omnichannel?
Sociolla implements a proper promotional strategy as they utilize and invest in proper advertising, which includes, but is not limited to; mass media such as ads on TV, paid ads on social media such as Instagram, and many more. Additionally, they also keep up on their public relations which entails all forms of communication that fosters the favourable image of the retailer among the public eye. They garner a lot of publicity through their outstanding feats on the media, and many renowned influencers also purchase many make-up and skincare products from Sociolla which are then posted on their blogs and such.

Their sales promotion is also very well made as it maintains customer loyalty and emphasizes novelty. Employees at Sociolla are very polite and also well-versed in their products, hence are able to help the customers out are refer to related products that can help, instead of just suggesting randomly. They are trained and also avoid any arguments with even impolite customers and try to handle the situation in the best way possible. Furthermore, anyone can recognize the signature pink of Sociolla and their unique logo with the motto “Pretty things inside.” These promotional strategies of the retailer brand are what make it as popular as it is right now compared to others like this one.

In conclusion, it is apparent to me that the retailer brand Sociolla’s strategies listed above have made it closer to achieving and establishing an omnichannel environment. They are everywhere such as on places on Youtube, Instagram, and more sites on the worldwide web. Plus, they have their e-commerce store and the abundant amounts of offline stores located in many malls around Indonesia. Not only that, but they also have the Sociolla app available on the Appstore and Playstore, alongside their official journals on the internet. Their merchandising and pricing strategies have made for them to be able to be in the eyes of many audiences in the market, and their promotional strategy is top notch too. If they were to invest in even more advertising, building more online and offline outlets, such as more different offline locations and the such, they would have the perfect omnichannel environment which is a big feat for a local retailer brand.

References:
Retail Management (A Strategic Approach) Thirteenth Edition by Barry Berman, Joel R. Evans, Patrali Chatterjee.
Journal.sociolla.com, journal.sociolla.com/beauty/grand-opening-sociolla-store.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sociolla