Sephora's VP of marketing explains what a viral incident with musician SZA taught the company about inclusivity
- In late April, musician SZA posted a viral tweet saying that a Sephora employee called security to make sure she wasn't stealing beauty products while she was shopping at the store.
- Sephora's vice president of marketing, Abigail Jacobs, said that the company took the incident as an opportunity to learn more about how to implement diversity and inclusion in its practices.
- "This is an all-too common experience for people of color," Jacobs said of the situation during a keynote speech at the eTail West conference in Palm Springs, California.
- Following the incident, Sephora embarked on a listening tour to hear from its clients of color.
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PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Sephora is on a mission to focus on inclusivity following a viral controversy last year.
In late April, musician SZA posted a viral tweet saying that a Sephora employee called security to make sure she wasn't stealing beauty products while she was shopping at the store.
"We were prepared for a lot of questions about our stance on gender, but we weren't prepared for this," Sephora's vice president of marketing, Abigail Jacobs, said during a keynote speech at the eTail West conference in Palm Springs, California. "And I don't know why."
Jacobs said that though Sephora attempts to be inclusive, the incident with SZA was essentially a wake-up call for the company.
"This is an all-too common experience for people of color," Jacobs said.
Sephora immediately apologized for the incident, Jacobs said, but the next step was more intensive.
Jacobs said that Sephora went out on a listening tour and quickly pulled together focus groups across the country to hear from its clients of color.
"And what they said to us was that they weren't surprised to hear about this incident. In fact, they had been trained by their families from a very young age to dress like they could afford what they were shopping for, to be comfortable being followed in a retail environment," Jacobs said.
Shortly after the incident, in June, Sephora closed all of its US stores to administer an hour of diversity training. Around the same time, the company released a new ad campaign celebrating the transgender and non-binary community, called the "Identify as We" campaign.
In regards to racial diversity, Jacobs said that Sephora learned from the incident with SZA and has been actively striving to get better since then. Jacobs referenced initiatives like updating the color IQ technology for foundation in stores to account for more skin tones and launching new lines of foundation for transgender clients.
"It's a topic that's uncomfortable for any retailer but it's a topic that we felt we needed to think carefully about," she said.