The Beauty of Sorbet Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Introduction

The case “The Beauty of Sorbet” basically discusses the situation where Ian Fuhr the CEO of Sobert launched a new beauty salon that basically looked to target the upper income women in the country of South Africa. Moreover, the brand until the year 2011 had more than 20 company owned beauty salons and the nail bars.

Most of the stores have been located in Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Moreover, the company has even offered 17 Sobert franchises to the local business owners. Along with this, the salon has more than 400 therapists and other staff. The customer base for the salon has almost 67,000 loyalty members.

The business model of the company has been focused on providing customer or guest with loyalty. Along with this, the company has been one of its kinds and no other salon has actually looked to focus on guest loyalty. Sorbet, since the start, had this vision where it wanted to provide the customers with utmost series and high quality.

To actually achieve the goals of the company, Fuhr has tried to involve the entire leading therapist from the industry and have trained them further to enhance the level of customer satisfaction.

Moreover, the company has always looked to focus on the human resource of the firm, Fuhr has looked to motivate the employees by providing them extra money and constant training to enhance their skills and also the way they shall treat and greet the guests at all the salons.

The company has even started an external beauty therapy school which has been designed to improve upon the staff and train them to serve the clients in an efficient manner. Moreover, since the start the company has looked upon developing a customer centric culture within Sorbet. In addition, the CEO of the company has emphasized over building the brand awareness while keeping a check and balance over the sales mix by maximizing the profit margins.

Problem Statement

The problem that has been identified in the case “The Beauty of Sorbet” is the fact that since the beauty salon has been performing well in the South African market, the CEO of the company is thinking about the challenge as to how the company Sobert can maintain the high level of service and also the strong brand awards it has developed over a period of time.

The CEO is basically thinking about the options where it can maintain profits, brand awareness while increasing the number of outlets for Sorbet and also diversifying into other business opportunities. The CEO of the company has to decide whether he should go for the expansion of Sorbet salon or should he to opt for diversification.

Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

The major strength of the company has been the brand name. Moreover, the salon offers optimum levels of customer satisfaction, where the focus of the company has been to attain client loyalty. The financial stability of the company has also been a major strength for the salon. The idea of offering franchises to the local businessman across the country is also a major strength for the salon.

The physical presence of Sorbet salon across South Africa is also strength for the company. Moreover, the human resource is also strength for Sorbet because it has been trained as per the needs and wants of the industry. Finally, another major strength for Sorbet has been its customer centric approach, where the salon has looked to fulfill the needs of the customers.

The Beauty of Sorbet Case solutions

Weaknesses:

The major weakness for Sorbet has been its high prices. The services offered by Sorbet are higher prices as compared to industry rivals. Moreover, the salons have been over reliant on the therapists. The customers have been price sensitive in the market. Along with this, the customers look for improved services ever time they enter the salon which is sometimes difficult to match.

Opportunities:

The major opportunity for the salon Sorbet has been to offer franchise to the local businessman in the country. Moreover, the major franchisees have been females. Along with this, another opportunity for the CEO of the company and the management is to look for diversification strategy. Another opportunity for the salon is to expand the similar business model into other countries and look to penetrate in the international market also..........