Ex-Diageo marketing director Stuart La Brooy joins Sephora in Asia role

Stuart La Brooy has taken on the new role of VP of Sephora, Southeast Asia and Oceania, excluding Greater China, leading marketing, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. La Brooy (pictured) told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that Sephora's commitment to sustainability, diversity, and inclusion drew him to the company. He reports to Sarah Boyd, MD of Southeast Asia and Oceania.

"Everyone I spoke to during the process had a genuine passion to be a positive impact on the community and their employees, which really impressed me," he said. He added that Sephora is "the only global multi-brand retailer in the prestige beauty category" and Asia is the largest, fastest-growing, and most dynamic geography. These factors made it hard to pass on an opportunity with Sephora, La Brooy said.

His first priority in this new role would be to learn, absorb, and connect with his new team. "From a vision standpoint, I'm passionate about leveraging innovation to keep our omnichannel experience cutting edge, growing and creating value for our beauty community, and strengthening Sephora as a global brand icon while also embracing local beauty culture and shopper needs," he explained.

As VP of Sephora in Asia, he plans to double down on diversity. According to La Brooy, modern marketing operates in a "fast-paced, complex, and ambiguous environment". "We face problems and opportunities with no easy answers, and need to integrate technology, data, creativity and consumer insights and other functions to make an impact," he said. To take on that challenge, La Brooy said diversity is absolutely essential, not just in skills, but also in background and experiences, as well as the ability to collaborate and harness that diversity to drive impact.

Boyd said that Sephora's DNA is characterised by a customer-obsessed mindset that seeks to expand the world of beauty, and marketing plays a critical role in helping break down the silos across multiple functions, teams and markets to achieve that vision. “I’m tremendously excited to partner with Stuart as we craft and implement the marketing roadmap that will help to deliver best-in-class customer experiences to our expanding community of beauty enthusiasts," she added.

La Brooy was previously Diageo's senior marketing director, strategic partnerships Asia. During his time there, he led Diageo's brand portfolio strategy (including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Tanqueray, and Singleton) across more than nine partnerships and 10 markets across Asia. He also helped drive continued growth in the business by pivoting towards eCommerce, grocery channels and neighbourhood restaurants. Before Diageo, he led his own consultancy 2D6 and was also with P&G for 10 years.

With nearly 20 years in marketing across healthcare, beauty, alcohol, and fashion worldwide, La Brooy is familiar with the challenge of growing a global brand while also preserving strong local relevance. He told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that his time with large companies such as Diageo and P&G, as well as high-growth fast-paced tech startups have also taught him how to build and evolve agile marketing ecosystems.

When asked about the marketing and advertising trends he is excited about, La Brooy said brands are integrating CRM, technology and omnichannel capabilities to establish services that integrate digital and physical, such as Disney+, Microsoft Game Pass, and Apple+. "More than revenue, these subscription services/communities give brands a long term, owned connection with a community that is receptive and engaged," he said.

As the community and service grows, it generates sales, which unlocks investment to improve the community, making their community more attractive to join, creating a virtuous cycle and an exponential strengthening competitive advantage, La Brooy explained. "It will also allow brands to transition their marketing spending away from short term media expenses (push) to investing in long term brand owned capabilities (pull)," he said.

Earlier this month, Sephora said it is officially entering the Vietnamese market with an eCommerce store after a five-month trial period, media reports including local news outlet Vietnam Net said. Two years ago, Sephora witnessed a leadership change in Asia when it named Alia Gogi as president of Sephora Asia. She was previously Sephora's Southeast Asia MD and joined Sephora China as chief merchant in 2011.

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