Abby Green Fashion Management and Communications SHU Victoria Secrets Report 28/02/19
Contents Page 1
Ececutive summary
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Introduction to the brand
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Macro Economic Analysis
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Brand Market Position
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Competitors
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Consumer Demographic
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Product Selection
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Social media and influencer Marketing
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Marketing mix
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Bibliography
Executive Summary The aim of this report was to understand the brand strategy of Victoria Secrets and the effect that this has on customer experience and perception of the brand. We decided to explore any issues there are with the brand and how to create a brand strategy to manage these issues in the future.
We devised our own methods of research in order to gather findings to come to a conclusion about the issues with the brand and how it can be overcome. This report will discuss those findings and be analysed in depth in order to gain a greater understanding of brand strategies.
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Introduction Victoria Secrets is one of the most successful and popular lingerie brands, that has many stores worldwide. It has been described as “sexy. Iconic. Powerful”. Victoria Secrets is well known for its infamous annual fashion shows in major cities such as New York (2018), London (2014) and Shanghai (2017). The shows are incredibly popular for their models who all have a great following on social media and in the fashion industry. However, these models and many of the Victoria Secrets ‘values’ have caused major controversy over the past few years due to social changes in society such as diversity within race and size as all models are of a smaller size and the brand doesn’t appear to cater for larger women. This report will discuss these issues with the appearance of the models and marketing of Victoria Secrets in relation to its target audience. We will discuss how each these problems could be overcome in the future with proposed marketing and brand strategies that will be better suited for the audience. Research began by approaching the current audience and expanding to a wider more unexpected audience and asking for their opinions about the models, stores and products. Once analysed we could then use these research findings to give a vivid idea of what the main audience is and what they truly think of this brand. It also helps to develop ideas of what the target audience wants to see and what others would like to see so that the brand can expand to a wider variety of people. These proposed target audience included different ages, genders, locations and sizes.
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Macro Economic Analysis POLITICAL
• In 2017 Shanghai hosted the Victoria Secrets show, however the morals there may vary from western societies therefore the brands appearance and values must be adaptable to different social audiences. • Moral rights must be kept in line as there is great controversy about the size of the models. • Content liability is also important as all campaigns and posters, shows and photos/videos must be honest and reliable. This may be true, however, it is not always a true concept of reality as the size of the models give a distorted perception of what is accepted in today’s society.
ECONOMIC • Victoria Secrets is thought to of “lost its sexy”, this is not due to competitors but due to the shows not being diverse enough. After the 2017 the brand saw a 1% decline in sales after a lower demand for its bras. • Its add on brand ‘PINK’ has also suffered due to it targeting teenaged customers for its clothing and beauty products. This may be due to teenagers being in the lowest financial bracket worldwide therefore resulting in an extended streak of declining sales that has reportedly slowly declined since 2016.
SOCIAL
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• Victoria Secrets has a large number of sales due to images being put out on social media and therefore reaching a wider number of their target audience. This includes not only their own social media, but their models, thus creating more impressions and interactions with their posts on Instagram etc. and website which is resulting in more sales. • • Demography is a major factor, not particularly nationally but worldwide as there are many stores in airports, however on the high street there are more stores in more economically developed countries.
TECHNOLOGICAL
• Due to the popularity of the Victoria Secrets fashion shows it results in higher sales, they use this as advertising by showing the show are large screens in each store. Changes in technologies in previous years have made this possible as there are now multiple ways to do this. There may also be even more ways for the brand to put across its visuals in the future as technologies are still developing.
LEGAL • Victoria Secrets provides no worker empowerment initiatives such as collective bargaining or rights to make a compliant. This creates no benefits for those who work for this brand. • In 2012 Victoria Secrets was investigated for use of child labor for harvesting cotton to make its products
ENVIRONMENTAL
• In a new policy statement Victoria Secrets pledged to trace the sources used to make its lingerie garments to wood-based fabrics, joining the ranks of fashion companies addressing human rights and deforestation. • Around 25% of the pulp that’s used to make the coated paper in the Victoria Secrets stores packaging comes from forests near Hinton, Alta as well as printing around 395 million copies of its catalogues a year from non-recycled paper according to ForestEthics. ForestEthics made efforts to persuade Limited brands such as Ralph Lauren and Victoria Secrets to use more recycled paper however these efforts were not successful.
Brand Market Position
Victoria Secrets is not only one of the most popular lingerie brand but one of the most popular high street brands. Despite there only being 24 stores in the UK it is just as popular in the UK as it is in the US where there is over 1000 stores. Victoria Secrets originated from the United states therefore is a very ‘Americanized’ brand with many celebrities modeling for them and others attending their shows. These celebrities have a huge following with women aged between 1330, however Victoria Secrets customers branch to those up to the age of 50. Victoria Secrets strengths lie with their marketing strategies as social media is a huge factor in today’s society. As well as this, they use celebrities as the face of their brand meaning they reach a lot more people which results in a lot more sales.
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Due to these celebrities being at the centre of many people’s attention there is much criticism involved, particularly as today’s society is very diverse within race, gender and size. Victoria Secrets has come under much criticism because of their use of only 1 size models and their inability to change that as this creates a distorted perception of what is the “perfect body” which was featured as one of their main campaigns. These issues affect their sales and their popularity, proof can be seen as their shows have declined from a total viewing of 4.89 million in 2017 to 3.27 this year (2018). Victoria Secrets has the opportunity to change these issues as they do have a wide following of young women that they impact upon. By changing some of their models and becoming more diverse with their sizing they will appeal to a larger audience and their current audience will become more engaged. The brand will also maintain its previous popularity as they will be keeping up with the changes in today society of what is ‘acceptable’ and ‘perfect’.
Competitors
One of Victoria Secrets Main Competitors in the UK is Ann Summers. We compared the target audience with Ann Summers to that of Victoria Secrets and found that Ann summers had an older range of customers. In 2011 Ann summers launched its ‘Real Women’ campaign to encourage women with realistic body types to model their clothing. This opposed Victoria Secrets who only uses models of 1 size. We also found that Ann Summers has an older audience, this may be due to their more diverse campaigns but also due to their products being more suitable for older customers, for example, Ann Summer appear to use darker colours throughout their advertising and stores, compared to the bright youthful colours of Victoria Secrets. Other high street brands will be more diverse than Victoria Secrets idea of a ‘Perfect Body’ and feature plus size models when selling their lingerie products. This is apparent in H&M’s lingerie range as on their website and in store they sell larger sizes and advertise these by using plus sized models. This is also the case with brands such as M&S.
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Consumer Demographic From Group Survey results we found that 82% of customers were aged between 16 and 25, 11% were 26-35,4% were 36-45, 2% were 46+ and 1% were under 16. This then shows that Victoria Secrets main target audience are aged between 16-25. This is clear due to many of their products and their general aesthetic being geared towards ‘college’ students. However, students are not within the highest financial bracket, even with a part time job. Therefore, Victoria Secrets may not be selling or earning as much as possible due to their audience. If they were to expand their looks and products to suit an older audience then their sales may increase and they will have less competition with stores such as Ann summers or even other high street stores that sell lingerie, (Such as M&S, H&M) as this is where a lot of older women shop. We also visited multiple Victoria Secrets stores across the UK and found that almost all of the stores have the same store front and layout inside. We also found that they all had the same types of customers- all women and within a similar age bracket. We found it rare to find males within these stores unless they were accompanying a woman. When asked, most men said they would not feel comfortable going into the stores by themselves or purchasing products. This may be due to the fact it is a lingerie store, however it could also be due to Victoria Secrets open storefronts and feminine aesthetic inside.
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Product Selection Victoria Secrets sells all its products through different channel such as their retail stores, online and some products through other shops. For example, their high-street stores sell typical bra and underwear such as their most popular products, such as their push up and t-shirt bras and also their beauty products such as their body mists and perfumes. The bras range from around £20 to £60 and some of their high-end bras pricing up to £129 from their new collection. These prices do seem to be effective as the company always offers in store deals such as “buy one get one half price” on bras or offers a popular sales technique of “sales bin” when products are organised in sizes and put into the same box on sale. This then creates the effect of the customer never paying full price however some people say that some products are “overpriced” when not included in any of these sales techniques. The bras also range in sizes from 30 A to 36 D, these sizes fit in with the overall image of the company and their models however means that they don’t cater to everyone size compared to competitors such as Ann Summers who go up to size 44 H. Victoria Secrets also offers beauty products such as body mists and perfumes which have been very popular as they are also sold in deals, such as “any 2 for £22” or “any 3 for £27”, compared to when sold on their own for £15 each.
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Social Media and Influencer Marketing Victoria Secrets is one of the most successful and popular lingerie brands on social media and in the celebrity community. One of the main reasons for this will be due to hosting a huge annual fashion show, previously held in Shanghai, New York and London. The fashion shows are majorly popular due to their famous guest lists and famous models as their “angels�, therefore gaining a huge online following. They currently have 65.1 million followers on Instagram and post a variety of images of their models/influencers who also post on their own personal Instagram accounts, therefore gaining more interactions, likes and followers. Some of their influencers include Gigi Hadid, Taylor Hill, Karlie Kloss, Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr and Kendall Jenner, all of which individually have a huge following on social media. For example, Kendall Jenner currently has 104 million followers which is over 40 million more than the Victoria Secrets page itself. She also is part of the Kardashian family who also have a huge following and attend the Victoria's Secrets fashion shows as guests so images and products from Victoria Secrets are reaching even more people world-wide because of Kendall. It was also found that in 2017, Victoria Secrets generates 28% of all retail social media interactions (such as likes, comments, retweets) across all social media platforms. Whilst other retailers such as Forever21 made up 0% of retail social media interactions, Gucci 9%, H&M 8% and Dior 7%. This shows that Victoria Secrets use of celebrity influencers creates a huge effect on social media interactions which can then generate more sales as more people have viewed their products. However, there is major controversy over who they use as their influencers as they are all within the same size bracket of tall and slim, making this an unhealthy image for younger users of social media platforms such as Instagram.
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Marketing Mix Product Victoria Secrets advertises many of their products including their bras, pants and beauty products including body mists and perfumes. All these products fit within their set theme of pink and the bra sizes range from 30A to 36D. which are relatively small sizes and are modelled by small sized models on their Tv adverts and images within the store and online.
Place All of Victoria Secrets stores are placed in main cities, with 24 stores throughout the UK and over 1000 stores in US. Therefore, having less stores than competitors such as Ann Summers and Boux Avenue, making them for exclusive rather than being on every high street.
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Price The prices of products are the same throughout all stores across the UK, however when we visited various stores such as Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester (Trafford Centre) they all had different deals and offers on such as “buy on get the second half price” and “all bras under £15”. This then gives variety to all the stores and makes them unique which may make some customers willing to travel further to their stores.
Promotion Victoria Secrets advertise their products online through their website and through social media as their models/angles have a huge following and can advertise for them, this proves to be their main advertising point. They also do this by having many pictures of their models from their annual fashion show printed around their stores. When visiting multiple stores across the UK we found that they are unlike other stores as they use in store visuals such as screens by the tills and at the back of their stores showing clips from their fashion shows of their models/angels on the catwalk.
Proposed Strategy (Recommendations) Victoria Secrets could improve its brand market position by using more diverse campaigns as it currently uses ‘skinny’ models and campaigns such as ‘the perfect body’ which cause major controversy. From research people believe that it sets a bad example as to what people’s bodies should look like but in fact it is just a fantasy. This became apparent when the chief marketing officer of Victoria Secrets rejected plus size models by saying their show is a “fantasy”, however women do not believe this to be the fantasy but is questioned to be a man’s fantasy, despite not selling any male products and many males even feeling uncomfortable going into the store. They could become more diverse by using plus size models such as Ashley Graham, or even women of multiple body types including stretch marks and more unproportionate models. They could even promote the history of the company, for example the name of the company came from Queen Victoria who could also be considered plus size, proven by her bloomers which were made to have a 52-inch waist which you are unlikely to find in any of the Victoria Secrets stores. This could help to compete against opposing brands such as Ann summers as it only dates back to the 1970’s. By using plus sized models Victoria Secrets may also appeal more to older women as currently they are clearly aimed towards young women and college students. This may have a negative effect on their sales as college students are within the lower financial bracket worldwide, however if they appealed more to older women, they are selling more products to a wider age range. This could be done by using older models or even using different advertising platforms such as more TV advertisements as older women are less likely to use social media platforms such as Instagram and are less likely to know who some of the models/angels are, such as Kendall Jenner. Victoria Secrets could also advertise their fashion show worldwide as it is available live in the US however only available online worldwide, this would be a more accessible platform to advertise the company and products to an older audience.
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When we visited various UK stores and researched some US stores and found that the exterior and interior of all the stores are fairly similar by using a pink aesthetic with a college/ youthful feel inside. By changing the interior design to a more mature aesthetic they may attract an older audience. They could also have more smaller stores in smaller high streets that aren’t in main cities as although they currently only have big stores (PINK & VS) in major cities such as London, Liverpool and Manchester (Trafford Centre) they could have individual stores on a smaller scale in smaller cities. Victoria Secrets have also just released the new ‘LIVY collection’ as they have tried to become higher end however the pricings of this collection have been criticized as the most basic bra sells for £120 and a kimono for £485. This is strange as their main target audience is young women meaning they should be selling and bringing more products and collections out that are affordable and of everyday use. This could once again make it more appealing for older women as if products are more suited for every day, comfort and they are also affordable then more of these products will sell. Victoria Secrets should aim to sell a wider range of products, but not limit it to a specific category. For example, they could appeal to older and younger women for comfort purposes by selling everyday lingerie at more affordable prices and advertise this by using models of different body shapes and ages. They could also feature a ‘sexier’ range which could include their iconic fantasy bra but still advertise it by using a variety of models, rather than using models with ‘the perfect body’.
Bibliography Why lingerie label Victoria’s Secret is struggling to be “woke”. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman. com/politics/feminism/2018/11/why-lingerie-label-victoria-s-secret-struggling-be-woke Secret / Etam: distribution and pricing policy. (2019). Retrieved from https://businessinsidewear.wordpress. com/2014/12/07/victorias-secret-etam-distribution-and-pricing-policy/ Victoria's Secret Just Made a Big Move to Help the Environment. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/victorias-secret-eliminate-wood-based-fabrics/ Victoria's Secret Angels Defend Fashion Show's Place in #MeToo Era. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/victorias-secret-angels-defend-fashion-shows-place-metoo-era-1116458 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley displays figure in new M&S lingerie campaign. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6586521/Rosie-Huntington-Whiteley-shows-figure-new-M-S-lingerie-campaign.html Is the Victoria's Secret show really empowering for women?. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar. com/uk/fashion/a24786599/victorias-secret-female-empowerment-vs-self-empowerment/ How Ethical Is Victoria’s Secret?. (2019). Retrieved from https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-victorias-secret/ Bloomberg - Are you a robot?. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-13/victoria-s-secret-sells-high-end-french-lingerie-to-revive-sales Angels or demons? Political shadow hangs over Victoria's Secret... (2019). Retrieved from https://www.reuters. com/article/fashion-victoriassecret-china/angels-or-demons-political-shadow-hangs-over-victorias-secret-china-show-idUSL3N1NQ23Y 'Why Victoria's Secret show doesn't make sense in 2018'. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/ voices/victorias-secret-fashion-show-2018-models-new-york-bella-hadid-adriana-lima-a8621491.html