BRAND MARKETING REPORT BY GEORGIA ROGERSON
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CONTENTS
3 1.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1.2 INTRODUCTION 5 2.1 MACRO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS 6 2.2 BRAND MARKET POSITION
7 9 10 11 12
3 COMPETITORS 3.1. UK COMPETITORS MOODBOARD 3.2 US COMPETITORS MOODBOARD 3.3 CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC 3.3.1 CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC MOODBOARD
13 4 PRODUCTION SELECTION 14 4.1 PRODUCT PRICE COMPARISON 4.2 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE 16 5 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 18 5.1 MARKETING MIX 20 6 PROPOSED BRAND MARKET REPOSITION 21 6.1.PROPOSED MOODBOARDS 23 7 INFOGRAPHICS 7.1 BRAND POSITIONING MAP 24 7.2 INVITATION 25 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This brand marketing report was created to inform readers about the rise and fall of popular American lingerie brand, Victoria’s Secret. Both primary and secondary research was used, such as surveys, customer experiences in store and using different websites like Mintel, Vogue and Business Insider. During these findings data was collected about the current popularity of the brand, the engagement of the sales advisors in store with the customers. Then, through secondary research, findings about their decline in sales, bad publicity and the brand loosing popularity. In result of the research found, Victoria’s Secret have been witnessing a decline in sales since 2010, with a 6% drop in comparable sales in 2017 (Andria Cheng, 2018), due to a few different factors such as an increase in competitors, the withdrawal of their apparel and swimwear lines and their recent bad limelight in the media. The brand needs to be revived in order to help itself get back up again, they could do this by launching a new campaign that empowers women and makes them want to buy from this brand over their competitors.
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The brand marketing report is about the biggest lingerie brand in the USA, being valued at $38bn and generating on average $7.4bn every year (Brand Finance, n.d.), although Victoria’s Secret have recently witnessed a decline in sales and popularity. The brand has witnessed falling two percentage points in sales in 5 years (Euromonitor, 2017). Unfortunately, the brand is losing more and more of their loyal consumer following every year due to an increase of successful competitors, their high prices and their ignorance to evolving attitudes surrounding diversity. Wells Fargo (2017) reports that 58% of the brand’s customers thought their prices were too high, so the majority wait for their mid-season sales. This report explores how and why, in detail, the brand is struggling to stay in competition and marketing strategies to strengthen their brand. To begin research to start to put this brand marketing report together, collecting information from various articles and looking at their different forms of social media to get a clear initial opinion about the brand’s image. By taking personal experiences and going out to look at a few stores in the UK, to see how they market, set the mood for their stores and how their sales advisors engage with the consumers, to help understand how important the values of the worker and customers are to the company. It was important to consider potential and current competitors in both the USA and the UK as these are the biggest markets for Victoria’s Secret, which meant there was double the findings, as the market is different
INTRODUCTION
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MACRO - ECONOMIC ANALYSIS There are many smaller contributors to a brand to consider in order to understand the way they work, for example their political influence, the economics of the brand, and also social, technological, environmental and legal aspects. To begin with, Victoria’s Secret has experienced, especially recently, some political problems due to their lack of inclusivity with the models they use for their brand due to their tiny body sizes. Then there are economic problems that the brand is and potentially could face. For example, Victoria’s Secret have 24 stores in the UK (Statista, 2019), although after they leave the EU it is possible that consumers experience inflation of prices to already quite expensive products, in order for the brand to cover new importing tariffs. The social and technological aspects come hand in hand, as anything social by the brand is done through the Internet, such as when the brand use their influencers like the Jenners and Hadids to promote their brand but also when the brand encourages people to order from their online store. With society becoming more inclusive to women of all shapes and sizes,
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which was found in primary Instagram findings that 78% of voters want to see more diversity in marketing and on the catwalk of Victoria’s Secret. As online shopping now generates $2304bn in sales as of 2017 (Statista, 2019), it is important the brand stays competitive with these online empires, like Pretty Little Thing, Missguided and Savage X Fenty. Unfortunately, the brand hasn’t been successful in being a moral or environmentally friendly brand, due to their sweatshops and being exposed for using child labour, it will decrease the value and how desirable that product is the consumers as the workers making the clothes are being treated and paid unfairly in struggling third-world countries such as Jordan. Also, the brand tests their products on animals for their beauty products (Peta, 2017) and it takes up a large percentage of responsibility for the mass deforestation of the rainforests (Ellen Wolfhorst, 2017).
N BRA
Victoria’s Secret’s brand is at the top of the lingerie game in the USA, and holds a huge following of loyal consumers, who are always keeping up to date with the brand’s social media, exclusive offers and their annual lingerie extravaganza. This yearly show is the best of its kind, with some of the biggest, musicians and supermodels being watched by A-list celebrities, press from all over the world and millions of viewers from home. Although its 2018 show has been the least watched show since it first began in 1995, after seeing a continuously declining viewer ratings since the year of 2013 (Olivia Petter, 2018). These comments quickly put the brand in a bad limelight, which made it much
easier for their competitors to look more desirable to Victoria’s Secret’s consumers, as their brands are much more inclusive to women of all body shapes and sizes. As well as these fresh, new, diverse brands; Arie by American Eagle and Savage X Fenty, more online stores have also released lingerie collections, such as the rapidly growing fast-fashion stores, Pretty Little Thing and Asos. Another way that their brand could reinvent themselves is by using more diverse models in their marketing and their annual show, which would bring the sales back up again and start to rebuild the viewer ratings again.
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E K T R PO A M SIT D
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COMPETITORS
USA
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Victoria’s Secret don’t just have many competitors in both the USA and the UK but also online and on the high street. In total, the brand has around 2 or 3 strong competitors from either country, the US being Arie by American Apparel and Savage X Fenty (Mary Hanbury, 2018), and in the UK, Pretty Little Thing, Ann Summers and Boux Avenue. The biggest competitors in the US for Victoria’s Secret, are Rihanna’s recently released lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, and American Eagle’s lingerie collection Arie, in which use models of all shapes and sizes, have been praised for their inclusiveness.
With the rise of online stores becoming more popular and 77% of women saying they would be willing to buy lingerie online after seeing an influencer they like promote the garments (Selz, 2019). This is making it more competitive for Victoria’s Secret because these British high street stores offer student discounts, free delivery after spending a certain amount of money and frequent sales with large stock, whereas Victoria’s Secret has expensive shipping, pricey garments and although they have mid and end of season sales, the stock available online is very limited. Women are finding it more desirable to buy sexy garments for a cheaper price in which they can also get money off and cheap delivery, rather than just as nice garments but that are much more expensive. Although, Victoria’s Secret is of good quality, sexy lingerie may only be worn once or twice, as the seductive sets are usually for an occasion such as birthdays, Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Therefore, people may be more willing to pay to higher price tag for better quality and is seen as being more desirable as a gift off a partner. In the UK competitor’s mood board, it compares the store layout, website, Instagram and campaign images to make a clear picture of what the store’s aesthetic is in order to compare with Victoria’s Secret’s. As you can see Ann Summers stands for more of a seductive and indulgent sex aesthetic, whereas Boux Avenue have a classier and more playful vibe to their brand and both have a much lower price tag than VS do, as well as also selling sex toys, nightwear and swimwear.
UK
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CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC CONSUMER CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC DEMOGRAPHIC
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After observations of consumers seen in the Victoria’s Secret stores, the consumers who make reviews and hauls from the brand and their Instagram followers, it was easy to build up a consumer profile for the US lingerie brand. First of all, their consumer demographic are typically women between the ages of 16-25 (Statista, 2019) even though the brand was originally made to target men, in order for them to feel comfortable when buying lingerie as a gift for their partners. It seems that the brands pink and luxurious aesthetic started to target the women rather than the men as the brand entered the millennial years, as women are the more independent, with well paid jobs and increased disposable income to spend on personal luxuries like sexy underwear. In the US, the majority of their stores are along the west and east coast, which is typically where people with a higher income live, especially those who live in cities like L.A, NYE and Miami as seen on the map..
Then the 24 UK Victoria’s Secret stores can only be found in cities, such as; London, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield. This means that the majority of their demographic will be living in cities and more expensive regions, which typically means that they have more money and disposable income. Although it is possible for these consumers to buy online as 77% of women say they would be willing to buy their lingerie online, so their geographical location doesn’t matter as much. Although a lot less people will want to buy their lingerie online from Victoria’s Secret as they already have a steep price tag alongside the high shipping costs.
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stores in the UK
1,100 stores in the US
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Victoria’s Secret have a decent product selection when it comes to the quality and quantity of their products, for example on their website they have a range of products to choose from such as; bras, panties, lingerie, sleepwear, sportswear and beauty. Within each category of product, they have on average 100 items to view for bras, panties and sports or sleepwear, whereas their lingerie collections are lacking the quantity of products available. For the products available, there is a very broad price point, as it depends on the style of product you are looking for, for example, a lacy teddy would have a higher price point than a pair of brief panties or an everyday t-shirt bra. When it comes to bras, which are Victoria’s Secret’s bestsellers, the brand isn’t shy around how much they demand for even the simplest of bras. Online you can find the majority of wireless t-shirt bras, (Victoria’s Secret, 2019) with almost no embellishment, are sold at the steep price of £38, which is still quite high just for your standard bra. In the higher priced bras, they are typically Victoria’s Secret’s statement sexy push up bra, which is a bestseller for the brand and first started their name, which can be sold at around £57. Through research of their products, it was found that the brand prides themselves in their bras, as they have 7 styles available for sizes from 30A – 40 DDD. Although they have larger sizes available on their website, the number of items goes from 122 to 17 items, which means it much harder for women who don’t have the most common sized breasts to find a bra in their size.
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P R O D U C T S E L E C T I O N 14.
The brand Victoria’s Secret have an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and also a Snapchat. Their most active social media platform is Instagram (@victoriassecret), in which they have 64.7m followers and post three times a day, in the morning, afternoon and evening to keep engaging with their followers throughout the day. Each of their posts generate around 100,00 likes each, with their most liked posts being photographs of their supermodel angels at their annual lingerie catwalk show. Also, on their Instagram on the majority of their product posts, you can ‘tap to view’ products which means the consumer can see something they like and go directly to their website and buy the product, this makes it easier than ever for consumers to buy products they like from Instagram. On Victoria’s Secret’s twitter (@victoriassecret), they have 11.2m followers and 158.9k tweets, the majority of which are cute, quirky and relatable one liner quotes which targets their young girl following and keeps the brands fun and sexy aesthetic.
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Their Twitter also consists of fun polls, photographs of their products being labelled ‘essentials’ and a few snapshots of their beloved angels. By tweeting tweets that are relatable to their demographic, they can reach more people of their target market through consumers retweeting. Victoria’s Secret use their loyal angels to promote their products, supermodels such as Kendall Jenner, The Hadids and Adrina Lima are more than willing to show off their success in the annual catwalk extravaganza, and their posts generate about the brand and the show a lot of engagement with their followers for the brand because it makes it more desirable, as these girls aspire to be like the models they follow.
S O C I A L M E D I A
M A R K E T I N G
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MARKETING MIX
The brand Victoria’s Secret market their products appropriately for their consumer market, which is young women between the ages of 16-25. To begin with, their products are of a good decent quality, as the majority of their products have a 4/4.5-star rating on their website and always have positive reviews (Victoria’s Secret, 2019). The packaging of their products keeps their sexy, luxurious but affordable look and the underwear is always wrapped in tissue paper which makes the woman feel like she’s gifting herself, making the product more of a luxury treat. Although the retail price is quite steep considering their main consumer segment, the majority of their customers will wait for the mid and end season sales to indulge themselves with some new products from Victoria’s Secret. The brand does not offer any discounts or buy now pay later plans and has quite expensive shipping prices if you live anywhere outside the US. If you buy online and don’t live in the US, shipping is $10 and takes 5-8 business days, which for many people isn’t worthwhile and would rather wait until their next shopping trip to go in then, or just buy from another online store with cheaper shipping. Although, they do offer free shipping for orders over $100, it’s still a lot of money to spend just so save on $10 (Victoria’s Secret, 2019). The brand also has their own app, although it is only available in the USA. Although after seeing some screenshots of the app, it was found that there is a page that lists all up-to-date in-store and online offers, so that loyal customers can find out about deals and sales, which means more products will be bought as they don’t have to worry about paying the expensive price tag. By sending personalised promotional emails of similar products to their recent purchases, they will be more likely to want to buy from them again as they will feel a personal connection with the brand. When it comes to visual merchandising in-store, the brand has a very predictable layout and window display. The stores have huge entrances, you can see the first promotional stand directly in the centre. The main stand is the one at the front which is typically a huge round table with draws filled with bras, and mannequins dressed up on the podiums at different levels. Then they will have posters up of their promotional offers on the stand, such as ‘2 bras for £39’. This instantly draws people into the store as just by simply walking past the store and looking in, you can see the exact products they have on offer and the offer that is available. Therefore, if you peek in when walking past, see a bra you like and a promotional offer right next to it, you’re going to go into the store and have a look around if there’s anything else you like.
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PROPOSED BRAND
In order for the brand to revive themselves, their name and what they stand for, Victoria’s Secret need to transform their marketing strategies and campaigning in order to engage more with their audience. As society is rapidly evolving to be more inclusive and body positive, regimes need to be put in place in order for the brand to keep up. To transform their brand, they need to become a more body positive brand, so that women of every body type will feel accepted and make more of their target market decide to buy from Victoria’s Secret over current and future competitors. One of the biggest future competitors will be Arie by American Eagle and Hollister’s new underwear line Gilly Hicks. These two brands are using plus-size, curvy women along with models of every other size in their campaigning, which makes them stand out in their advertisements. Women who do not fit into Victoria’s Secret’s size 0 standards, will be more inclined to buy from another brand like Arie and Gilly Hicks because they feel the brand accepts their bodies and empowers them. First of all, Victoria’s Secret should launch a new campaign, surrounding the idea that every woman can be a fantasy of her own. After CEO’s comments saying trans or plus-size women cannot ‘sell the fantasy’, a good come back campaign would be going against everything said, and start ‘selling sex’ the new way, that empowers women of all shapes and sizes (Laura Capon, 2018). The women who were excluded need to feel like they are finally being noticed and included by the brand and give them a reason to come back to the store to buy their lingerie from again. This means they would have to change their whole brand’s values and become more inclusive, which means models of every shape, skin tones and size when promoting their products. The marketing for the new campaign should include a huge range of models all wearing the new collection and wearing wings.
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Hashtags can be used to gain more popularity and make more people aware about the campaign such as #FindYourWings or #WeAreTheFantasy, to make women feel like they are personally being empowered by Victoria's Secret. The picture located in the appendix is a mock up campaign poster idea. One way they could get people in store is by handing out flyers advertising the new face of Victoria's Secret, and offering vouchers for say 15% off the new collection being released with the campaign. I think that the brand should create a new collection of a range of colours to suit every skin tone, and lingerie for plus-sized women. This means that in store they should have the new collections displayed on mannequins of many different sizes, so that women can go to mannequin similar to their size and have a look in maybe a catalogue that a piled around the store and then have the different sized lingerie surrounding, rather than only displaying the size small and DD cup bras at the front. To get women to buy from the brand they could create a prize draw to win tickets to the catwalk show. A copy of a potential invitation design can be located in the appendix. This competition regime can be done by the customers entering a code on their purchase receipt after they spend say $45 or over online and be able to pick which prize draws, they would like to enter. This would draw people to the store on the new release of the collection and show the consumers that they actually value their consumers rather than the brand becoming inclusive to ‘fit in’ or increase sales. By having a huge launch catwalk show, Victoria's Secret can take this opportunity to use other social media influencers, so they can show their followers that the brand is being genuine about changing, models like Ashley Graham, Ariel Winter, Nikita Dragun and Demi Rose.
D MARKET POSITION
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INFOGRAPHICS
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IMAGES h t t p : / / c h a s i n g e m i l y y. b l o g s p o t . com/2015/04/victorias-secret-controversy.html http : / / w w w. gotc el e b. c om / v i c tor i as-secret-valentines-day-2018-campaign-2018-01-23.html/victorias-secret-valentines-day-2018-campaign-18 https://medium.com/the-mission/victoria-s-secret-formula-for-brand-success19dfad823b10 https://medium.com/the-mission/victoria-s-secret-formula-for-brand-success19dfad823b10 https://www.gq.com/story/victoria-secret-fashion-show-2016-backstage-kendall-jenner-gigi-hadid https://www.hawtcelebs.com/victorias-secret-valentines-day-2018-campaign/ https://w w w.p opsugar.co.u k/fashion/photo-galler y/36211481/image/36211450/Victoria-Secret-Fashion-Show-2014 https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/victorias-secret-fashion-show-2017-backstage-instagrams#6 https://1000logos.net/victoria-secret-logo/ http://anggie-mp.blogspot.com/2012/09/ victorias-secret-type-subsidiary.html https://www.instagram.com/victoriassecret/?hl=en https://girlswantitallblog.wixsite.com/ girls-want-it-all http://www.propaganda.co.uk/portfolio/ ann-summers/
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h t t p : / / a s h l i e b r y n . t u m b l r. c o m / post/105493554391/adriana-lima
BIBLIOGRAPHY Andria Cheng, 2018, Victoria’s Secret sales h t t p s : / / w w w. f o r b e s . c o m / s i t e s / a n d r i acheng/2018/11/19/victorias-secret-facing-aslide-in-sales-and-profit-is-in-need-of-a-newbrand-pitch-fast/#67d542114d70 Brand Finance, n.d, How much Victoria’s Secret is worth https://brandfinance.com/news/victorias-secreta-3-9-billion-dollar-brand/ Ellen Wolfhorst, 2017, deforestation https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/victorias-secret-eliminate-wood-based-fabrics/ Euromonitor data, 2017, Andria Cheng, 2018, Victoria’s Secret sale h t t p s : / / w w w. f o r b e s . c o m / s i t e s / a n d r i acheng/2018/07/12/heres-the-real-problem-behind-victorias-secrets-dramatic-fall/#3c3ae5c1054b Laura Capon, 2018, CEO trans and plus-size phobic comments http s : / / w w w. c o s mop ol it an . c om / u k / f ash ion/a24920354/victorias-secret-transgender-plus-size-models/ Mary Hanbury, 2018, USA competitors h t t p s : / / w w w. b u s i n e s s i n s i d e r. c o m / v i c torias-secret-competitors-lingerie-brands-2018-3?r=US&IR=T
Statista, 2019, Retail e-commerce sales https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/ worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/ Victoria’s Secret, 2019, bra prices https://ww.victoriassecret.com/bras Victoria’s Secret, 2019, reviews on a bra https://customerser vice.victoriassecret.com/app/answers/list/session/ L 3 R p b W U v M T U 1 M TA 5 O T g w My 9 n Z W 4 v M T U 1 M TA 5 O T g w My 9 z a WQ v ZlVSa0E4RXA3eWJUTVRGREhwQ0NDcGttUUNMOVZvb0FIQzNhd3lVVUNDcmhSeVVCc24xcXMwb2xCOVpPbml3U3FZSXY0MlZJZ0R3UkRiYjRIQzdrcWdFZ1ZydmFqdV9ONDdpOW5kUVBhRTltQ1YzV0R3bjdKMVBBJTIxJTIx/p/207 Victoria’s Secret, 2019, shipping costs h t t p s : / / w w. v i c t o r i a s s e c r e t . c o m / bras/body-by-victoria-collection/ demi-bra-body-by-victoria?ProductID=367321&CatalogueType=OLS Wells Fargo, 2017, Fall of Victoria’s Secret’s stock https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/ jul/22/victorias-secret-pink-sales-stock-down
Olivia Petter, 2018, viewer ratings https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/victorias-secret-fashion-show-2018-low-ratings-abc-3million-a8666226.html Peta, 2017, testing on animals https://support.peta.org/page/1096/action/1?locale=en-US
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