1. Victoria’s Secret Pink Ribbon Awareness Cotton Campaign
Briar-Rose Jacobson
August 20, 2012
Concordia University, St. Paul - COM 520

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Abstract
Victoria’s Secret is the worlds leading retailer of lingerie. The company was
started in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Stanford Graduate School of Business
alumnus Roy Raymond. He started the company because over the years he felt
embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in a department store
environment. He opened the first store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto
California, and quickly followed it with a mail-order catalog and three other stores.
The stores were meant to create a comfortable environment for men, with
wood-paneled walls, Victorian details and helpful sales staff. Instead of racks of bras
and panties in every size, there were single styles, paired together and mounted on
the wall in frames. Men could browse for styles for women and sales staff would
help estimate the appropriate size, pulling from inventory in the back rooms.
In 1982, after operating the business for five years, Roy Raymond sold the
Victoria's Secret Company, with its six stores and catalogue, grossing $6 million per
year, to Leslie Wexner, creator of The Limited, for $4 million. Limited Brands kept
the personalized image of Victoria's Secret intact. Victoria's Secret was rapidly
expanded into the U.S. malls throughout the 1980s. The company was able to vend a
widened range of products, such as shoes, evenings wear, and perfumes, with its
mail catalog issued eight times annually. (Vicki Reagan)

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The Plan
The company launches Media Campaigns many times a year with many of
their ads running on social media, commercials, and through print media. These
campaigns run with the different fashion seasons and with releases of new products
such as bras and beauty essentials.
This specific media campaign would be geared towards breast cancer
awareness through the cotton lingerie in the month of October. Offering 2/$49.50
bras and 5/$26 panties featuring ribbon pictures and sayings showing awareness
for the cause. Part of the proceeds of these specialty made products would go to the
Susan G Komen foundation. The bras offered in this collection would come in six
styles: push up, demi, multi-way, racerback, wireless and perfect coverage and
would come in the range of sizes from 32-36 A-DD and 38 B-DD with the panties
coming in the hip hugger style with sizes from XS-XL.
This campaign would run through multiple media outlets. The main one
would be the use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and
Intsagram. Also buying advertising on sites like Pandora Radio, Facebook and
Google.
Research
A survey was conducted at the Victoria’s Secret store #161 at the Rosedale
mall in Roseville Minnesota. In the survey, 86% of female customers said they would
most likely participate in purchasing merchandise with the awareness logo on it.
“Every day we get customers who have had or are currently fighting breast cancer.
They constantly ask us why we don’t participate in breast cancer awareness month,”

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said Stephanie Shaheed, Rosedale Store Manager. “These women come to us
because we understand, we know what they are looking for, especially those women
who have had mastectomies. They know that our job is to make them feel confident,
sexy, and like a woman again.”
Planning
The planning for this campaign would come easy to the company. The
current goal of Victoria’s Secret is to give every customer the perfect fit, making her
feel confident and sexy through listening connecting and inspiring. The first thing to
do would be to design the product. Since this campaign would be geared mainly
toward the Cotton Collection, we can narrow it down to the bras and panties
offered. Designing mainly the white lingerie with pink ribbons and sayings like
“Save the Tatas”, “Big or Small Save Them All” and “Pink is my Signature Color”.
Giving these fun and inspiration saying will draw in the crowd. Even creating a
slogan that people would recognize as a Victoria’s Secret slogan.
Along with creating product, the company would also create a GWP (gift with
purchase) item. The item ideally would be a black or white tote bag with the breast
cancer ribbon on it, and maybe a witty saying while also showcasing the company
name on it.
The second step in the planning process would be to determine exactly how
long the campaign would run. Since breast cancer awareness month is the month of
October, the commercials would probably start running the last week or so of
September and continue until the end of October. Along with the commercials,
deciding when the print ads and CRM (customer resource management) coupons

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would be dispersed would be another details to hammer out. Knowing when the
perfect time would be is key to the success of the campaign.
The third step to this process would be to decide which media channels the
company would go through to get the campaign message out to the public. Putting
out a campaign through social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Tumblr, and YouTube that showcases the products. Getting the word about out
about the products and campaign and gaining feedback via likes, views, and
retweets makes the customer aware the about the upcoming event.
Execution
We would start out the execution with releasing CRM (customer relationship
management) coupons to the loyal customers. These CRM coupons will contain a
$10 off a bra coupon, a free cotton hip hugger coupon, and media letting the
customer know about the GWP free bag with a $75 purchase. Along with these,
releasing the media on social networks and putting out a commercial showcasing
some of the product that is available through the cotton collection.
Linking this campaign to other promotions in the store will also help bring in
customers who didn’t know about it in the first place. Promotions would include 7
for $26 cotton panties instead of the 5 for $26. Along with this, each store will do a
floor set for their cotton rooms to enhance the look of it, to appeal to customers.
Evaluation
Limited Brands would be able to evaluate how the campaign went by using
the customer census to discover how people heard about the VS Pink Ribbon
Awareness campaign. Using the customer experience survey the company will be

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able to find out more information about how the customer felt about the campaign
and how their experience in the store was. Also looking at the conversion statistics
will help to see if this campaign is something that can be done annually as a way to
show support to the American Breast Cancer Association.

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Works Cited
Reagan, Vicki. Personal interview. 5 Aug. 2012. District Manager for Victoria’s Secret Central
Minnesota Twin Cities District.
Shaheed, Stephanie. Personal interview. N.d. Victoria’s Secret 161 Store Manager Rosedale Mall
Victoria’s Secret. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. <http://www.victoriassecret.com>.