Victoria's Secret is a leading lingerie brand known for sexy marketing. It communicates through elaborate fashion shows, beautiful models called "Angels", and highly visual advertising. The brand aims to make women feel youthful and confident. However, critics say the brand's narrow definition of beauty may alienate modern customers. To evolve, Victoria's Secret will need to balance its sexy image with expanding notions of attractiveness.
2. • Victoria's Secret is one of the
world leaders in lingerie and
apparel retailer of women's along
with fragrances and cosmetics
• Garments sold in 1.500 stores over
73 countries world wide through
flagship, license, wholesale,
franchise and also online
INTRODUCTION
• Brand has first launched at 1970 by Roy Raymonds
after visiting a lingerie store to get one as a
present to his wife and being treated as a
pervert, giving him an idea to open a store that
also men could shop without abstaining
• In 1982 Roy Raymonds sold the company to Leslie
Wexner which is brands current owner. Such a
successful brand that has 35% of all lingerie
market nowadays
• By choosing strategic communication ways and not
so skinny super models from variant nations of
countries aims to be connected with all
customers. We will examine Victoria’s Secrets
Communication strategies in this essay
3. MAIN TARGETS OF VS
• Men shopping for their girlfriends or wife's
• 20-40 sexy confident women
• Millennials
• Pink : Teens
BRAND TARGET & POSITIONING
4. DEMOGRAPHIC STYLES
• Victoria’s Secret: Middle class women age between 20-40 years old
• Victoria’s Secret: Mens to be shopped their girlfriends or wife
• Pink : Teens
PSYCHOGRAPHIC STYLES
VS’s
• Females: Customers are sexy or aiming to feel sexy, confident and have
a desire for sensual fashion
• All clothing matters, make up and perfume is a must
• Customer look good , feel good
• Looking good at gym, healthy , shopping
• Cant buy clothing just from anywhere
• Fashion, looking like a celebrity
• Yoga and workout enthusiasts
PINK
• Young women and teenagers ranging from ages 13-22 years old
• Girls transitioning in to teenagers /tweens
• High school students
• College girls
• Typically follow boy bands/ Disney idols
• Active in school, sports, social media
• Value comfort and style (loungewear) over sexiness unlike adult brands
GEOGRAPHIC STYLE
• 1.200 stores in US, more international target
6. Communication
Strategy
Marketing
Strategy
Communication
Mix
Victoria’s Secret PINK
Objective To communicate the desirable and sexy
brand positioning effectively using
relevant earned, gained and owned paid
channels that reaches their target from
college going women to mid age women.
To communicate the young and sexy brand
positioning effectively using relevant earned,
gained and owned paid channels that reaches
youngsters - targets from teenagers to college
going women.
Key elements Sexy lingerie More loungewear than sexy lingerie
Target group Middle class women
Core target: 20-35 years
High School and College going girls
Core Target: 15-25 years
Tone Sexy, confident, beautiful, youthful Sexy, confident, young, spirited, optimistic
Type of media Combination of Owned + Earned + Paid
International
Approach
Reflected through presence in more than
1,100 Victoria’s Secret stores in the
U.S., Canada and U.K.
nearly 400 stores and various small-
format locations in more than 70 other
countries operating under franchise,
license and wholesale arrangements.
Online presence
• www.VictoriasSecret.com
• www.VSPink.com
(Corporate Website:online)
Reflected through presence in Victoria’s
Secret stores, 137 freestanding PINK stores in
North America and the U.K (Business of
Fashion: online 2015)
Online format:
• www.VictoriasSecret.com
• www.VSPink.com
(Here customers can join PINK Nation, a free,
members-only online community for exclusive
special offers and the inside scoop on all
things PINK!)
Plans to open overseas as well.
Source: Done by Gupta
COMMUNICATION MIX
7. BRAND IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM
Source: Done by Gupta based on research from Victoria’s Secret corporate website
Communication
Strategy
Marketing
Strategy
Communication
Mix
VICTORIA’S SECRET
• Leading lingerie brand
• Sexy, self confident, beautiful women,
always youthful
• Inspired by fashion, celebrate it through
their world famous runway shoes with
‘Victoria’s Secret Angels’
PINK (SUB BRAND)
• More loungewear than lingerie
• TAGLINE: live comfy. Live chic. Live PINK
• Dominant aspirational lifestyle brand celebrating
sexy college going girls and campus life
• Spirit, humour, optimism and self confidence of
the girl who wears, loves and lives PINK
9. ADS
ADS
CATALOGUE
• The Victoria’s Secret catalogue are
very popular and key promotional tool
for the brand which can easily
obtained by simply requesting delivery
from the website. Since Wexner shifted
the focus of the brand from male
target to female target, the
catalogues are very popular tool
amongst males who want to shop for
their women friends
PAID ADS IN MAGAZINES & NEWSPAPES
• Since paid ads are a good way to reach a wide
audience Victoria’s Secret targets top fashion,
teenage fashion and women’s lifestyle magazines
like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, In Style, Glamour, and
Allure to reach its target
• Mallory Schlossberg (2015:online) compares
Victoria’s Secret to Aerie, American Eagle's
lingerie brand who stopped retouching images in
their campaigns in 2014. Their #AerieREAL campaign
celebrates women as they are unlike Victoria’s
Secret models who aren't real
10. PUBLIC RELATIONS
PLACE
• Since, Victoria’s Secret owes most of its
success to purely the brand image it has
marketed over the years, the testimonials
are a crucial tool of their communication
strategy
• Victoria’s Secret typically chooses young
(usually aged between 18-22), popular,
highly successful models who bring a folio
of popular brands in their works. The brand
refers to its Fashion show models, as
“angels” hence trying to convey them as
highly desirable, beautiful and sexy. As
per Business Insider (2015), Angels Adriana
Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo,
Candice Swanepoel, and Lily Aldridge are
also staying with the brand as models. The
new ones joining them include Sara Sampaio
(Portuguese model has been the voice and
face of PINK since 2013), Elsa Hosk
(swedish model), Jasmine Tookes (grew up in
California) amongst others.In 2014, Taylor
Swift was also an angel for the show.
(Fortune, 2014)
• Victoria’s Secret positions
themselves like a “La Perla”
for mass consumers hence we
usually find their stores in
diffusion streets and malls.
In terms of selection of the
spot in that specific
diffusion/high fashion street
or mall, they are usually seen
placed near mass market and
diffusion brands
11. WEBSITE AND APPLICATION
• Prevalence of visual content over
textual, a feature that can be
observed in every channel, involve
to communicate to customers
• Victoria’s Secret uses the appeal
of beautiful women called Angels
to create both irresistible and
informative content
• Application allow customers to
shop, locate the nearest store,
get rewards, and connect with
their social media
• Live chat for an excellent customer
support
• Keywords such as ‘’sexy’’ heavily
used in descriptions or headlines
• Pink line available in the same page
• Direct mail campaign and daily emails
SOCIAL MEDIA
• Logo as their profile picture aims at
reinforcing their brand
• Direct links in the bio
• Snapchat as a good call to action
tool
12. FASHION SHOWS
• 74 Models And Pop Singers
• 500 Million Viewers Globally
• Around $12 Million Budget
• Not Open To The Public
• Sponsorships
• Exclusivity
CRM OBJECTIVES
• Trending The Long Term Control Groups
• Track In Customers While In Shop
• Retaining high quality customers by focusing on
their Angel credit card customers, while adding
new benefits, double and triple point events
• Rewarding Loyalty
Social Media Followers/Views
Facebook 25M
Pinterest 327K
Instagram 36 M
Youtube 42M
Twitter 9.5M
13. FURNITURE
• Even if Victoria’s Secret is not a
luxury label, all the furniture
used by the brand is inspired by
the classic and luxury style. From
the chandeliers to the Italian
marble floors, every element is
being used to evoke a classic and
sophisticated atmosphere
SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
COLORS
• Hues of pink, black,
gold and cream are the
main colors used by
the underwear label.
It is also important
to point out the
striped wallpapers,
the signature of the
brand
SHOPPING WINDOW
• In order to bring the
stores to life VS
developed realistic
mannequins with sexy
and provocative poses
PACKAGING
• attention to the design
and the color pallets,
creating a harmonic
image between the store
layout and the shopping
bag
14. CATALOGUE
• Catalogue is not seen a
core channel but as it
still connected to the
brand association due
to the existence of it
since the beginning. It
shows the whole brand
assortment,channel used
by practical reasons
E-COMMERCE
• Streamlining its store and online assortments to
better satisfy customers all around the world
• Segmentation by products categories and lines,
moreover there is a different website page per
brand, one for Victoria’s Secrets, more mature
advertisement campaigns and a classic font type,
and one for PINK, more girlie and fresh.
• Different from the retail stores, the online
channel does not create the same luxury and fun
environment, the e-commerce is very clean and
there no soundtrack, suggesting low interaction
• While the product is being chosen by the client
it is possible to check the measures through a
guide line provided by the label and all the
pictures featuring every color and pattern the
merchandise is available, likewise the
description, explaining the most important
details of the product
• Contrary to the stores buying motivations, online
purchases are more likely a fast and practical
way of shopping, focusing more in the final
product than in the environment behind it
15. • The in depth research and analysis of the communication mix of Victoria’s
Secret have led to conclude the key learnings that:
• The core reason behind its success is its brilliant highly visual
marketing strategy
• It taps purely on the emotion of its women target of desiring to be
youthful, sexy and beautiful
• Word of mouth publicity revolving their controversies has increased their
brand awareness but negatively impacted the brand image as well.
• The key problem that can be observed for Victoria’s Secret’s
communication strategy that requires their immediate attention is that of
their brand identity. The post modern consumer is becoming aware and
notions of beauty and body shape have clearly expanded. Victoria’s Secret
brand identity of stereotyping the body shape to look attractive may land
the business in serious trouble.
• The challenge here is how Victoria’s Secret having such a clear brand
identity, that they portray their ‘angels’, the fashion show and all of
their campaigns, would modify the core brand essence to evolve to the
modern consumer’s preferences.
CONCLUSION