MAIN COMPETITORS- ANN SUMMERS

British multinational retailer company Ann Summers has been specialising in sex toys and lingerie since 1972 and is a well-known go-to destination for buying sexy lingerie.

The brand positions itself as the ultimate place to find provocative and modern lingerie, dresses and costumes for her, sex toys and everything in between. As it claims on the official website, the brand stands for “sexual liberation, experimentation and mind-blowing satisfaction”.

Another key-characteristic of the brand is that they consider themselves “synonymous with female empowerment” (Ann Summers website). In comparison to Victoria’s Secret, their actions are correlated with their message, namely they are more size inclusive and use a diverse range of models to advertise their products, in contrast to the “Victoria’s Secret mould”, managing to cater to a more diverse consumer. As Mintel reports show, consumers consider that “campaigns should feature models that represent the average person” with 30% of the responders strongly agreeing and 43% simply agreeing with the statement. Such responses and consumer opinions are slowly shaping the lingerie market as a result of the demand for more body-positivity centred campaigns and advertisements. Using a powerful statement and then complying with it creates strong brand identity, allowing for a well-defined position in the mind of consumers. Ann Summers has been using the concept of female empowerment since before the beginning of the 21^st century: “We took female empowerment to our visual merchandising and store design. 1993 saw our first, hugely successful 'pink concept' store opened in Queensway, London. These stores were designed to be more female friendly and resulted in a 50% increase in turnover” (Ann Summers website), while their CEO, Jaqueline Gold states “I’m interested in doing anything I can to help celebrate women, encourage them in business and promote equality in the workplace” (marketingweek.com).

Even though Ann Summers operates through a larger number of stores than Victoria’s Secret does in the UK (112 compared to 25), the latter has a larger international presence with a total selling square feet of 7,616,000(L Brands website). Besides from its own store-chain the brand sells its products through a number of wholesalers (for example ASOS, Shop Direct, House of Fraser, Ebay), allowing its ecommerce channel to further grow internationally. According to a Mintel report like-for-like sales have been increasing since 2014. “In the year ending June 2017, revenues rose 7.4% to £109 million, with sales boosted by the retailer’s Party Plan business”. The Ann Summers party plan, launched in 1981, has over 5,000 dedicated ambassadors today hosting around 2,500 parties every week across the UK(http://www.jacquelinegold.com/ann-summers/party-planners).
According to their annual report (ended June 2018), the brand suffered an operating loss of £3.2m.

Their latest campaigns “Turn up the Heat this Christmas” and “Our passion is you” feature daring and provocative lingerie modelled by both curvy and slim-build girls, aiming to encourage women to embrace themselves and discover their sexuality.

Social media and digital tools have become one of the most important marketing instruments in today’s developed economies. 

Currently, Bolton agency is in charge with the digital marketing strategy of Ann Summers, according to “prolificnorth.co.uk”. In comparison to VS who has a 1,719,359 reach, Ann Summers only has 3,942 YouTube subscribers. Their videos feature campaigns, makeup tutorials, behind the scenes and guides about lingerie and sex toys. While Victoria’s Secret only uses their brand ambassadors, the so-called “Angels” in their campaigns and in most of their YT videos to reach out to their target audience, Ann Summers uses both models and make-up artists, vloggers or social media influencers that might appeal to their customer base. Having so many types of videos and featuring such diverse protagonists highlights that the brand does not have a well-defined social media strategy and is open to experimentation. Apart from that, some videos consist of a quite low production (poor quality) in contrast to Victoria’s Secret. 

Other social media platforms they operate on would be Twitter (92.8k followers) and Instagram (170k followers). The overall brand identity is very well coordinated with their high street and digital presence, including their official website, through the use of similar attitudes and a constant colour scheme, mainly black and red, meant to symbolise mystery, sophistication, power(black) and passion or sexuality (red). “2011 Stores were re-designed to the current 'black concept' style, which provides an elegant, glossy, sexy destination for our customers” (Ann Summers website).

SWOT ANALYSIS

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Even though Ann Summers represents a unique brand concept and has long been known for their attitude and products, their heritage is not very helpful in terms of online popularity. They are slow in adapting effective social media techniques and strategies and can sometimes seem outdated in terms of designs or other things they post and therefore are missing out on enticing a massive client base of young Millennials and older Gen Zedders. When it comes to body image their approach is based on inclusivity as they offer a wide range of sizes (30A-44H bra size)and the models featured in the campaigns are diverse and can represent the average consumer. They could improve their business model by becoming more environmentally-friendly and introduce “ethics” as one of the core values. As consumers are become more fashion-conscious, a growing number of people prefer locally or nationally sourced and produced items over those made overseas. Also, the brand could create an everyday lingerie line instead of only selling sexy lingerie for special occasions. Moreover, Ann Summers is not only facing increased competition from other lingerie specialists, but also from clothing retailers like Primark and H&M, which currently represent a top shopping-destination for buying lingerie. Their brand is also threatened by changing consumer taste as more and more women say they prefer comfortable underwear instead of the classical sexy “push up” bras or thongs.