PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

Product life cycle from a brand perspective: 

Since Victoria’s Secret changed their marketing strategy and started to appeal to women instead of men, success and recognition have been slowly increasing, alongside the brand’s revenue. Using different methods like their annual fashion show they managed to clearly position themselves in the minds of consumers and created a unique brand identity their customers resonate with. In the 80s supermodels took the world by storm and in the 90s the “heroin chic” look was the most desired look among young girls. Subsequently people got into the supermodel look, tall, slim, conventional beautiful facial features and Victoria’s Secret took advantage of this by using already well-known models in the fashion industry to slowly build their brand image. Based on this statement, the image of this particular girl type, the successful supermodel with the classical model body has been representing Victoria’s Secret for more than two decades now and is so strongly interconnected with the image of VS as a brand that one cannot talk about the one without mentioning the other. Their products are being successful because of the lifestyle their models portray. One could say that VS products are the same quality as Boux Avenue or any other affordable underwear and lingerie retailer, but it is their distinctive “supermodel” marketing formula that separates them from competitors.

The rise of Victoria’s Secret is correlated with the average consumer’s attitudes toward what female beauty means. If a few years ago everyone would have said that to them ultimate beauty translates as how Gisele Bündchen looked like, now many people’s answer would be Sleek Woods, who is far from conventional. Because society’s beauty standards are changing and the trend of making diversity conventional in fashion is gaining more and more spotlight, the Victoria’s Secret marketing formula is slowly entering the decline phase of a once utterly successful product.