Victoria’s Secret is a subsidiary of
Limited Brand LTD, a Columbus, Ohio based company. Alongside Victoria's Secret,
the parent company also owns PINK and Bath & Body Works. Their products
range from lingerie, personal care, beauty products to accessories, but analysing
their marketing and overall identities will reveal that their products are
meant to convey and implicitly sell an ”aspirational lifestyle — a way of life”. They
also state that their products “entice customers to pamper and indulge themselves and to add a dash
of fantasy and fun to their everyday lives. Our brands invite customers into a
whole new world of beauty and style” (lb.com)
In order to define Victoria’s Secret
identity, understanding its personality, brand essence and values is crucial.
The 4 main values of L Brands as stated on the official website that apply to
Victoria’s Secret too are: “The customer rules, Passion leads to success, Inclusion makes us
stronger, It matters how we play the game”.
“Sexy.Iconic.Powerful” is how L Brands
describe Victoria’s Secret on their official website. This identity has been
continuously emphasized through their marketing strategies and campaigns.
Everything they do must be consistently associated with a sexy and feminine
image. They also position themselves as a place where customers can find
luxury, but affordable products at the same time. In order to support this
positioning in the minds of consumers, they use premium store design, customer
services (both in and out of store) and keep prices consistently high, only
using sales during certain periods like the semi-annual sales. “We touch lives with
quality products, memorable experiences and exceptional service.”
Consistent branding is one of the company’s
key strategies to gain success. Using the same colour-scheme, Victorian
influences for their stores, garment patterns, models and style they managed to
create strong visual communication that over the years aided brand’s awareness increase
and helped compiling a common image in the minds of consumers.
STRENGHTS
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
Even if they are showing strong online presence and large number of followers,
the overall engagement on
their accounts does not match this huge following. Shifts in consumer preferences
and market trends have had a great impact on the brand. A possible solution to
this issue would be to
collaborate with online influencers that in spite of the lower number of
followers manage to gain increased follower engagement.
Even though the brand gained notoriety gained over the years through using supermodels
and their show, younger
customers don’t agree with their thin-centred marketing anymore and consider it
an outdated approach that can cause serious negative body image problems.
Introducing plus-size models
and a more diverse range of models in general would be an opportunity to please
the young masses while also widening their bra sizes and curbing the online backlash perceived as a
threat.
In
spite of being a market leader on the US lingerie market, they face a lot of threats as
competition is constantly increasing on both domestic and foreign territory.
Although American
customers are slowly losing interest in Victoria’s Secret, international consumers still
crave that angel experience and would like to buy their products without
the high taxes imposed for
overseas transport. The brand could see this as an opportunity and
collaborate with various retailers that would bring the VS merchandise more
closely to the desirous customers.
The brand offers an amazing in-store experience: bra fitting experts, spacious fitting rooms, sexy store design, but in spite of their services and store layout, some customers have been complaining about item placement around the shop. A good opportunity for VS is the expansion of urban population and the number of female customers (through sex reassignment) that might help increase the brand's market share.
S
-strong online presence and large number of followers
-the brand gained notoriety over the years through using supermodels and their famous show
-market leader on the US lingerie market
-international consumers still crave that angel experience
-amazing in-store experience: bra fitting experts, spacious fitting rooms, sexy store design
As the brand managed to gain notoriety over the years through the use of supermodels and a world-famous fashion show they became the market leader in the US and increased their social media following to 64.9 M (only on Instagram). They offer an amazing in-store experience: bra fitting experts, spacious fitting rooms, sexy store design. Even though recently the brand has been facing struggles in the US, international consumers still crave that angel experience.
W
-the overall engagement on their accounts does not match this huge following
-younger customers don’t agree with their thin-centred marketing anymore and consider it an outdated approach
-some customers complaining about items placement around the store
In spite of the strong online presence and large number of followers, the overall engagement on their accounts does not match this huge following.
Younger customers don’t agree with their thin-centred marketing anymore and consider it an outdated approach that can cause serious negative body image problems.
Primary field research also revealed that some customers are complaining about the store layout as certain lingerie sets are not placed in the same area.
-collaborate with online influencers that in spite of the lower number of followers manage to gain increased follower engagement
-Introducing plus-size models and a more diverse range of models in general
-widening their bra sizes
-collaborate with various retailers that would bring the VS merchandise more closely to the desirous customers
-emerging markets: growing urban population and the number of female customers (through sex reassignment)
The brand could collaborate with online influencers that in spite of the lower number of followers manage to gain increased follower engagement.
Being in line with current trends would be an opportunity to reach more customers by using plus-size models and widening their bra sizes
T
-Shifts in consumer preferences and market trends have had a great impact on the brand
-online backlash
-competition is constantly increasing on both domestic and foreign territory and is slowly stealing market share from Victoria’s Secret
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