PROPOSED CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHICS

This mood board reflects who I think Victoria's Secret's consumer market should look like. Instead of just targeting young girls that are already feeling the pressure to be perfect, they should be feeling empowered by the brand to be comfortable with their own bodies. They need to target girls of every size, shape and skin tone, which will broaden their market and get more people in the shops. Some girls may feel uncomfortable to go into the stores and buy lingerie because they don't look like the women advertising the garments they want to buy. 

PROPOSED SOCIAL MEDIA / INFLUENCER MARKETING

In this mood board I wanted to capture the diversity that Victoria's Secret should be promoting. For example, they could look into seeing whether influencers such as Ashley Graham, Demi Rose and Nikita Dragun would promote the brand's new 'facial'. By using these kind of influencers, the brand can reach the women who maybe didn't feel included by the brand, such as curvy, plus-sized and transgender women. This means that the women will be more likely to buy from them as someone famous that they trust is promoting it. Therefore, Victoria's Secret can still post the photos they do now, but they can use women of all shapes and sizes. I propose that the brand does a new campaign to release the new, inclusive  Victoria's Secret, they could do something surrounding the perspective of all women being their own angel.

PROPOSED BRAND MARKET POSITION

This mood board presents how I think Victoria's Secret should perceive their brand, firstly they can do this by using more diverse models to show off their garments. I think in order for the brand to revive themselves would be to be more inclusive to natural 'imperfections' such as stretch marks, skin indifferences and also use models that are plus-size, transgender and curvy. This would mean the brand would be able to reposition themselves above their competitors who do use diverse models, as Victoria's Secret will always be a favourite for their designs. It needs to be perceived still as a luxurious and sexy lingerie brand, but change the people they use to promote their garments. I think that the idea of an 'angel' needs to be more emphasised, such as making the consumer feel like they are a part of the brand and becoming their own angel.

CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA / INFLUENCER MARKETING

Victoria's Secret promote themselves to be a desirable, luxurious and sexy lingerie brand and they do this through their Instagram, website and fashion shows. By using slim 'perfect' models, they are building an image that many girls use as a 'goal' which makes their products more desirable as the consumers what to look like the women they see modelling the garments. Their social media consists of many photos of the angels, and their website follows their classy sexy aesthetic, with a simple white webpage with large photos from campaigns from different collections and new releases. Victoria's Secret is religiously supported by some of the biggest supermodels; Kendall Jenner, The Hadids, whom are consistently promoting their lingerie on their Instagram pages to their millions of followers.

CURRENT CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHICS

In this mood board I wanted to paint a picture of the typical Victoria's Secret customer, I included images of their models because they are the image that the consumers aim to look like. Victoria's Secret is seen as a luxury item to have, so people buy the items for the label. The main demographic for their consumers is women between the ages of 16-25, often of middle class. As many of the items are quite expensive in comparison to underwear you find in stores like M&S, girls buy from them to feel good, so they are usually girls that care about their appearance a lot. I included some screenshots of Youtube videos of girls displaying their 'hauls' from Victoria's Secret. As you can see, the girls all have a similar look, perfect teeth, hair, skin and of a slim figure, around the ages of 18-21. 

CURRENT BRAND MARKET POSITION AND COMPETITORS

I created two mood boards to display the competitors, one for the US and one for the UK, as these countries are were Victoria's Secret is most popular. In the US competitors moodpboard, I included three main lingerie brands like Chromat, Arie by American Eagle and Savage X Fenty, which are the biggest competitors of Victoria's Secret in the US. These competitors use diverse models in their marketing and catwalk performances. Then in the second moodboard of UK competitors, I displayed two huge high street underwear stores, Boux Avenue and Ann Summers with images of their Instagram, website, store layouts and images of models wearing the garments. They are the biggest competitors in the UK because they are on every high street and shopping centre in the UK, with Ann Summers having 140, and VS only having 24 stores. They also have very similar designs in their lingerie garments, but for a lower price with offers of discounts and frequent sales. 

VICTORIA'S SECRET SWOT ANALYSIS

Here is a SWOT Analysis I created so I could highlight the things going well for the brand, but also what is potentially going to negatively impact the brand. Then I also considered what Victoria's Secret could do in order to try and compete with the threats, such as becoming a more diverse brand and to expand into other markets.

BRAND POSITIONING MAP

Here I made a brand positioning map so that I could get a good idea of who's Victoria's Secret's strongest competitors are. I found that the biggest competitors are Arie by American Eagle, Asos, Topshop and Savage X Fenty. These are the biggest competitors because they have decent quality and are being sold at a decent price. These stores are also either online or on the high street, which also means they are easily accessible, as well as this Asos, Ann Summers and Topshop all offer student discount, which could mean students (whom are a large part of their market), would prefer to buy from these stores instead of Victoria's Secret as its just as nice design and good quality but for a cheaper price.

VICTORIA'S SECRET'S SWEATSHOP SCANDALS

Victoria's Secret's brands claim to be fair-trade as manage to get away with it by finding a loop hole in the regulations. Although the brand uses fair-trade organic cotton, their garments are still being made in sweatshops and have even been caught for child labour by employing girls as young as 13 years old. Many of these sweatshops are in Jordan, and the National Labour Committee have recently released some of the conditions of these. They have been exposed for not giving the workers they necessary residency permits and they work routinely for up to 105 hours a week. They only get paid as little as $18.48 a week, and these wages amount to less that 3/10ths of the retail price of the bra they are given only 3.3 minutes to sew are costing. After some strikes by the workers, the management of these factories are threatening to deport all their workers, and Victoria's Secret is doing nothing to help. After these strikes, the large majority of workers had no choice but to go back to work as they cannot afford to live without it.

VICTORIA'S SECRET'S CURRENT SALE DEMOGRAPHICS

• Victoria's secret is still no1 lingerie store in the us, although according to Forbes; The No. 1 U.S. lingerie label, extending a string of comparable-sales declines since 2016, reported another 2% dip in comparable sales, led by a 6% drop at its physical stores, in the quarter that ended Nov. 3.

• Rayder’s website conducted a consumer study in September 2017, and found that of 48% of customers who had shopped at Victoria’s Secret in the past year, 58% said prices were too high.

• According to Forbes, Victoria's Secret saw its fiscal third-quarter operating income tumble 89%, or a whopping $120 million, to $14.2 million.

VICTORIA'S SECRET INFLUENCERS

These Instagram posts are by 4 of Victoria's Secret's biggest social media influencers of 2018, including one the original angels, Adriana Lima who has been walked on their catwalk for 18 years. Each of the photos shown above by the 'new angels', supermodels Kendall Jenner, Gigi and Bella Hadid, generated about 9 million likes in total, which raised huge awareness of the fact the Victoria's Secret catwalk show was taking place and where you could watch it, although the Instagram account has 64.4m followers, the same photos of the angels only generated about 300,000-500,000 likes each on the official Instagram account. These supermodels are some of the most influential accounts on Instagram with a total of 168m followers between the three 'new angles', therefore their posts about the show gets more views on the catwalk, more engagement with Victoria's Secret's account than it would on any other regular day. The posts that have these models on them get around 500k-700k likes whereas any other normal post generates 100-300k likes, which further proves that these models' faces gets VS more engagement with their followers. Adriana's post thanking VS after 18 years of ruling their catwalk extravaganza, received 14,614,374 views which is about 10m more views than the catwalk got itself when it was aired on ABC and about 3m more views than it has received on Youtube. 

VICTORIA'S SECRET: THE AESTHETIC

Beginning with the logo for the Pink Apparel brand, the bold blocky letters suggests a sporty and laid back look, and reminds me of the letters on American sports jerseys. I think they used a similar font to the one used on letter jackets because the brand is aimed at high school/college/university students, so it will appeal to them more as it is something that is familiar. The apparel store sells comfortable bras, sports bras and panties as well as a range of sportswear, loungewear and some accessories like duffel bags and gym water bottles. This fits in with the logo because it has a sporty look and supports what they are trying to sell to their consumers. The logo is important to be instantly recognisable because the consumers by the apparel with the logo because they want people know they are wearing an item from this brand. As the staple crewneck jumpers are about £48, it is only desirable because of the huge PINK logo printed on the back or front of the garment, as girls want people know that they can afford to buy apparel from this brand. The shopping bags for Pink apparel are of a similar sporty look too, with a vibrant pink background and white polka dots with a white heart in the bottom right corner with the brand's dog logo in the heart. Although the bags don't have the logo on the front, it is obvious where the bag is from, which people like to walk around with to show off they have bought something from the store. The polka dots contrast from the stripes used for the Victoria's Secret bags, to show that it is from the same company but a different brand so they are still linked. Whereas the Victoria's Secret bags have their signature dark and light pink stripes with the VICTORIAS SECRET name printed across in an elegant font. The bag has a glossy finish and a black satin ribbon handle, which suggests a more elegant and sexy aesthetic compared to the matte PINK bags with a cotton string handle. The swing tickets for VS have the same striped design, and the labels are a satin weave polyester fabric, in the light pink with the logo printed on. Then the PINK swing tickets are white with the PINK logo with white labels and the same pink colour used on the information part as the logo. The Victoria's Secret logo has a very elegant design with the V and S intertwined. I think that this logo was made to look high end to make it more desirable as it is similar to the YSL logo. By having it in a black colour, it suggests sex which is what they are trying to sell. The signature pink stripes suggest femininity, and makes it more appealing to women. Many women go into Victoria's Secret as it is seen as a luxury high street store, as it can be quite expensive if you aren't a women with a fair amount of disposable income. Many women buy from these brands so that they can be seen wearing them, and the lingerie makes you feel sexy like the models you see wearing them on social media and their advertisements. If their products weren't so easily recognisable, they wouldn't be as desired by women, they would probably just buy their apparel or underwear from any other regular high street store.

VCITORIA'S SECRET BRA FITTINGS

Victoria's Secret know who they are selling to, and with 80% of women wearing the wrong bra size, the brand have taken it upon themselves to start promoting bra fittings more. The brand have been doing this for quite some time now, as in July 2017 I want to the Clothes Show Live in Liverpool, where Victoria's Secret had a stand offering out bra fittings in which you could them receive a voucher for 30% off a bra of your choice. This is a great way for Victoria's Secret to get more people into their stores buying bras which can range from £18-68. It means that once the thousands of girls who went this event find out they have been wearing the wrong size, they will use the voucher to buy one discounted bra but then treat themselves to a few more bras to replace the ones they have been wearing that don't fit. This is a great marketing strategy to get more bras sold, as the standard lined, wired bra is about £38, so if you needed a few you'd be spending about £120 on bras as you've been wearing the incorrect size which particularly can effect your growth if you are still growing. They also promote bra fittings on their website, Instagram and in store free of charge, making women who sees these advertisements, go into the stores to get measured because they realise they either have never been measured or haven't for quite some time. After going into the Leeds store of Victoria's Secret me and my sister were looking through the bra sale when a sales advisor from the store asked if we would like to get measured. The women took us both into a changing room and made us both feel really comfortable as she could tell my sister was nervous, and measured us and gave us lots of advice about what style of bra we should look at, and the different deals that were available in store. My sister and I left feeling happy and bought a bra each from the sale and felt really impressed with the service we received. 

VICTORIA'S SECRET STORE DEMOGRAPHICS

After going into two Victoria's Secret stores in Leeds, Manchester and the Trafford Centre, I observed what kind of people who were going into the store and buying their products. I found after about 10 minutes of observing that the majority of the people buying things were between a size 6-12, I only two women that many would consider of a plus-size going into the store. As well as this I noticed it was the older women going into Victoria's Secret and younger women going into the Pink Apparel next door. I would say from my observations all the shoppers were between the ages of 14-30 and were women, although some men went in with their partners. Both stores were of a very similar design and layout, with the Victoria's Secret store having a sexy atmosphere with black elegant walls and dim lighting, whereas Pink Apparel has quite bright lighting and pink walls. The store was originally created to look this way so that men would feel more comfortable and powerful going into the store to buy their partners underwear. Although VS have some affordable items, the more sexy lingerie that isn't in Pink apparel is of a higher price, around £60, which makes men feel more dominant when buying them as they are quite pricey, and being seen going in they look like they have money. The dim lighting sets a seductive atmospheric experience as the only things that are lit is the lingerie so it makes them stand out more. After going into both stores I was asked by at least 3 people if I needed help with my buying and then at the counter they asked if I was offered any help. This made me realise that VS pride themselves with their customer experience, as when I was also int he fitting rooms the lady was eager to help me find the right size. This made me feel as a customer very satisfied with the way I was treated and made me want to go back into the store next time I wanted to buy myself some underwear. 

(photos by me - Leeds store)

VICTORIA'S SECRET WEBSITE

As well as the Instagram, the Victoria's Secret website is also filled with tiny waists, 'perfect' tummies and breasts, which is creating a false reality to a lot of girls shopping on the website. For every item, it is modelled on these size 0 models, which makes women feel as though they have to look that way in order to look good in the product they are buying. Now that its 2019, as such a huge brand they need to be more inclusive with the models that they are using order to stay a strong competitor in the lingerie market. From the website you can instantly see that this a brand that selling sexy lingerie therefore they're using models which they think sells the underwear best, as if it looks good on the model, it makes the product look better. Although, it is not just women who buy on this website, a lot of men will buy stuff for their partners, so the website needs to be simple to navigate and also have sexy models that will make the products more desirable for the men to buy. Victoria's Secret are aware about catching up in the market with being more diverse, but they know who they're selling to and that sex is what sells for their company. The website creates edits for every season and occasion, such as Valentine's Day and Christmas and also have collections such as a bridal boutique, a lace shop and a satin shop. This creates a large variety of underwear that is available, from comfortable everyday to sexy lace lingerie. The prices range from a selection of 5 simple panties for $28 to teddies being sold at $68, price depending on the sexiness of the underwear.

VICTORIAS SECRET SURVEY

What is your gender?

What age are you?

Where do you buy your underwear?

What is your body type?

Do you watch/ be interested in watching the Victoria’s Secret fashion show?

Would you stop buying from Victoria's Secret after the contraversy surrounding the catwalk show in 2018?

Do you think more diverse models should be accepted into being used in the brands annual catwalk extravaganza? (such as plus-size, transgender models?)

From my surgery I found that the majority of my survey answerers were girls between the 16-21 age region, and that most of them shopped at Victoria's Secret and were interested in watching the show. Although even after the contraversy after the transphobic comments by the CEO, 80.95% of them said that they wouldn't top buying from the brand. From my research I have found that the problems didn't particularly hurt sales too much, although profit fell in 2018 by 6%. Although, a large majority of them want to see diverse models in the catwalk, as society is becoming more open to models being used that are not the typical size 0.

MARKETING RESEARCH

Beginning with the Instagram of Victoria's Secret(@victoriassecret) you can see there is a clear aesthetic to the feed. Many of the photos use minimal space in order especially in the shoots in order to highlight the garment being sold, as well as advertising products other than underwear, such as pyjamas and body sprays. As you can see, all the models on the few screenshots I've taken, every photo picturing a model has a slim size 0 figure, with perfect skin, hair and bodies. From the photographs taken at the catwalk, you can see each perfect model modelling huge, beautiful wings, which is what Victorias Secret is known for. After the Victoria's Secret fashion show, within a week, the brand got over 21.6 million likes on its feed, by posting 82 posts and videos that generated 265,518 engagements. Although these are a lot of likes, the most liked photos by Victoria's Secret are the posts from the catwalk. This will be because of the extravagant colours, wings and outfits and a large number of the accounts that like these photographs would be men who are appreciating the women's bodies rather than the product itself. The brand claims to empower women, but in my opinion it only empowers women with a tiny body, as the brand doesn't publicly support larger sized women in particular, although they may sell larger sizes, they aren't advertised on the website or Instagram, which makes it feel like they only accept the skinny women. From my own research with my Instagram poll I asked whether the brand Victoria's Secret empowers women, and only 44% agrees that it does. After looking at the people who agreed, the majority were men or 'instagram perfect' girls, which is a small majority as a whole but is mostly my demographic of followers on Instagram. After some monitoring of the Instagram page and putting post notifications, I found that they post every day, 3 times a day in the morning, afternoon and evening. These posts are typically of a skinny model posing in the underwear, a picture of a bra/ bra and knicker set and a picture of some VS accessories like perfumes or bags.

                           

DIVERSITY IN THE LINGERIE MARKET

     Lingerie brands are becoming more and more diverse with not just the products but the models that they use. Starting with the products, some brands like Savage X Fenty and Nubian Skin have created ranges of simple knickers and bras but in a wide range different skin tones, so that there is a nude for every colour of skin. Many smaller brands are becoming more popular due to them being more body positive and the recent controversy with VS is making it easier for them to get recognition for their inclusivity. Names like American Eagle, which is already a well known brand, is having particular success with their underwear line called Arie. Arie has been rumoured to be one of Victoria's Secret's biggest rival as they had 13 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth and were up 27% in 2017. Arie promotes body positivity through their Instagram and website, by using models of a large diversity, one of the faces of their brand is plus-size model Irska Lawrence, who uses her platform on Instagram to empower women to feel comfortable in their bodies. Not only plus size models but also women with disabilities and visible differences like alopecia are used to promote their products, which is sending out a positive message towards women and young girls who will grow up to be more inclusive and comfortable in their own skin, after seeing how all body types are accepted. The main problem for Victoria's Secret is the very small and strict list of characteristics needed to become a Victoria's Secret model featured in their marketing or runways, and also the recent comments made by Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret about plus-size women not wanting to be seen on their catwalk, and transgender models not fitting in their idea of 'fantasy'. From my polls on Instagram and my survey, I found that 85% of the people I asked on the survey and 83% on Instagram thought that Victoria's Secret should include more diverse models in their show, website and Instagram. Although from looking at the participants particularly from the Instagram poll, those who voted to not have diverse models, were either boys or girls with a small body frame. I believe they would've voted no because unfortunately teenage boys are more likely to want to see skinny 'perfect' girls on their Instagram feed, due to being brought up surrounded by only size 0 models on the TV, billboards and online. As well as this, the girls with a smaller frame, similar to the body shapes of the current Victoria's Secret models, do not feel as excluded as women of a different body shape therefore don't feel as though it's needed. After Ed Razek's transphobic comments; “Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy" and "We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don't", transgender Instagram and Youtube star, Nikita Dragon posted a video as her dressing an angel from Victoria's Secret with the caption "Dear Victoria's Secret, you said trans women can't sell the "fantasy" so see i am as a TRANS WOMAN selling the fantasy!". After this post, almost everyone was talking about the video and the transphobic comments, which put the brand into a bad limelight. Nikita's video in fact got almost three times the views than the VS show had in 2018. Victoria's Secret's ignorance to diversity in their models and their transphobic comments has seriously hurt the brand, with views of the show falling and sales continuing to decrease. As women are becoming more empowered through body positivity being spread more in the media, they are looking to buy from brands that empower them and their bodies to make them feel more confident, which is not something VS are promoting. In order for Victoria's Secret to help themselves they need to apologise and try to reinvent their brand by becoming more diverse, otherwise sales and popularity of the brand will continue to drop.

VICTORIA'S STRUGGLES WITH THE CHINESE LINGERIE MARKET.

      Although Victoria's Secret is the leading lingerie brand of the US, and being huge in the UK, the brand is looking to widen their custom into the far east. With china having a population of 200m women, Victoria’s secret need to make a name for themselves in the Chinese lingerie market in order to get high sales in the Far East. Demand for high-end women's underwear is extremely high in china as sales volumes have doubled in five years (from $9bn to $18bn) due to females wages rising and social attitudes changing. If VS were able to increase their popularity in China, then profits would start to increase again, after their fall due to transphobic comments in the media. Although, China is a much harder audience to please, as women want comfortable and functional underwear rather than something that is particularly sexy and seductive, which is what VS are known for. The brand sexualises the female body with the majority of their lingerie typically being lacy and sexy. If the Chinese women were to watch one of they runway shows, they would probably be less likely to buy their underwear because they don't look comfortable which is what the majority are looking for. Victoria’s secret had a launch in china, though two of the main celebrities invited to the launch were refused visas; including singer Katy Perry for supporting the independence of Taiwan and Gigi Hadid for squinting which could be deemed to be offensive to Chinese people. I think the brand need to know their audience better before they try to take over the lingerie market. Its not just the functionality of the product thats important, but also the colour. Chinese people are very superstitious, particularly about colours. For example, white products are said to represent death and yellow to be pornographic, this means that the designers would have to make sure they are only producing garments for the stores that were of particular colours in order to sell. Victoria's Secret are desperate to make a name for themselves in China due to the lingerie market being expected to reach nearly $25 billion by next year, although there are already plenty of Chinse lingerie websites online that sell their garments for half the price of Victoria's Secret, and their designs are much more desirable to the women buying them. Although Victoria's Secret opened their first store in Shanghai in 2017, they need to change their habits in order to get their sale numbers up as the consumer is very different to the typical Western consumer when it comes to expectations and even body size as Chinese women usually have much smaller body frames. In order for the brand to take over the Chinese lingerie market, they need to pretty much reinvent the brand, by making their underwear for comfortable instead of sexy, only sell particular colours and also lower their prices of their garments, otherwise they are going to just have to target a smaller audience, for example the richer percentage of Chinese women who do want sexy lingerie.

VICTORIA'S SECRET COMPETITORS US

Although previously Vitoria's Secret were the leading lingerie brand for the US, particularly between the ages of 16-25, the lingerie game is quickly evolving to becoming more inclusive of every body type, skin tone and shape. Victoria's Secret is falling behind with keeping up-to-date with the diversity of fashion nowadays, as society becomes more open towards steering away from the 'norm' of fashion models. Although the brand is famous for their huge catwalk extravaganza held annually, where models walk alongside some of the biggest singers whilst wearing the signature angel wings, the viewer total of the show has rapidly deteriorated over the past 8 years. From my research, I discovered that 70% of the people who answered my survey watched the fashion show, and 85% believe that the brand should be more inclusive to plus-size and transgender models, in which Victoria's Secret as a brand, do not support or want participating in their show. On the other hand, brands such as Chromat and Rihanna's recently launched lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, have been highlighted as being much more diverse and inclusive, therefore are stealing a lot of limelight away from this years Victoria's Secret show. Rihanna's Savage X Fenty catwalk was more of a dance performance, with an eden garden inspired surrounding, where the models would dance in the lingerie around the trees and waterfalls. This experience engaged with the audience, media and people watching online, mostly due to the models they used in the performance which caught everyone's eye. The models were far from the typical size 0, perfect skin and hair which you would see on the VS runway, the majority of the women were plus sizes, some were transgender and even pregnant. The use of these models made people of the internet shake, because it showed that society were becoming more open to people away from the 'norm', modelling lingerie. After the controversy  with the CEO of marketing from Victoria's Secret shaming plus-size and transgender models from taking part in their show due to not being a 'fantasy', people were over the moon to see a huge brand being released that were inclusive to women of every body type and skin tone. As well as Savage X Fenty, another lingerie brand, Chromat has also been all over the internet for their use of diversity, as they use a large number of transgender models, as well as models with disabilities even which is much more empowering towards women, than how empowering Victoria's Secret claim to be. After a poll I posted on Instagram, where the majority of my followers are girls between the ages of 16-21, 132 people voted on whether Victoria's Secret empowers them as a woman, where 25% said yes, the girls were of very small sizes therefore probably feel empowered as the models have bodies like them. Although the other 75% voted no, whereas only 23% the voters found that Savage X Fenty didn't empower women. In my opinion, in order for Victoria's Secret to revive their brand, they need to become a much more inclusive brand and use diverse models in their marketing and runways, otherwise more and more people will loose interest in buying from them. The internet is the most powerful tool nowadays, so if every online magazine, tweet and instagram post is shaming Victoria's Secret for their lack of inclusivity, the brand will quickly die.