Victoria 's Secret Brand Analysis. 1.

Victoria’s Secret A Brand Analysis FTM 282 Summer Session 1 Gibson Courtney Baldwin Brianca German Jenny Le. Table of ContentsCurrent Market Situation.pg.

3Marketing Strategy.pg. 7Cotton Infusionpg. 16 Page 2. Current Marketing Situation Victoria’s Secret, the largest subsidiary of Limited Brands, Inc. And #1retailer of women’s intimate apparel, is based out of Columbus Ohio and hasmore than 1,000 stores throughout the United States and Canada. Victoria’sSecret, creator of the Miracle Bra (1994), is known for its quality bras,underwear, and lingerie.

However, they have extended their brand into hosiery,fragrance, apparel, and beauty products, such as lotion, makeup, and hairproducts. Victoria’s Secret is known for their many bra and underwear fits andstyles. Their products are available in appealing colors and patterns. TheVictoria’s Secret Pink line also contains less expensive bras, underwear, andapparel aimed at a younger college-aged audience. Limited Brands, Inc.

Is currently ranked #269 on the Fortune 500. Theyemploy over 92,000 people and reported revenues of over $8.6 billion in 2010.While a large amount of revenue, it has been decreasing since 2008. In 2008,reported revenues reached $10.1 billion, in 2009 they reached $9.0 billion, andhave since decreased to $8.6 billion.

For this reason, market share informationwas not available on many company reporting websites, such as Standard &Poor’s and Hoover’s. 56% of the 2010 revenues were the result of Victoria’sSecret store and Direct sales.

Page 3. www.hoovers.com In addition to Victoria’s Secret 1,000+ brick and mortar stores, LimitedBrands also runs Victoria’s Secret Direct, which consists of their online storeand catalog that sell footwear, pajamas, lingerie, and apparel. The ability toorder from a catalog and online appeals to those who are not comfortablebuying lingerie in public and those of whom are looking for convenience.Victoria’s Secret Direct is responsible for about $1.3 billion of sales. They mailapproximately 400 million catalogs every year.

To further penetrate the market,Victoria’s Secret Direct is looking to put out two more catalogs including thePink line and beauty products. Page 4. Victoria’s Secret faces many direct competitors, including Fruit of theLoom, Hanes, Aerie by American Eagle, Frederick’s of Hollywood Group, J.C.Penney, Jockey, Macy’s, Sephora (makeup and beauty products), Dillard’s,Maidenform, GapBody, Vanity Fair, and many more. Indirectly, Victoria’s Secretcompetes with almost every other clothing store. This is because of the price oftheir products. With the current economic situation, many women are forced todecide between a $50 bra with a $13 pair of panties and a new pair of jeans, ora new top, where before the recession they would have purchased it all.

Page 5. As previously discussed, Victoria’s Secret, along with Limited Brands as awhole, has been affected by the recent recession. This has been the largestmacro environmental impact on the brand. Women are turning to cheaperalternatives, such as Fruit of the Loom and Maidenform.

There is little certaintyof when the economy will turn around, which also creates challenges for thebrand. Within the microenvironment, Victoria’s Secret continues to gain morecompetitors. Many retail stores are beginning to add their own basic lingerielines. These are often less expensive than Victoria’s Secret and located in theplaces where people are already clothes shopping, which gives it theconvenience factor. In addition, Limited Brands is looking to expand Victoria’sSecret internationally.

This could be potentially problematic in cultures that maynot be accepting of the “sexy” and sometimes racy image that Victoria’s Secrettends to portray. Within Victoria’s Secret, customers are the main power-holders. Whileundergarments are necessities, products, specifically from Victoria’s Secret, arenot and there are definitely other less expensive options. While the maturelingerie market has been falling recently (3% in 2009 - Warburton, 2010), arecovery is expected soon. According to Simon Warburton for Just-Style, salesare expected to begin to increase between 2010 and 2012. It is estimated thatthis recovery will lead to a lingerie sector worth about $30 billion (Warburton,2010).

Page 6. Marketing Strategy Victoria Secret is owned by Limited Brands Incorporated, whose portfolioof businesses includes Victorias Secret, Victorias Secret PINK, Bath and BodyWorks, C.O. Limit buy40 off chewtune for mac.

Bigelow, White Barn Candle Co., La Senza and Henri Bendel. Thecompany continues to drive growth domestically through new sub-brands andproducts while expanding internationally. Today, the companys products areavailable in more than 3,000 specialty stores nationwide, through the Victorias Page 7. Secret Catalogue and online. Their mission as Limited Brands is to commit tobuild a family of the worlds best fashion brands offering captivating customerexperiences that drive long-term loyalty and deliver sustained growth for ourshareholders.

Victoria's Secret Corporate Headquarters

(LimitedBrands.com) The mission of Victoria Secret is to deliver abest in class, captivating, branded customer experience that builds loyalty andenables consistent sales and profit growth. It is considered one of the mostpowerful, sexy and glamorous stores in the world, thus holding true to it being“best-in-class.” With the Supermodels it uses to advertise, it is more thancaptivating, it is almost surreal. Because there are very few places you couldvisit where no one would know the name “Victoria’s Secret”, it is by far,successfully branded. In an article Victoria’s Real Secret by Steve Johnson(2005), he discussed how his wife is an avid Victoria Secret shopper becauseshe is impressed by the customer service she receives when she orders byphone from some of the five catalogues she received in a three week period. Asof January 30, 2010 the Victoria’s Secret Store made net sales of$5,307,000,000 and Victoria’s Secret Direct (online and catalogue orders) made$1,388,000,000 in net sales, which was actually a 9% increase from 2009.Because they successfully follow their mission statement, our group perceivesthe points listed in the statement to be the marketing objectives: to be/appearto be best-in-class; to be captivating; to be a strong, lasting brand; to createcustomer loyalty though superior customer service; and to have consistentsales and profit growth. Page 8.

With our economy the way it is and has been in the past few years,Victoria’s Secret’s biggest dilemma is pushing these aspirational products andbrand to a market that can do without splurging on lingerie and perfume.According to the Vice President of Customer Marketing, Amy Stevenson’spresentation at RAMA’s Retail Advertising Conference (RAC 2009), the solutionis Customer Relationship Management (CRM). She quoted Warren Buffet insaying to “be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others arefearful.” According to her, Victoria’s Secret’s marketing strategy is to increasetheir marketing budget.

Through this, they are able to market more effectivelyby increasing advertisements so their brand can stand out. She acknowledgedother companies that had done the same and have thus been successful in thiseconomy. She also quoted, “when a brand’s share of voice is greater than itsshare of market it is likely to grow its market share in the coming year” byMillward Brown, which provides qualitative, quantitative, and consultingservices with respect to brands, marketing communications, media andmarketing effectiveness. Then elaborates by saying the fewer messages in acustomer’s inbox or mailbox, the more their (Victoria’s Secret) message willstand out. This makes sense for the fact that if a customer’s inbox or mailboxis filled with advertisements from the same company, they will stop readingthem, delete them and most likely unsubscribe. But if they see anadvertisement from one company every so often, they’ll read that because tothem, they will have something to say. Also in her 10 Things Victoria’s Secret is Page 9.

Doing Now to Optimize CRM and the Business During this Recession portion ofher presentation, she discussed three brilliant brand strategies. The first is toget more aggressive with offers, not necessarily bigger discounts, but a betterperceived value. Two examples she gave was to add more beauty samples tosome of their gifts with purchases or make the gift with purchases bags largerwithout costing more to do so.

Another strategy she gave was to featurecreative value messaging.