CHAP. 7 BUSINESS MARKETING

Victoria's secret mostly retails consumer products such as lingerie, underwear, sportswear, clothing, swimwear, beauty products and other. Those products are purchased for personal consumption and can't be use in business.
Victoria's secret was founded in 1977 and was bought 10 years later by Limited Brands which transformed it as the 1st retailer of lingerie in US. VS most important manufacturer is based in South Asia. The factory is in Sri Lanka and is called MAS, it is specialized in lingerie and produces a sixth of bras sold by VS.
In order to better promote its products, VS uses internet. On internet, VS created its own website which provides every collections and allows customers to easily make purchases. Advertising and public relations are done through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and others in order to stay in touch with customers. 26 millions on average of fans are connected with VS through Facebook, 3,5 millions through Twitter. Also, the company has a Youtube channel which is updated regularly with new commercials and is watched by 96 millions of fans. In the other hand, the company stays in touch through emails as well. Customers' emails are monthly  updated with new collections, coupons, discounts, and events.
Besides Limited Brands and its manufacturers, VS is not really affiliated to any other firms because its products are more for personal consumption or gift.

CHAP. 11 DEVELOPING AND MANAGING PRODUCT

Victoria's secret, besides being the first retailer of lingerie in US, is also producing fragrances, make up, clothing, sportswear, swimwear and many other accessories. Every month, a new product is launched at VS, whether it is lingerie or beauty products. For example, most recently it launched FABULOUS Eau de Parfum a floral fragrance

that already accumulated 5 stars in reviews and VERY SEXY NOW Eau de Parfum a fruity fragrance. It also created a bombshell day every first Saturday of May in which a couple of new products are released in stores. This year, it was the second edition of the bombshell day, the company chose to produce more items in its VERY SEXY collection. The VERY SEXY collection provides push up bras, laces, balconets and babydolls. At the bombshell day, VS also make promotions such as buy one bra and the second is 50% discount. 

 

Every time a new product is launched, Victoria's secret goal is to educate its 25-30000 employees in sales associates and stores to communicate that newest to the costumers, while still meeting their needs in terms of what they are coming in for. The company focuses on conversion and how to convert customers, using that as the metric to success - The number of customers that walk through the door are converted to purchases. 

In terms of strategy VS is reaped huge benefits from its lingerie products while expanding into new products. This has allowed VS to gain a stronger name in the lingerie industry by also selling clothes. At the present time without any real competitors, there is no doubt VS has established itself as the standard in the lingerie business. Being the standard has allowed them to enter new industries developing new products with much success. VS is definitely at its maturity stage due to its leader place on the market.

CHAP. 8 SEGMENTING AND TARGETING MARKETS

Victoria's secret has been on the market over almost 40 years. Eight years prior to founding Victoria's secret, Raymond was embarrassed when purchasing lingerie for his wife at a department store. Realizing that other men felt the same way, the man saw an opportunity to create a lingerie store designed to make men feel comfortable shopping. Unfortunately, selling lingerie to male customers was increasingly unprofitable and Victoria's secret headed the bankruptcy.

Limited Brands decided to buy the company and made Victoria's secret a multi-billion business. The major modification Limited Brands did was changing the target market. It was no longer men buying for their wives but for women themselves. Middle class women from 18 to 45 is the new target market. As time goes by, the company became wide and segmented into beauty products, underwear, swimwear, sportswear, clothing for teenage girls.

Victoria's secret target market is middle class women who particularly value their image and feel confident in their skin. It is segmenting markets on the basis of personality, motives, lifestyle, and geodemographics: psychographic segmentation. Its targeting strategy is multisegment because products are designed toward many different types of women according to their age, style and taste. For example, PINK is a sub division of Victoria's secret for teenager girls.
Victoria's secret products are created to make women feel glamorous, confident, sexy and beautiful in their skins. The company sell to those women no matter where they come from ( UK, America, Canada, United Arab Emirates etc. )

 

CHAP. 15 MARKETING COMMUNICATION

To communicate with customers, companies need to build a good promotional strategy. A promotional plan includes elements such as advertising, pubic relations, sales promotion, personal selling and social media. Victoria's secret is considered as the number one retailer of lingerie and beauty products around the world. It considerably dominates women products market. Its closest competitor are Adore Me, American Eagle Outfitters, Gap and Women's wear Daily.

Victoria's secret competitive advantage is its advertising strategy that consist to hired famous supermodels ( Victoria's secret Angles ) to promote products on TV and on Fashion shows. Every year, the company invests in fashion shows to exhibit new collections on Angels, Also, it invites artists singers to perform during the show ( Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran ).  Besides the popular annual fashion shows, VS also is part of huge american events like The Super Bowl. This year, the company created a special commercial with Angels playing football.

Furthermore, Victoria's secret always stays connected to its costumers through emails and social medias. The company also has its own catalog, website and smartphone application in which customers can order any products anytime. It promotes discounts up to 50% to customers. Gift cards and reward cards are also available.

Victoria's secret impact is worldwide because it is easily accessible in airports and tourist cities like New York and London.

CHAP. 10 PRODUCT CONCEPTS

Victoria's secret is a strategic business unit of Limited Brands. The company includes a diverse product mix which including: underwear, sleepwear, seasonal wear, accessories, swimwear and beauty cosmetics. The main strategy of Victoria's secret focuses on marketing efforts ensuring brand recognition through several tactics such as: fashion shows, celebrity endorsements, catalogs and advertising. Currently, the company sells to customers in over 80 countries though their direct website. VS always provide good quality and variety on their products, for it makes them a brand loyalty which the majority prefers Victoria's secret over the competitors. It dominates its world with modern-style, fashion-inspired collections, prestige fragrances, cosmetics, celebrated supermodels and world famous runway shows. Victoria's secret products range from intimate apparel and hosiery to loungewear, body care products, fragrances, cosmetics and fitness wear. 

Furthermore, Victoria's secret expanded its product line by creating PINK which is targeted only toward teen girls. PINK provides underwear but also clothing ( shoes, sportswear, swimwear ).

At Victoria's secret there are two ways to shop, you can shop by collection or by style. For example, to shop lingerie items, customers have the opportunity to chose among many product lines which is divided by styles and collections. Currently, VS lingerie collections are Very Sexy, Dream Angels and Designer collection. Also, VS lingerie style are Bras & panties, Bustiers & Corsets, Teddies, Babydolls & slips, Garters & garter slips, Gowns & Kimonos and Fragrance.

Victoria's secret is trying to be the dominant young, sexy and sophisticated lingerie and beauty brand in the world. The company is also known for setting trends and creating demand through innovative designs. With presence in almost all major mall in USA and tourist destinations such as shopping centers, airports and major cities, VS aspires to become a destination brand, meaning a customer would be tempted to visit malls just too see the VS store.   

CHAP. 17 PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT

After meeting face-to-face, businesses use people ( the "sales force" ) to sell the product, This technique is called PERSONAL SELLING. The sellers promote the product through their attitude, appearance and specialist product knowledge. In other words, it is a promotional method in which one party (e.g: salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal relationship with another party (e.g: those involved in a purchased decision) that results in both parties obtaining value. In order to apply this technique effectively it is necessary for a company to focus on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations (sales management).

Victoria's secret personal selling is perfectly trained to offer helpful information, maintain a friendly environment and acknowledge customers. The sales personal always make sure to keep them aware of any sales promotion available in the store or online. Also, the company provide many reward and gift cards so that customers can get up to 75% discounts on any product (women wear, fragrances or any beauty product).Victoria's secret practices are not mainly relationship selling but traditional personal selling because it only sell goods and services and not really advice, assistance and counsel. For instance, in order to sell more, the company is having a couple of sales promotion going on for Spring 2015. There are $15 off $100, $25 off $150, $50 off $250 purchase, with any bra purchase online it is free shipping and returns, also there is a free secret reward card worth $10,$50, $100 or $500 with any $10 purchase plus weekly surprise and finally a free necklace by Ashiana with any $50 clothing purchase.

Because VS product is standardized, is easy to understand and it has a lot of customers geographically dispersed, it doesn't need to have a strong personal selling, otherwise Advertising and sales promotion are more important. 

Victoria's secret is known to invest a lot in advertising. Thanks to the success of their glitzy fashion show and its fashionable underwear lines, the company has been the most popular lingerie retailer on the industry. VS has raked in $4.8 billion in sales through the third quarter of last year, up nearly 5% from the same period in 2013, shares of its parent company, L.Brands have climbed over 70% over the past two years.

CHAP. 16 ADVERTISING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SALES PROMOTION

Victoria's secret is the most popular retailer of lingerie throughout the most powerful countries of the world America, UK and Canada. The reason is they mainly invest in advertising and they know how to keep good relationship marketing with their customers. Advertising is one of the most important factors in marketing in order to sell; a company should establish objectives and strategies on how to make the market aware of its products. Mostly, Victoria’s secret promotes the benefits of its products by using product advertising (pioneering advertisement).

Nowadays, Victoria's secret has become the only name that matters in lingerie. The company controls a whopping 35% of the lingerie market - a remarkable feat for a specialty retail brand. Several brands have tried to compete with the brand but no one has come close to the dominance of Victoria's secret. 

The company’s slogan is “A body for everybody”. It doesn't take genius to understand the appeal of beautiful girls parading in their underwear. But Limited Brands, the company behind Victoria's secret, has turned lingerie marketing into a fine art, or at the very least into high fashion. 

The company has a calculated strategy to for captivating the girls and women in America. The brand's formula for success against competitors is :

1.     Captivating female customers: The brand's advertising team carefully selects models they believe female customers will relate to. For example, longtime Angel Alessandra Ambrosio's image as a wife and mother helps the brand. 

2.     Uniting stores with online: The Company has been streamlining its store and online assortments to give customers what they want. For instance, bras that are promoted in stores are also displayed prominently on the website. The company has been using online data to make smart merchandising decisions in stores.  

3.     Paying attention to international market: Besides targeting in America, Canada and UK, the company entered mainland China this year, which could potentially lead to a much larger expansion. In recent years, VS has incorporated more Asian models into its catalog and annual fashion shows. 

One of their most popular ways to advertise is through the organization of Fashion shows every year with the most popular models and artists thorough the world. Victoria’s secret fashion shows is one of the most watched show in America, Canada and UK and the main factor of its leader rank over the market. Furthermore, VS is also involved in famous event like the Super Bowl. The company created super bowl ads which are released before the games, to promote its Valentine’s Day collection.

Beyond the TV, Victoria’s secret campaign includes social media outreach to millennial consumers via Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. "Social for us—particularly for our customer base—is one of the most significant pieces of our advertising strategy," Razek said. "We've got a very loyal fan base, but the models [also] have a very loyal fan base."