Chapter 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

VS' advertising objective is to inspire sexiness, glamorous, confidence of fashion and a touch of fantasy to the costumers.

Victoria's Secret is a brand that goes further the traditional advertising, spending about $220 million a year on the catalogs sent to the 300 million of  customers reached per year. The catalogs make the products available to consumers 365 days a year, 24 hours in the 7 days of the week.

VS also advertises using social media such as Facebook [20 millions friends], Twitter and Email to inform the customers about new collections, sales and different events like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show spending around $1.56 billion in advertising a year. It has its own apps making our brand open to the consumers all the time. Nowadays, the best way to keep the communication with the costumers is by social networks because this kind of technological benefits can connect the brand with the consumers from all over the world.

The brand had use celebrities in advertising campaigns to promote the products and admiration to the audience. In those celebrities we can mention the Angels who are the supermodels of Victoria's Secret and the brand's image. The called "VS All Access" is a section located in the offcial website www.victoriassecret.com which explains more about the role of the group composed by the supermodels Adriana Lima, Miranda Merr, Alesaandra Ambrosio and others.

Another successful way to advertise the brand is by the famous Victoria's Secret Fashion Show which is a annual show of two-hour long fashion show where the magic, variety of colors and glamour take place. By this way they promote the brand and where the brand shows the "Fantasy Bra" which is the most 

expensive lingerie of the world and its cost is millions of dollars. The nation's top music performers show up on the fashion show which last year raked 9.3 million viewers.

“Our show is seen, in one way or another, in over 200 countries in print, Facebook, YouTube, and television specials,” Ed Razek, chief marketing officer, told the Business Of Fashion in 2011. “It is must-watch television for young women in the United States. They learn to walk in high heels in this show.”

Chapter 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

VS is a department store that sells a huge variety of products including apparel, electronics and cosmetics. Thus, it has a retailer channel with a exclusive distribution which means that the producer does not sells directly to consumers because they do not manufacture their products. They make it easy  for a women to find everything that she needs in  only one place. It is obvious that Victoria's Secret has had a clear mission which through the last years has proven to have effective results.

According to SRI rankings here are the top 5 retailers in 2013. Victoria's Secret ranks as the most popular apparel brand in the world:

1. Victoria’s Secret

RIS SRI Rating: 42.1

2. Walmart

RIS SRI Rating: 37.1

3. Apple

RIS SRI Rating: 32.3

4. Target

RIS SRI Rating: 25

5. Best Buy

RIS SRI Rating: 21.1

"I think the secret sauce on Victoria's Secret  is super simple: ton of marketing (online, print, and through in store deals) and consistent new product introductions (bras) that make the stores seem fresh every time the customer walks into, or by, the store," said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions.

Smart marketing made Victoria's Secret the leading American brand.

Chapter 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Victoria's Secret marketing advertising has a big culture of special strategies which have been influencing consumers for many years. When we think about about lingerie we right away think about VS. This influences can be critical when a customer is making a purchase decision making. First of all is making the customer feel the product is a need, not something they temporarily just want to satisfy their cravings. The brand's variety of products allow it to marketed for social classes, from the upper class to the lower class making everything quo and providing different benefits for each of them.

As you know, VS is a store which targets a market starting from the young trendy girls to the older more mature lady based on their size and personality. Moreover, the company has made a commitment since the beginning to provide the best shopping experience, so they won't feel dissatisfied, never regretting a purchase. All these factors have an effect in the making of the customer happy about their purchase.

Chapter 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Victoria's Secret is a multinational company with the highest quality products on the market and providing a excellent service. As a consumer those are the facts that all people around the world look for when purchasing a product. The company has a global marketing standardization, in other words selling the brand in the same way like in the United States. In 2000, VS management decided to do not expand the brand outside the United States because they wanted to keep the brand exclusively nationwide. A few years later the management changed their mind opening 23 stores in Canada some of them located in Manitoba, Nova Scotia and the province Quebec.

 The Canada native and supermodel, Candice Swanepoel, was present during the opening of the first store.

In 2012 Victoria's Secret opened 2 stores in London considering a further expansion all over UK. The company in this case adopted an external traditional environment assuming that country has a colonial infrastructure based on their culture and history. The predominant color is black but there is pink and white [To take a look inside the store on New Bond Street, London go to Chapter 4 video]

The strategy of VS continues being the same based on US promotions delivering the same message to the costumers but not the entire product is exported to the international stores and franchises. Therefore, the company give the same quality, service and responsibility based on the countries laws, traditions or customs.

International Franchises

The first store in Latin  America opened in Isla Margarita, Venezuela in June, 2010. Following a posterior amplification of those stores. Angel's Group, a Colombian company which operates with the franchise in Colombia, opened a store in Bogota in 2012. The first Caribbean store is situated in San Juan, Puerto Rico opened in November 2011. Then, VS opened two stores in my native country, the Dominican Republic, at the Agora Mall and Sambil both of them located in the Capital of the country, Santo Domingo. After Victoria's Secret expand in Latin American and the Caribbean the brand took place in Europe for the first time with the first Polish store in Warsaw opened just a day before the opening in London.

Arlenis Sosa, a Dominican fashion model and the face of the brand in the Dominican Republic.

Chapter 4 - The Marketing Environment

VS is an successful company for all age costumers with a huge variety of production, excellent marketing environment and globalizing goals. From the beginning, Victoria's Secret was classified as an "Skinny girls store" for women between 25 - 45 (Generation X) years old [In 1977 lingerie was used by wives] but everything has changed. The brand created PINK which sells lingerie for teenagers and college students (Generation Y) based on more sporty lingerie, clothes and accessories.Merchandise offering quality in every single detail and design. Nowadays you can find in just one place anything you want and need as a women; the store looks like a department store with different sections including shoes, beauty care and flagrancy.

The brand just opened the first British stores located in New Bond Street and Westfield Stratford City with the best collections like PINK, Very Sexy, Dream Angels and others. This is a big accomplishment for the growing ethnic market plan of VS. This is just an introduction to UK market and there are more expectations after this big opening. 

The design of our stores has follow the traditional designs even tough there are several stores which change the design every season, we can often see it in New York's VS. The pink glasses always take places on the infrastructure of the store  predominating the colors pink, black and white. Mostly, the entrance is dark and full of sexy pictures of the called Angels [As explained in the past post Angels are the supermodels who are the faces of Victoria's Secret] giving an dramatic impression and screens playing the Victoria's Secret Fashion Secret creating a playful oversize area. 

Victoria's Secret has excellent technological factors such as their mega important online page: www.victoriassecret.com reaching more than 390 million costumers per year, consider one of the fastest growing and profitable e-commerce destinations on the Internet. 

You can see here more VS' information: 

Basic Store Facts*
Net sales (millions)	$4,981
Comparable store sales	7%
Number of stores (U.S)	1,019
Selling square feet (U.S.)	6,153,000

*As of February 2, 2013

Chapter 3 - Ethics & Responsibility

Victoria's Secret is a brand from the company Limited Brands which provides moral, ethical and an impeccable social responsibility. We have responsibility with our customers and the environment guided by a Code based on laws and regulations. In VS the employees, managers and associate must follow the Code because our reputation is very important for the company. For this reason the Code content the following points:

- Respecting customers and associates: All customers and associates have to be treated in the same way with no inferior attitude, no bad languages and violence. The people can not be limited by color, gender, age, sexual orientation, origin or disability on a VS store and other brands from Limited Brands Company.

- Equal Opportunity: The company is prohibited to show discriminatory acts and behaviors when we are going to hire a person. By this we can obtain the free and divers environment in our stores and workplace.

- Be Honest: The employees must inform the truth about the merchandise, promotions and communicate clear info to the customers. Also, the employees can never manipulate or violate any type of records of the company which could change the data or disturb the entries.

- Accommodating Disabilities: Every Victoria's Secret store includes facilities customers and associates with disabilities. I can mentioned the elevators or other sources to help people with any disability in the store.

SAFETY AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

- Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace: All the associates need to be free of any illegal drugs or alcohol specially if you will work but always complying with the privacy laws applicable.

More on the list such as:

- International Trade 
- No Corrupt Practice
- Good External Communication