In the beginning
Victoria’s Secret was founded by Roy Raymond in 1977 and bought by Limited Brands in 1982. The supermodel phenomenon was just taking off and the new owners quickly saw the potential and embraced this opportunity to use models to define beauty and sell the concept to women.

The brand message
The brand represents sexy, fresh, femininity, romance, affordability, fun and accessibility. Victoria’s Secret was not trying to be a niche brand in the luxury market but rather create a product to appeal to the mass market with attitude and beauty.

Their Success at Marketing, Advertising and Branding
The branding and marketing strategy behind the success of Victoria’s Secret is due to their extensive communication campaign and extensive reach to a wide audience base. They address all of the touch points in the market. Their distribution of catalogues are sometimes greater than the newspapers with over 390 million catalogues distributed across the US fashion shows. This mass form of communication to achieve national coverage is the centerpiece of their brand awareness along with network broadcasting, traditional advertising in newspapers and magazines.

Delivering on their brand promise
Victoria’s Secret sells an image and lifestyle to help boost women’s confidence as they aspire to be like the models on the runway. Victoria’s Secret wants women to feel more appealing and they achieve this by creating a fairytale like experience to the brand. This brand image is reinforced through their fashion shows and the instore experience of pink wall paper and soft hues to promote a very feminine environment, a valet parking service and the use of their trademark pink stripped bags.

In contrast, a brand can falter quite quickly which happened to Lingerie chain Frederick’s of Hollywood which was the brand choice of many Hollywood actresses. This all came tumbling down after an ill-fated promotion of the “thong” which changed the perception of the brand forever. They also put little effort into the shop experience, so it was not suprisingly that women felt the experience of the Victoria’s Secret stores was much more uplifting and inviting.

The prediction for 2011 is for growth in sales of luxury brand products like Gucci, Burberry and Louis Vuitton. This has been forecast by Bain & Company, a consultant firm who produce an annual study on the luxury brand market. The main reason for the growth is the demand in China by the newly rich looking to promote their wealth through buying luxury products.

The strategy for growth by Versace and Max Mara is to invest heavily in marketing to the Chinese consumer. Gucci has also been successful in introducing their brand to this market by making their products accessible through the design of simple wallets and accessories. Both Gucci and Louis Vuitton have been the most successful luxury brands in China. The key to their success is understanding the tastes and habits of their new consumer.

Luxury brands had record sales in 2007, but the prediction for 2011 is for sales to outperform this record. Leather bags, jewellery, shoes and watches are forecast to see the biggest demand and growth.

The highest profile tennis players greatly influence the sales of fashion brands. They are chosen to market a brand not only for their tennis skills and performance but also for their personality, charisma and appeal to their fans. Their beauty, style, cuteness and appeal are all marketing tools that are used by brand managers.

Tennis players used to wear white, simple outfits as the whole focus was on their tennis. There used to be strict regulations and guidelines around their dress code. Now, tournaments like the Australian Open are watched not only for their tennis but also for the fashion. The outfits are colourful with new and interesting designs to create attention, inspiration and sales.

The fans connect to a player’s sense of style and personality and are highly influenced by what they’re wearing. During the Australian Open, the tennis fashion brand, Lacoste who sponsors Roddick, notices a huge increase in their product sales every time he plays a match. His fans are inspired by his look and Lacoste sells anything he wears.