Victoria’s Secret. To succeed again, other angels are needed – Economy

Months later, especially after the pandemic, as Victoria’s Secret began to communicate more focused on body positivity, Official rebranding Here: The models who have dazzled with extravagant catwalks for years will now be replaced by the socialites who made the lingerie brand “the world’s leading advocate for women.”

Sara Sampaio and her associates are, for now, making way for Megan Rapinoe, American football player and LGBT community activist, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, actress and businesswoman, Valentina Sampaio, a Brazilian transgender model, for models Paloma Elsiser and Adut Akech, to skater Elaine Jo and journalist Amanda de Cadenet, who together form the VS Collective. This group will be responsible for creating revolutionary groups and generating support for women’s vital issues. A podcast is already being created to share stories and experiences and the Global Women’s Cancer Fund, which will finance projects aimed at research into treating diseases affecting women around the world.

These changes come on the heels of a difficult decade for Victoria’s Secret. But let’s start from the beginning.

man in shopping problem

The origin story of the American lingerie brand is very famous. A man named Roy Raymond, in the late seventies, decided to go to a lingerie store to make a gift for his wife and encountered so many difficulties in the selection process that he decided to create his own brand. He was the inspiration for Queen Victoria of England for his name and after a few years he had a chain of stores that earned $4-6 million annually. His success attracted the attention of billionaires who saw huge potential in his work, and in 1983 Raymond sold his company to Les Wexner for just $1 million. In the early ’90s, Victoria’s Secret was the largest lingerie brand in the United States, generating $1 billion in revenues a year (and worth much more) and Roy Raymond’s decision is still considered one of the worst of all time. Unfortunately, a series of other failed deals and the “big luck” he let slip ended his life in 1993, forever leaving a kind of ghost associated with his brand.

However, this did not prevent the brand from becoming an icon all over the world. She launched The Miracle Bra (The Miracle Bra), expanded into other product categories (clothing, perfumes and other cosmetics) and created probably the most popular fashion event associated with one brand – the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – where millions of people could follow and live in. , online or on TV, their supermodel “aka” Angus shows off the pieces that will be part of their next collection.

All this contributed to the fact that it gained increasing importance. Angels spread the imagination and became a decoy of products that were not only distributed in more subcategories and brands, but were also available in more and more markets. Between 2010 and 2015, 10 million people watched the famous Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and annual sales exceeded $7 billion. However, everything started to change from 2016 onwards and the brand began to lose its dominant position in the market.

• Consumer preferences are starting to change. a Sportswear (clothing that can be worn in a sporty and more formal context at the same time) is becoming the new trend and a lot of women’s disposable income has gone into this type of product rather than underwear. In addition, there has been increasing criticism that Victoria’s Secret products as they expand are losing quality.
• Fashion just got more inclusive And taking more into account not just the different body shapes, but the representation that brands have made for the LGBT community and other cultures. Victoria’s Secret, with the “perfect figure” – the standard that her models set, did not meet these values ​​and began to lose customers.
• The #MeToo movement has weakened the brand. Criticisms of the company’s toxic culture, homophobia and harassment began to surface in the mainstream media, and the link between the owner, Les Wexner, and Jeffrey Epstein, who had been arrested for multiple sexual assault offenses, exposed a company that hadn’t adapted. A new era and suffering from it.
• Fashion show, no more. After large audiences and a clear impact on sales, the Victoria’s Secret event was losing more and more fame. In 2019, the year it was last held, it drew three million people, a third of the “Golden Age” audience.

How do you go around

In practice, these factors have led to stagnant sales and a decline in profits, with the brand incurring $800 million in losses in 2019. The pandemic has left the company in a much precarious position and forced Victoria’s Secret to do so. Cucumber: Follow what women want Not what men want.

• The board of directors, previously dominated by men, is now evenly distributed by gender.
• The leadership of the company, which was accumulating criticism, was removed and replaced with someone who could lead the company in this new era. Martin Waters was selected.
• The company’s communications on its platforms now include a greater diversity of models, in contrast to the hyper-sexualized images that have characterized the brand since it began enjoying some success.
• From a more practical point of view, it closed about 250 stores around the world, which underwent a digital transformation, common to most brands in the past year, which allowed it to save costs and get more money to invest in its new image.

The announcement of VS Collective and the brand’s new faces is the culmination of this transitional period that seems to be paying off for Victoria’s Secret. In the first quarter of 2021, sales increased by 9% compared to the same period in 2019 and profits grew by 665%.

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