Behind the Makeover at Victoria’s Secret: What You Can Learn From the Lingerie Company’s Rebrand



Victoria’s Secret may be ditching its Angels, but it’s rebrand might not need divine intervention anyway.

After years of declining sales and its proximity to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, among others, the Columbus-based lingerie giant is now starting to see the fruits of its rebranding efforts. The company has been changing its outdated marketing message to be more inclusive for women of all sizes and sexualities since its spinoff from L Brands last August.

Among other changes, last April, it announced it would sell maternity lingerie for the first time. And in June of last year, the brand launched VS Collective, where body-positive icons like tennis star Naomi Osaka and plus-size model Paloma Elsesser announced product collaborations with the brand. Last July, the company said it would display curvy mannequins in stores and expand representations on its website. It also swapped its angels with brand ambassadors including gender equality advocate and soccer player Megan Rapinoe. 

Whether customers will return in the long-run remains an open question, but losses are starting to retreat. Its total revenue declined 4.5 percent in the quarter ended April 30, which is better than the 5.2 percent decline analysts polled by Visible Alpha expected. Victoria’s Secret’s CEO Martin Waters said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week that the “brand has ‘arrested’ market share declines in the bra category after consistent periods of decline.”

While it’s still early days for Victoria’s Secret’s rebranding effort, you can already glean some insights. Here are three:

1. Just start.

It can be daunting to set aside a strategy that you’ve been executing for years, but sometimes it is necessary. “Victoria’s Secret has been selling the idea of ‘fantasy’ to consumers for years, but the brand has to let go of its outdated thought to sell ‘reality’ to the audience,” advised fashion writer Gianluca Russo in an interview with Teen Vogue last December.

2. Embrace real change.

Though Victoria’s Secret has suffered in the era of #Metoo, it is still one of the most well-known women’s brands in the United States.

The brand’s cultural influence is a product that cannot be washed away easily, notes Nadia Boujarwah, CEO of plus-size fashion marketplace Dia & Co. “Victoria’s Secret is a brand that has an undeniable place in social discourse on women and our bodies, and this ultimately means they have a huge responsibility to wield that influence thoughtfully,” she said in an interview with Teen Vogue last December. Boujarwah adds that this rebrand is “an ambitious undertaking” that might take many years to fully implement, but it’s a move that has the potential to begin real change for the brand and the industry in general.

3. Tout your progress.

Sharing every update from a company’s rebranding effort, isn’t for everyone. After all, doing so might mean displaying unsavory flaws or admitting you were wrong. Victoria’s Secret does not shy away from talking about its failures in public–and that’s a good thing.

“I’ve known that we needed to change this brand for a long time, we just haven’t had the control of the company to be able to do it,” Waters said in an interview with The New York Times last year. “Right now, I don’t see [angels] as being culturally relevant.”

What never goes out of style? Being upfront with customers. 





Credit: Source link

Discover

19,463FansLike
232,230FollowersFollow
85,783FollowersFollow
13,616FollowersFollow
2,920SubscribersSubscribe

Sponsor

spot_imgspot_img

Latest

Dolly Parton’s 2023 ACM Awards Hosting Gig Is Unhinged (& We’re Here For The Chaos)

Garth Brooks kicked off the 2023 ACM Awards by giving Parton her flowers in a monologue. He referred to her as the "G.O.A.T," the ...

Amber Heard Cannot Afford The Money She Owes Johnny Depp Due To Trial Loss

The weeks long trial of Amber Heard and ...

Kanye West Is Using Trash Bags To Market His New Line Of Apparel

The former rapper-turned-fashion designer is receiving criticism online for holding a sale for his...

On February 17th, You Can Catch Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, And Michael Douglas In Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantum Mania

The first trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released by Marvel Studios...

‘I Was Trying to Reconcile With Meri’

Meri and Kody Brown. Justin Stephens/Discovery (2) The great divide. Kody Brown revealed the moment between him and Meri Brown that almost fixed...
en English
X