Company Orientation Towards the Marketplace

Victoria’s Secret. It’s probably not the company name you were expecting to read about when you picked up this paper. While it may not come right out and scream “something for everyone” it really does appeal to almost all. Women love the lingerie, beauty products and other apparel. Teenage girls are drawn to the trendy PINK line. While men will begrudgingly walk into a store with their significant other or make an extremely quick trip in for a gift card at Christmas, they’ll be the first to check out the wife’s catalog when it arrives in the mail.

When I first started thinking about using Victoria’s Secret as an example, I was sure I was going to be writing about how they fall into the marketing concept. The television ads with beauty queens, catalogs, online store and annual runway show all screamed write about how they market to attract customers. As I re-read the chapter though, one line grabbed my attention. “The job is to not find the right customers for your products, but the right products for your customers”. In Victoria’s Secret, products they have aplenty.

I’ve had a long-term relationship with Victoria’s Secret. I remember as a little girl going into the English boudoir style stores with my mom on shopping trips. I flipped through the catalog when it arrived in the mail thinking supermodels like Helena Christensen were the most beautiful women on the planet and who I wanted to be like when I grew up (clearly, that didn’t happen when I maxed out at 5’4”). When I was in college, I worked part-time during Christmas seasons when they started moving from the dark boudoir style into the sleek black and white stores with accents of pink. As an adult, I help keep them in business buying anything from PJs and sweaters to perfumes and makeup.

While women make up the majority of the consumer base for Victoria’s Secret today, what most don’t know is the original targeted customers were men. Founder Roy Raymond felt uncomfortable trying to buy his wife a gift in department store and found all the options were just too plain. After researching the industry, he and his wife started the first store in 1977. The original concept selling in stores and through catalogs directly to men nearly bankrupt the company. In the 80s the company was purchased by Limited Brands Inc. (same owners of The Limited Stores and Bath and Bodyworks) and the concept was changed, the target customer now women and took the sale of ladies’ undergarments into the mainstream.

Since that day, Victoria’s Secret has become best known for their selling of ladies’ undergarments. With their popular brands such as Angels and Body by Victoria, a girl can find what she needs for under casual clothes, work attire or even her wedding gown. When one walks into a store they are surrounded by every color, shape and style you can think of. While that was the primary product line up, over the years they’ve expanded to include other options to help women feel beautiful and secure about themselves.

In the summers a full line up of swimsuits adorns the walls for beach vacations and in the winters flannel PJs with optional matching slippers. The catalog carriers everything available in stores and includes a full clothing selection including dresses, work suits, jeans, sweaters, t-shifts, shoes and boots.

In recent years they have expanded their products to attract younger females into the stores with their PINK line. Started in 2002, the new brand within a brand brings more loungewear and sleepwear into the product line. They’ve also paired with collegiate and professional sports teams so one can now buy PINK Husker t-shirts, PINK Dallas Cowboys yoga pants or PINK Kansas City Royals hoodies. The brand has become so popular that some malls now even have two stores for Victoria’s Secret with one devoted to nothing but PINK apparel.

Their product selection no longer stops with clothing and undergarments. A wide variety of fragrances are available to be smelled and sprayed. With original scents like Very Sexy and Love Is Heavenly for the more mature shopper to PINK Fresh & Clean or PINK Total Flirt (two popular requests from teenage nieces at Christmas each year) for the younger crowds. These scents don’t just come in perfume bottles but can also be found in body mists, lotions, creams, full and travel size. Their beauty department also now includes a full variety of make up as well with tips and tricks available to get the smoky eye look worn by the Angels on runways and in the catalog.

Victoria’s Secret products have dominated the market for many years and preferred to others on the market. While not the cheapest available on the market (a brassiere runs anywhere from $38-$60 with matching undies starting about $10) Their undergarments and apparel are well-made. They will stand the trip through a washing machine more than once without falling apart compared to some unknown Brand X from the local warehouse store. They have a variety of sizes and selection over 1,000 stores worldwide. Sales associates are knowledgeable to help find the perfect fit of a garment and if it what you need and/or want isn’t available in store, it can be found in catalog, online or now with the mobile app.

While Victoria’s Secret can fall into more than one ‘bucket’ of company orientations, they ultimately do fall into the product concept. They provide a wide variety of products that not only fulfill a basic need for clothing and undergarments, but do so in a way that is supported with design, variety of sizes and colors, and solid company history showing Victoria’s Secret it the best at what they make and sell. Walking out of the store or making an online purchase a woman is left with the feeling that they didn’t just buy a product that is basic but a product that will make them feel special.