ABSTRACT
The research is based upon the study of “Victoria’s Secret” Brand, it describes the brand’s evolution and its product line. The research covers semiotic analysis of Victoria’s Secret in terms of the Brand Ambassador, Visual Promotion material like Print Media, Brand Logo and other Graphics used in its promotion. However, the research does not cover in depth study of: marketing strategies, history and its several Product lines.

“Buy the product, get the girl; or buy the product to get to be like the girl so you can get your man”

CONTENT TOPIC PAGE NUMBER
OBJECTIVE………………………………………………………………………… SIGNIFICANCE………………………………………………………………….. LIMITATIONS…………………………………………………………………… 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………. 2. …………………………………………………………………………………. 2.1 The history of Victoria secret……………………………………. 2.2.1 The origin…………………………………………………………………………………. 2.2.2 A brief timeline…………………………………………………………………………. 2.2 VICTORIA SECRET PRODUCTS……………………………………. 2.3 SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS 2.3.1 Ad campaign 1 2.3.2 Ad campaign 2 2.3.3 Ad campaign 3 2.3.4 Ad campaign 4 3. CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY…………………………………….

OBJECTIVES: * Introduction to Victoria’s Secret * Evolution Of the Brand * A brief on the Product line range. * Semiotic analysis in terms of : The Brand Ambassador , Visual Promotion material like Print Media , Brand Logo and other Graphics used in its promotion

SIGNIFICANCE:
Victoria’s Secret has a very strong hold on the market and it has left no stone unturned in getting to this pinnacle of success. There is so much that one can learn from this brand, its presence on the social front being one of them. The brand creates a desire, a yearning and envy among women; it inspires young entrepreneurs that nothing is impossible.

LIMITATIONS * In depth study: Marketing strategies, history and its several Product lines.

1. INTRODUCTION

Victoria's secret, founded in 1977, is an American retailer of women's clothes, especially lingerie and beauty products. It has sold $5 billion of its own products and had an income of $1 billion in 2006. Victoria's secret is also very well known for its annual fashion show, which also brings up a lot of controversy, as well as their products do. Also, they are much known for their catalogs, both of which feature top fashion models. There are about 1,058 Victoria's secrets around the world, including places like Canada, The Middle East, The Caribbean, Poland, The United Kingdom, and many more places.[1]

2.1 THE HISTORY OF VICTORIA’S SECRET

2.2.1 The Origin
Victoria's Secret was founded by Roy Raymond, and his wife Gaye, in San Francisco, California on June 12, 1977.Eight years prior to founding Victoria's Secret, Raymond had been embarrassed when purchasing lingerie for his wife at a department store. Newsweek reported him looking back on the incident from the vantage of 1981: "When I tried to buy lingerie for my wife," he recalls, "I was faced with racks of terry-cloth robes and ugly floral-print nylon nightgowns, and I always had the feeling the department-store saleswomen thought I was an unwelcome intruder."[2]
Raymond studied the lingerie market for eight years before borrowing $40,000 from his parents and $40,000 from a bank to establish Victoria's Secret:, a store where man could feel comfortable buying lingerie. The company's first store was located in Stanford Shopping Centre in Palo Alto, California.[2]

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Fig 1. Roy Larson Raymond(1947-1993). www.Findgrave.com(224*337)

2.2.2 A brief Timeline

* 1979 : Victoria’s Secret was established * 1982 : Victoria’s Secret acquired Limited * 1998:Entered into Apparel Market * 1999: Entered into Cosmetic market * 2001:Swimwear was introduced * 2004: Launched Victoria’s Secret pink collection * 2010: Launched “Incredible Bra” * 2012: VS designer Collection * 2013: Launched “Bright Young Things” Collection

3.2 VICTORIA’S SECRET PRODUCT LINE

VS is major undergarment selling brand, but now it is not limited to lingerie only. It has also entered into other markets successfully. The other products which are launched by Victoria’s secret are swimwear, fragrance, music Cds, body and bath care products, cosmetics, sportswear collection, pink collection for teens shoes and apparel.

3.3 VICTORIAS SECRET BRAND AMBASSADOR

* Every year Victoria’s secret organizes its own fashion show which is very famous and most awaited. * Every year around 40 models walk on the runway and out of that only 10 models are given the tag of Angels. * These Angels are the spokesperson of the brand and act as brand ambassadors. * Each angel has to sign a contract for three months in a year, where the angel has to deliver her commitment to the Brand. * Victoria’s Secret does not hire celebrities for their Brand advertisement or publicity. *

2.3 SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
2.3.1 Victoria’s Secret Angels Promotion Ad YEAR : 1999

www.tvacres.com (501*648)

SIGNIFIER: Wings, clouds, sheer, text, Seamless Lingerie
SIGNIFIED:
• Wings: line of bras that were very pure, seamless, sort of transparent implying the models as angels.
• Small Text: Wants to create Envy
FURTHER ELABORATION OF THE AD CAMPAIGN : The Angels campaign was fairly straight forward. Barely dress-up a bunch of hot supermodels with fanciful angel wings and have them cavort down a catwalk clad in seductively-styled lingerie. According to supermodel Stephanie Seymour, "The angels are basically a concept that came from a line of bras that were very pure, very seamless, very...sort of transparent."
The Angels debuted on a live 15-minute Valentine's day "webcast" of the 4th annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show that broadcast from the expensive Cipriani Wall Street restaurant on Wednesday at 7:00 pm EST, February 3rd, 1999.
The program promised "An Evening of Fantasy and Myth," the music of Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, and a bevy of lovely supermodels who walked through a mythical landscape wearing angelic wings. The show ended with a spectacle of flying angels
This cybercast (believed to be the largest streaming video broadcast up to that time) was the world's first virtual fashion show and it nearly brought internet servers to a crashing halt

REFERENCES http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_angels2.htm http://blogs.ubc.ca/catsarecool/2013/09/23/victorias-secret-i-love-my-body-campaign-not-so-loving/ http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/542582/kate-moss-flashback-remember-this.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2500489/Karlie-Kloss-reveals-Victorias-Secret-Fashion-Show-outfit.html http://www.layoutsparks.com/pictures/victorias-0 http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/victorias-secret-angels-a-historical-approach.html

as over 1 and half million people logged on to watch the glamorous event that was configured to handle only 500,000 visitors.
The popularity of the Victoria's Secret Angels theme inspired "Dream Angels," a Victoria's Secret product line for cosmetics, perfume, lotions that featured images of pure and innocent female angels naked but for their white feathered wings. "[3]

2.3.2 “Love My Body” Campaign, Year: 2010

News.instyle.com-(623*400)
Victoria's Secret Launches 'I Love My Body' Campaign

SIGNIFIED: The body types (impossibly thin), gorgeous and appealing women, nude and black colour lingerie.
SIGNIFIED (According to the Campaign): Women will look like these models if they wear their products.
FURTHER ELABORATION OF THE AD CAMPAIGN:
The models all look very similar, with same hairstyles, same body figures, same facial expressions. By using these so called perfect models, with the slogan, gives off message. These models love their bodies, whereas if an average woman compares her body with these models, she wouldn’t be able to find a reason why she should love hers.
Victoria’s secret was criticized for using artificially maintained models to portray the idea of so despite of all criticisms why does Victoria’s secret choose to continue promoting their slender models? It’s simply because it sells. It is visually enticing. The company stands in its place as number one lingerie store in the world due to their sexy image. As much as consumers are upset at their ideal body figure, Victoria secret knows that if they used average women as their models, they would not earn nearly as much money as they do now. At the end, the campaign doesn’t seem to celebrate the diversity in women’s body figures, its just showing off their sexy models as well as their newly launched lingerie collection
2.3.3 VICTORIA’S SECRET lingerie Ad year: 2012

themediaiswatching.blogspot.com (1200 × 1553)

SIGNIFIER : * Red Bra , Small Text “Dress Your Boyfriend’s Floor”, * Positioning of hands, * The red background
SIGNIFIED:
* Hands and text : like the woman's about to drop the bra implying that the woman should strive to please her man. * Light red : joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love * Pink :romance, love, and friendship * Dark red : colour that prompts a quick response vigour, willpower, rage..

FURTHER ELABORATION OF THE AD CAMPAIGN:
The first thing one sees is the red bra. After that one notices the largest text, the logo "Victoria's Secret", then the smaller texts: "Dress your boyfriend's floor" and the last thing one sees is the hand of the woman that's holding up the bra. So clearly it's an ad for lingerie by Victoria's Secrets. The statement, "dresses your boyfriend’s floor": If one looks at the hand holding the bra, one will notice that it looks like the woman's about to drop the bra. The statement has many subliminal meanings/messages incorporated into it. There could be several meanings hidden in that statement.
So, one thing that the ad is implying is that the main reason for bras is to 'dress your boyfriend's floor' in it. The lingerie is not for the woman, but rather for the man which goes to show the sexism that's prevalent in our society.
Also, the bra that's used in the ad is red. The color red is often associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power. Often times its used as an accent color to stimulate people to make a quick decision. In ads, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings.

2.3.4 INTERPELLATING MEN/WOMEN Ad campaign

Fig.1
Fig.2 Fig.3

SIGNIFIER:
Overt Sexuality, special effects, “Manly” visuals , Transformer Effect(Michael Bay), Color Black.
SIGNIFIED:
Three planes: A stereotypical manly object , to catch male attention.
Direct eye contact with the viewer: Model is interpellating her male viewers. the female may have the opportunity to become jealous, encouraging her to strive to become like the model in order to attract men.
In front of an explosion: Have no fear in their eyes—only determination, feminine stances as if to intimidate the male viewer.

Black Lingerie : Sensual Effect
When observing any of the images from advertisements featured on the Victoria's Secret website or in magazines, the overt sexuality is most likely one of the first things that a viewer would notice. It is practically as if the model is selling herself rather than the lingerie that she is wearing. By positioning herself in sexual positions and showing off her female assets, a Victoria's Secret model is simply perpetuating stereotypes associated with the ideas of women in society and contributing to the male gaze. This male gaze allows viewers to objectify the women in the lingerie, while other viewers might identify with her more than objectify her. However, by allowing room for the male gaze to be present, Victoria's Secret advertisements interpellate men and show them what kind of women they should desire and fantasize about. In line with this male gaze, women are encouraged to want what men want. By viewing the Victoria's Secret model in a way that is tailored toward the view of a man, women begin to identify themselves with the model and strive to achieve her standard of beauty. By claiming that Victoria's Secret advertisements set the bar for female attractiveness, it must be said that women, in turn, want to attain this standard in order to please men. In this way, Victoria's Secret not only interpellates men in a fetishistic scopophilia manner, but also women in an identifiable fashion, which then persuades the female audience to purchase Victoria's Secret's products.
Victoria's Secret has a famous line of commercials by a Director Michael Bay, who specializes in special effects and other "manly" visuals.
In order to fully analyze how these commercials interpellate men into the world of Victoria's Secret, one must focus on some of the still shots. For example, this photo of three Victoria's Secret models in (Fig.1) lingerie posing in front of three planes, a stereotypical manly object. It is not an everyday occurrence to see three thin models in lingerie and high heels walking in front of planes at the airport, but Bay included this image in the commercial in order to catch male attention. The camera is angled upward, giving the male viewer the ability to observe the entirety of the models' bodies while still being able to view the planes in the background; it is a fantasy-come-true for many men. The models are also in dark lingerie to mirror the colors of

3. CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY
• The ad campaigns have been very catchy, Victoria’s secret has definitely managed to grab people’s attention and there is always a pinch of controversy associated with mostly each of its campaigns.
• Controversy apart, VS has successfully managed to make its mark in international market, create a mass appeal and achieve loyal clients for its Brand. This also means that VS has undoubtedly a very strong Marketing Strategy.

Subject : Language Of Fashion
End Term Submission (Semester 1)
Submitted By : Dhara Ghadhvi Megha Modi PGDS 2013-15