Victoria's Secret
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Apparel |
| Founded | Stanford Shopping Center, San Francisco, California, U.S. (June 12, 1977)[1] |
| Founder | Roy Raymond |
| Headquarters | Three Limited Parkway,Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
Number of locations
| 1,017 company-owned stores 18 independently owned stores[2] |
Area served
| United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, China and Israel |
Key people
| Lori Greeley (CEO of Victoria's Secret Stores)[3] Sharen Jester Turney (CEO and President of Victoria's Secret Megabrand and Intimate Apparel) |
| Products | Underwear, women's clothing, lingerie, swimwear, footwear, fragrances and beauty products |
| Parent | L Brands |
| Website | VictoriasSecret.com |
Victoria's Secret is the largest American retailer of lingerie and was founded by Roy Raymond in 1977.[1][4][5] 2012 sales were $6.12 billion.[6] The company sells lingerie, womenswear, and beauty products through its catalogs (sending out 375 million a year), website, and its U.S. stores. Victoria's Secret is wholly owned by publicly traded L Brands company.[7]
History[edit]
1977: Founding[edit]
Victoria's Secret was founded by Tufts University and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Roy Raymond, and his wife Gaye,[8] in San Francisco, California, on June 12, 1977.[4][9]
Eight years prior to founding Victoria's Secret, Raymond was 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."[10]
During the 1970s and 1980s, most women in America purchased "dowdy", "pragmatic", "foundation garments" by Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Jockey in packs of three from department stores and saved "fancier items" for "special occasions" like honeymoons.[11] "Lacy thongs and padded push-up bras" were niche products during this period found "alongside feathered boas and provocative pirate costumes at Frederick's of Hollywood" outside of the main stream product offerings available at department stores.[11]
Raymond studied the lingerie market for eight years[12] before borrowing $40,000 from his parents and $40,000 from a bank to establish Victoria's Secret: a store in which men could feel comfortable buying lingerie.[9][13] The company's first store was located in Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California.[14][15]
1977–1980: The early years[edit]
Victoria's Secret grossed $500,000 in its first year of business,[15] enough to finance the expansion from a headquarters and warehouse to four new store locations[16] and a mail-order operation.[9]
By 1980, Raymond had added two more San Francisco stores at 2246 Union Street and 115 Wisconsin Street.
By 1982, the fourth store (still in the San Francisco area) was added at 395 Sutter Street.[17] Victoria's Secret stayed at that 395 Sutter Street location until 1991, when it moved to the larger Powell Street frontage of the Westin St. Francis.[18]
In April 1982, Raymond sent out his 12th catalogue; each catalogue cost $3 (equivalent to $7.33 in 2015).[17] Catalogue sales now accounted for 55% of the company's $7 million annual sales.[17]
The Victoria's Secret stores at this time were "a niche player" in the underwear market. The business was described as "more burlesque than Main Street."[19]
1982: Sale to The Limited[edit]
Raymond's philosophy of focusing on selling lingerie to male customers became increasingly unprofitable and Victoria's Secret headed for bankruptcy.[11]
In 1982, it had grown to six stores, a 42-page catalogue, and was grossing $6 million annually. Raymond sold Victoria's Secret Inc. to Leslie Wexner, creator of Limited Stores Incof Columbus, Ohio, for $1 million.[9][20][21] (Though the figure was not disclosed until later.)[20]
1983: Strategy change[edit]
In 1983, Leslie Wexner revamped Victoria's Secret. He discarded the money-losing model of selling lingerie to male customers and replaced it with one that focused on women.[22] Victoria's Secret transformed from "more burlesque than Main Street" to a mainstay that sold broadly accepted underwear. The "new colors, patterns and styles that promised sexiness packaged in a tasteful, glamorous way and with the snob appeal of European luxury" were supposed to appeal to and appease female buyers.[22] To further this image, the Victoria's Secret catalog continued the practice that Raymond began:[23] listing the company's headquarters on catalogs at a fake London address, with the real headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.[22] The stores were redesigned to evoke 19th century England.
In 1986, four years after the sale, The New York Times commented, "in an industry where mark-downs have been the norm, the new emphasis is on style and service".[26] The lingerie business was changing fast.
1983–1990: Expansion into malls[edit]
In the five years after the purchase, The Limited had transformed a three store boutique into a 346 store retailer.[23][contradiction]
Howard Gross took over as president, from his position as vice-president, in 1985.[27]
In October that year, the Los Angeles Times reported that Victoria's Secret was stealing market share from department stores;[28] in 1986, Victoria's Secret was the only national chain of lingerie stores.[26]
The New York Times reported on Victoria's Secret's rapid expansion from four stores in 1982 to 100 in 1986; and analysts's expectations that it could expand to 400 by 1988.[26][29]
In 1987, Victoria's Secret was reportedly among the "best-selling catalogs".[30] In 1990 analysts estimated that sales had quadrupled to $120 in four years, making it one of the fastest growing mail-order businesses.[31]
The New York Times described it as a "highly visible leader", saying it used "unabashedly sexy high-fashion photography to sell middle-priced underwear."[32]
Victoria's Secret also released their own line of fragrances in 1991.[33]
1990–1993: Persistent quality problems[edit]
By the early 1990s, Victoria's Secret faced a gap in management that led to the "once hot lingerie chain" to be "plagued by persistent quality problems".[34][35] Howard Gross, who had grown the company into a "lingerie empire"[36] since Wexner's 1982 purchase, was moved to poorly performing L Brands subsidiary Limited Stores.[34] Business Week reported that "both divisions have suffered".[34]
1993–1999: Nichols resolves quality problems[edit]
Grace Nichols, who was President and CEO at that time,[37] worked to resolve the quality problems;[36] their margins tightened resulting slower growth in profits[34]
Victoria's Secret introduced the Miracle Bra selling two million within the first year; but faced competition from Sara Lee's WonderBra a year later. The company responded to their rival with a TV campaign.[38]
By 1998, Victoria's Secret's market share of the intimate apparel market was 14 percent.[39] That year Victoria's Secret also entered the $3.5 billion cosmetic market.[40]
In 1999, the company aimed to increase its coverage with Body by Victoria.[41]
Early 2000s: Decelerating growth leads to brand overhaul[edit]
In May 2000, Wexner installed Sharen Jester Turney, previously of Neiman Marcus Direct, as the new chief executive of Victoria's Secret Direct to turn around catalog sales that were lagging behind other divisions.[42][43] Forbes reported Turney articulating, as she flipped through a Victoria's Secret catalog, "We need to quit focusing on all that cleavage."[42]
In 2000, Turney began to redefine Victoria's Secret catalog from "breasts—spilling over the tops of black, purple and reptile-print underthings" to one that would appeal to an "upscale customer who now feels more comfortable buying La Perla or Wolford lingerie.";[42] "dimming the hooker looks" such as "tight jeans and stilettos"; and moving from "a substitute for Playboy in some dorm rooms," to something closer to a Vogue lifestyle layout, where lingerie, sleepwear, clothes and cosmetics appear throughout the catalog.[42]
Beginning in 2000, Grace Nichols, CEO of Victoria's Secret Direct, led a similar change at Victoria's Secret's stores - moving away from an evocation of 1800s England (or a Victorian bordello).[42]
2006–2008: Growth[edit]
By 2006, Victoria's Secret's 1,000 stores across the United States accounted for one third of all purchases in the intimate apparel industry.[44]
In May 2006, Wexner promoted Sharen Jester Turney from the Victoria's Secret catalog and online units to lead the whole company.[19] In 2008, she acknowledged "product quality that doesn't equal the brand's hype".[45]
In September 2006, Victoria's Secret reportedly tried to make their catalog feel more like magazines by head-hunting writers from Women's Wear Daily.[46]
Products and marketing[edit]
In the early 1980s, Victoria's Secret used FCB/Leber Katz Partners for the development of their brand, marketing, and advertising.[47]
In 1989, FCB/Leber Katz Partners and Victoria's Secret executed a national advertising campaign featuring for the first time in the company history a ten page glossy insert that appeared in the November issues of Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Victoria, House Beautiful, Bon Appetit, New Woman, and People magazines.[48] Victoria's Secret used the insert to announced their expansion into the toiletries and fragrance business.[48] Up through to the ten page insert, Victoria's Secret growth had been driven by their catalog, sporadic ads in fashion publications, and word of mouth.[48]
Current products[edit]
Pink[edit]
In 2002, swimwear was introduced and available via the web site and catalog; in the last three years, the swimwear has become more readily available in stores.[49]wimwear[edit]
Music CDs[edit]
With five CDs featuring romantic classical music that have sold more than one million copies each, Victoria's Secret in 1991 hired the London Symphony Orchestra to record a CD.[50]
Recent product history[edit]
In 2010, Victoria's Secret launched the Incredible bra.[51]
In 2012, Victoria's Secret launched the The Victoria's Secret Designer Collection described by Vogue as the company's "first high end lingerie line."[52]
Marketing[edit]
over the course of Victoria's Secret's evolution, the company "has gone from being value-driven to creating a luxury-shopping experience and an aura of fashion associated with its product" which has been driven by marketing.[53]
The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is an annual "elaborate marketing tool for Limited Brands".[54] The show is a mix of "beautiful models scantily clad in lingerie" and A-list entertainers "And every year, it becomes less about fashion and more about show".[54]
The company gained notoriety in the early 1990s after it began to use supermodels in its advertising and fashion shows. Throughout the 2000s, Victoria's Secret has turned down celebrity models and endorsements.[55]
In 1999, Victoria's Secret's 30 second Super Bowl advertisement led to one million visits to the company's website within an hour of airing.[56]
In 2004, Victoria's Secret featured Bob Dylan in an advertisement to test new marketing possibilities while Victoria's Secret dropped their fashion show for 2004 as a result of the fallout from the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl incident that caused complaints from women's groups.[57][58][59]
The brand turned to social networking in 2009, opening an official Facebook page and later on official Twitter and Pinterest accounts. It also expanded its website to feature behind-the-scenes content about its catalog and commercial shoots, as well as its fashion show.
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show[edit]
Main article: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
Beginning in 1995, Victoria's Secret began holding their annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is broadcast on primetime American television.[60] Starting with the 1995 fashion show they are "a combination of self-assured strutting for women and voyeuristic pleasures for men—and lingerie becomes mainstream entertainment."[61]
Ken Weil, vice president at Victoria's Secret, and Tim Plzak, responsible for IT at Victoria's Secret's parent company Intimate Brands, led Victoria's Secret's first ever online streaming of their fashion show in 1999.[62] The 18 minutes webcast streamed February 2, 1999, was at the time the Internet's "biggest event" since inception.[62] The 1999 webcast was reported as a failure by a number of newspapers on account of some user's inability to watch the show featuring Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, and Stephanie Seymour[63] as a result of Victoria's Secret's technology falling short being able to meet the online user demand resulting in network congestion and users who could see the webcast receiving jerky frames.[62] In all, the company's website saw over 1.5 million visits while the Broadcast.com's computer's were designed to handle between 250,000 and 500,000 simultaneous viewers.[64] In total, 1.5 million viewers either attempted or viewed the webcast.[65]
The 1999 webcast served to create a database for Victoria's Secret of over 500,000 current and potential customers by requiring users to submit their contact details to view the webcast.[62] The next spring Victoria's Secret avoided technical issues by partnering with Broadcast.com, America Online and Microsoft.[62] The 2000 webcast attracted more than two million viewers.[43]
By 2011, the budget for the fashion show was $12 million up from the first show's budget of $120,000.[66]
Victoria's Secret Angels[edit]
Angels is one of Victoria's Secret's lingerie lines, which was launched in 1997, with a commercial featuring Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, Stephanie Seymour, and Tyra Banks as well as rock star Tom Jones.,[67][68] The commercial was a major success and the Angels began to be featured in various commercials, alongside other contract models for the brand such as Yasmeen Ghauri,[69] Inés Rivero[70] and Laetitia Casta.[71] In February 1998, the Angels made their runway debut at Victoria's Secret's 4th annual fashion show, with Chandra North filling in for Christensen.[72]
Seymour, Mulder, Pestova, Banks, Casta and Heidi Klum were all featured in both of Victoria's Secret webcast and took part in the promotion as the brand's contract models.[73]Starting in 2001, the show has been televised and usually features the year's Angel line-up at the start of the show, starting with Pestova, Banks, Klum and Gisele Bundchen[nb 1]. In 2004 due the Super Bowl controversy, instead of a televised show, Victoria's Secret sent its five contract models (Banks, Klum, Bundchen, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio) on a tour called Angels Across America, as by then, the word had become synonymous with Victoria's Secret spokesmodels.[74] The last original Angel, Tyra Banks, departed the following year, as Karolina Kurkova, Selita Ebanks and Izabel Goulart were hired.[75]
Among other recognitions, the Victoria's Secret Angels were chosen to be part of People magazine's annual "100 Most Beautiful People in the World" issue in 2007[76] and became the first trademark awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 13, 2007, with Klum, Lima, Ambrosio, Kurkova, Goulart, Ebanks, Marisa Miller andMiranda Kerr at hand.[77] Alongside Doutzen Kroes, they also took part in the grand reopening of the Fontainebleau in Miami in 2008.[78] In 2009, it was widely reported thatCandice Swanepoel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Chanel Iman, Emanuela de Paula and Lindsay Ellingson had been hired by the brand.[79] However, De Paula was absent from the fashion show and Erin Heatherton was credited in her place, alongside the Angels (Klum, Ambrosio, Kerr, Miller, Kroes and Behati Prinsloo, with Lima being on maternity leave).[80] The brand also held a nationwide competition to hire a new "runway Angel" (as are dubbed all the models who walk in the show), Kylie Bisutti was crowned as the winner but soon parted ways with the brand.[81] Various tours have been held featuring the Angels, such as the Bombshell Tour in 2010 (featuring Lima, Swanepoel and new recruit Lily Aldridge), a VSX tour in 2013 (featuring Swanepoel, Ambrosio, Ellingson and Aldridge) and a Swim Tour in 2013 (featuring Swanepoel, Ellingson and Heatherton). The Angels have been heavily featured on the brand's social media, including on a short-lived Facebook application in 2013-2014 highlighting the Angels (then including Lima, Ambrosio, Kerr, Kroes, Prinsloo, Swanepoel, Heatherton, Ellingson, Aldridge and Karlie Kloss) as well as Lais Ribeiro, Toni Garrn and Barbara Palvin.[82]
The brand currently lists 8 supermodels on its website: Lima, Ambrosio, Kroes, Prinsloo, Swanepoel, Ellingson, Aldridge and Kloss.[83] However, Ellingson and the brand have parted ways,[84] while Kroes indicated that she will probably not renew her contract.[85] The newest addition to the ranks is slated to be current PINK spokesmodel Elsa Hosk.[86]
In 2015, the Angels (minus Kloss) as well as models Elsa Hosk, Joan Smalls, Lais Ribeiro, Martha Hunt, Jasmine Tookes, Stella Maxwell and Jac Jagaciak will be featured on the brand's first ever Swim Special.
Other notable spokesmodels for the brand have included: Claudia Schiffer,[87] Eva Herzigová,[72] Oluchi Onweagba,[88] Jessica Stam,[89] Ana Beatriz Barros,[90] as well as a handful of celebrities such as Taylor Momsen.[91]
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