Photo: Victoria’s Secret
Has Victoria’s Secret become a casualty of the #MeToo movement?
According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, Victoria’s Secret’s Buzz score dropped to 23 among women aged 18-49, down from 31 in 2016. In a statement, YouGov said the lingerie chain “has found itself caught up in the #MeToo moment.”
The index measures whether consumers are hearing positive or negative things about a particular brand through news, advertising or friends and family.
The research firm noted that television ratings for the brand’s 2017 annual fashion show held on November 28 declined 30 percent year over year. The show ran about a month after allegations surfaced about movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s conduct that started the #MeToo movement.
From a product standpoint, a shift away from push-up bras to bralettes — unconstructed bras without padding or underwire — has had a detrimental impact on the chain. Competitors such as American Eagle’s Aerie chain have found a point of difference with less expensive merchandise and running advertising that features models without the use of airbrushing. Weak mall traffic has also hurt sales.
While sex appeal has long driven the intimates category, that may be changing.
Krystin Arneson wrote for Glamour, “Lingerie has traditionally carried with it the notion that it exists for the male gaze and desire: It’s not until relatively recent years that the focus has more broadly shifted into buying it and wearing it as a form of empowerment, something that’s done for oneself (whether it’s also for your partner or not).”
In an interview with The Telegraph, supermodel Karlie Kloss defended the annual Victoria Secret’s fashion show, stating, “There’s something really powerful about a woman who owns her sexuality and is in charge.”
For its part, the chain attributes its recent weakness — including an eight percent drop in comps in 2017 — to a “reset” that saw the company pull swimsuit and apparel collections, slash promotional deals and stop printing its catalog while focusing on its roots in sexy underwear.
On parent L. Brands’ fourth-quarter conference call, officials cited rebalancing its bra mix, better targeting promotions and increasing associate wages as some keys to a rebound. Jan Singer, CEO of Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, said, “We’re proud of the progress, but also recognize there’s much more for us to do, as we continue to reset this business.”
- Victoria’s Secret’s ‘sacred cow’ is ‘on the precipice of collapse’ (LB) – Business Insider
- Karlie Kloss on her beauty secrets and why ‘there’s something powerful about a woman who owns her sexuality and is in charge’ – The Telegraph
- Victoria’s Secret Falters in Failing Malls – The Street
- L Brands (LB) Q4 2017 Results – Earnings Call Transcript – Seeking Alpha
- Victoria’s Secret is struggling because women want to be comfortable – CNN
- As customers turn cold, Victoria’s Secret faces a reckoning – Glossy
- Karlie Kloss on Why the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Is Still Relevant in the #MeToo Era – Glamour
- Did #MeToo Kill the Push-Up Bra? – Hollywood Reporter
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Victoria’s Secret at this moment in time? What should management do to address them?
Poll
BrainTrust
Cathy Hotka
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
David Weinand
Chief Customer Officer, Incisiv
For many years Victoria’s Secret didn’t have to concern itself too much with the competition. They had the edge and stood out as the leaders in women’s lingerie. Today Victoria’s Secret is not only facing a lot more competitors but also dealing with differences in what their customers want. They have to do a better job of understanding what women like and don’t like and be able to market themselves aside from their competitors to once again stand out as the leaders and not be a follower. Easier said than done but with the right analysis, customer interviews and surveys, the proper marketing and merchandising, testing and re-testing they can do it. It’s up to them.
In our own research, we find that Victoria’s Secret is becoming increasingly out of touch with what consumers want and expect from a brand. Words like inauthentic and fake come up a lot more in qualitative discussions that they ever used to. Overpowering is another adjective that is used.
It’s a classic example of a brand that just hasn’t moved with the times and which has been largely unreceptive to changes in society. Meanwhile, rivals like Aerie have captured the imagination and spend of consumers. The growth of innovative brands like Adore Me and Third Love have also eroded Victoria’s Secret’s market share.
Spot on! What’s “authentic” about a glamazon super model with wings?
The age old-adage that “sex sells” is certainly under siege at this moment in time. However, Victoria’s Secret also faces an emerging threat from new competitors like Adore Me who are capitalizing on omnichannel. Younger women are looking for stylish fashion with a comfortable fit at an affordable price. Adore Me offers all of that with personal curated assortments shipped to the customer’s door.
Even the most storied brands are under siege. The past is not necessarily the best predictor of future success. Victoria’s Secret has been an icon of high-end fashion in glittering mall stores. However the best predictor of the future is what is being pinned on Pinterest and posted on Instagram.
Everything is evolving in retail now, and the foundation space is no exception. It’s reassuring that Victoria’s Secret understands that changing silhouettes and attitudes must prompt some adaptation. Their focus on their various customers should give them a good platform for the future. That said, can we talk about the fashion show?
As a guy, I feel kinda weird replying to this but we just did some work in this arena so here goes — Victoria’s Secret’s woes are less about the #MeToo movement and more about the trends around body image and “truth in advertising” (i.e. unretouched). Today’s consumer wants to own their image and there is backlash of the portrayal of the ideal female form as being a size 0 with a D cup. As noted, Aerie has done a nice job of marketing more natural and realistic looking women and as I can attest from my 18 year old daughter’s preferences, it’s working. VS would be smart to introduce a line with the more natural portrayal of women.
Having redefined and established this product category, the challenge Victoria’s Secret faces is revenue achievement. With management asking, “what are we missing out on?” There are answers such as larger sizes, cross-selling beyond the essentials and tapping into gift certificate revenue potential. Too few people visit Victoria’s Secret. Products that add more functionality without compromising style and attractiveness, increased product life and comfort, and exploring product use areas such as sports can add value to the shopper visit.
For me, it really feels like a stretch to connect Victoria’s Secret’s sales decline to the #MeToo movement.There are too many other factors at play. First, like the article says, the brand took away their popular swim line and cut down on their clothing line to focus more on athletic wear and bralettes. So that alienated a lot of longtime customers. Second, and I think more importantly, Victoria Secret is very limited in terms of sizing. There’s more competition than ever, and now other brands offer quality pieces in more sizes. As a result, VS is excluding many potential customers. There’s also the issue of outdated store interiors. As Karlie said, “There’s something really powerful about a woman who owns her sexuality and is in charge.” That still holds true. The problem is fewer and fewer people are finding that power in within the VS brand. Attributing a decline in sales to the #MeToo movement is failing to see the brand’s true problems.
I completely agree with this! The troubles at VS set in way before the #MeToo movement was even a thing!
#MeToo is part of it, but the bigger factor to me is that the “supermodel” as marketing base is just played out. We’re now on the third generation of customers that are exposed to essentially the same thing; the aspirational selling of the idea that you can be like an unrealistic looking, six-foot-tall Glamazon. Which worked incredibly well for a long time. But now, 25 years later, it’s a whole new world. That fashion show was a huge hit in 1998! The gig’s up, let’s move on to new, and not just a new “angel.”
This reminds me in a lot of ways of Abercrombie, where Jeffries could play one chord and man, that was one amazing chord that resonated for over 15 years. Then, as with any idea, time caught up to it all and the customer said, “please give me something new” and they just couldn’t get off that chord as it was the only one they were trained to play for way too long. It’s taken them five years now to dig out from that hole. Let’s hope Victoria’s Secret realizes that lesson and starts to transition to today’s zeitgeist.
The Victoria’s Secret brand needs to evolve, it’s that simple. The brand personality is stuck in a decades-old positioning that has lost relevance to the younger generation.
Lingerie = “empowerment”? Sorry, but no. (At least not that phrasing, I’m willing to accept “self satisfaction.”)
It’s an old truism that “sex sells,” but it’s an equally old one that this makes some people uncomfortable, so it’s hardly surprising that something along the lines of “#MeToo” would be perceived as having a negative effect on a business that sells “sexy” things. But how true this perception is I would question, simply by the acknowledgment that VS has been hurt by (price) competition, as it seems like the market is still there.