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    IMC Communications Lab #3 - Foley-1

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    hhunter530
    The document discusses Victoria's Secret's use of integrated marketing communications tactics and how their outdated brand image has contributed to declining sales. It describes how VS originally gained popularity appealing to women ages 25-35 but failed to modernize, and how comments from a former executive further damaged their reputation. While VS employs common IMC tools like advertising, social media campaigns, and influencing consumers to purchase gifts, their emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards and lack of diversity have weakened their brand equity over time. The document concludes that VS needs stronger advertising reflecting current societal values in order to rebuild their brand.

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    IMC Communications Lab #3 - Foley-1

    Uploaded by

    hhunter530
    42 views4 pages
    The document discusses Victoria's Secret's use of integrated marketing communications tactics and how their outdated brand image has contributed to declining sales. It describes how VS originally gained popularity appealing to women ages 25-35 but failed to modernize, and how comments from a former executive further damaged their reputation. While VS employs common IMC tools like advertising, social media campaigns, and influencing consumers to purchase gifts, their emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards and lack of diversity have weakened their brand equity over time. The document concludes that VS needs stronger advertising reflecting current societal values in order to rebuild their brand.

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    IMC Communications Lab #3_Foley-1 (1)

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    The document discusses Victoria's Secret's use of integrated marketing communications tactics and how their outdated brand image has contributed to declining sales. It describes how VS originally gained popularity appealing to women ages 25-35 but failed to modernize, and how comments from a former executive further damaged their reputation. While VS employs common IMC tools like advertising, social media campaigns, and influencing consumers to purchase gifts, their emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards and lack of diversity have weakened their brand equity over time. The document concludes that VS needs stronger advertising reflecting current societal values in order to rebuild their brand.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    42 views4 pages

    IMC Communications Lab #3 - Foley-1

    Uploaded by

    hhunter530
    The document discusses Victoria's Secret's use of integrated marketing communications tactics and how their outdated brand image has contributed to declining sales. It describes how VS originally gained popularity appealing to women ages 25-35 but failed to modernize, and how comments from a former executive further damaged their reputation. While VS employs common IMC tools like advertising, social media campaigns, and influencing consumers to purchase gifts, their emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards and lack of diversity have weakened their brand equity over time. The document concludes that VS needs stronger advertising reflecting current societal values in order to rebuild their brand.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Clare Foley

    February 25th, 2021

    Integrated Marketing Communication

    IMC Communications Lab #3

    Victoria’s Secret is a recognizable brand to people all across America, but especially women.

    With 1,600 stores nationwide, this store is known for lingerie, runway shows, and observing societal

    beauty norms. Victoria’s Secret (VS) first opened their doors in Palo Alto, California in 1977 with a

    mission to provide a more all-inclusive lingerie buying experience that differed from department

    stores. Present-day, VS has gained a reputation that has forced them to stay in the shadows of the

    past and close down over 250 stores. They have found themselves being criticized for not

    modernizing to current-day beauty norms and for shunning away anyone on their runway who

    doesn’t look like an “angel”.

    As a brand, VS started out strong by gaining popularity through the masses for women ages

    25-35. They offered well-made lingerie that also came with a certain aesthetic of perfection which

    could have been seen as problematic from the beginning. The start of VS’s downfall began with one

    man named Ed Razek. He was an executive for VS’s parent company, L Brand, and his public

    comments about never allowing a transgender woman on the runway and constant allegations of

    sexual harassment and assault against him made for a recipe that put VS in danger.

    VS uses informing in many different ways. Informing is defined as “advertising makes

    consumers aware of new brands, educates them about a brand’s distinct features and benefits, and

    facilitates the creation of positive brand images”(Andrews, 2018). VS does this by putting on their

    yearly fashion show and by putting ads on channels that are mostly catered to women, like TLC, E!,

    etc. VS also uses influencing as an advertising tactic. Influencing is described as “building demand
    for an entire product category”(Andrews, 2018) and can be seen within VS’s ads. An example of this

    is during the holidays’ VS puts out holiday-themed ads to influence customers to buy their products

    as gifts because “it is important for marketers to understand the drivers of behaviors directed toward

    brands”(Becerra, 2013). They usually have models dressed as holiday figures like Santa Claus and

    push the narrative that this is the perfect gift for someone special. VS participates in reminding and

    increasing salience within their ads and this is an important factor within their model. Reminding and

    increasing salience is defined as “advertising (that) keeps a company’s brand fresh in the consumer’s

    memory”(Andrews, 2018). This is done through high amounts of social media campaigns that VS

    puts out on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. They tend to clutter the lingerie space, but

    “clutter creates negative advertising effects”(Ha, 2015) in some instances.

    VS also uses the tactic of adding value to keep their brand consistent, which has been a

    problem for them. Adding value is described as something that “causes brands to be viewed as more

    elegant, more stylish, more prestigious, of higher quality, and so on.”(Andrews, 2018). This element

    is important to VS because they really emphasize their “perfect” models to make the brand appear

    more prestigious and they have not changed that value to modernize their brand. One last element

    that is important to VS is assisting other company efforts. This is the way companies use different

    tools “to facilitate other marcom efforts”(Andrews, 2018). VS achieves this by having a strong brand

    image and retail presence before they shut down stores.

    Advertising is said to be "a deposit in the brand equity bank", but only if the advertising is

    "strong" and Victoria’s Secret can struggle with this. This statement means that strong

    advertisements mean having a strong brand, but VS lacks in this department due to their brand image

    having weak spots without modernization. An ad that challenges this though is an ad that was put out

    for Pink (VS’s “younger line”). In this ad we see women supporting one another and getting their
    degrees. We also see women coding and being more relaxed in their own skin. This is a good brand

    message for VS. (Appendix A)

    Works Cited

    Andrews, C., & Shimp, T. A. (2018). Advertising, Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated

    Marketing Communication. Retrieved February 10, 2021, from

    https://ebooks.cenreader.com/#!/reader/9aaa37ce-c28f-4b45-b27f-

    92a2d7ab07a9/page/91d74226e220c70dd1403c4b4dd1a68a?search=clutter

    Louisa Ha & Kim McCann (2008) An integrated model of advertising clutter in offline and

    online media, International Journal of Advertising, 27:4, 569-592, DOI:

    10.2501/S0265048708080153

    P. Becerra, E. and Badrinarayanan, V. (2013), "The influence of brand trust and brand

    identification on brand evangelism", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 22 No. 5/6,

    pp. 371-383. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2013-0394

    Appendix A:

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