El Secreto de Victoria

Victoria's Secret is an American company that designs lingerie and other women's beauty products. The company is known for its high visibility marketing and branding, beginning with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. featuring supermodels nicknamed "angels". As the largest lingerie retailer in the United States, the brand has struggled since 2016 due to changing consumer preferences, and controversy continues surrounding the business practices of its corporate leadership.

The company was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Roy Raymond and the first five stores were sold in 1982 to Leslie Wexner ("The Limited Inc."). Wexner quickly expanded it into malls across the United States, causing the company to soon have 350 stores across the United States and reaching sales of up to $1 billion in the early 1990s when Victoria's Secret became the largest lingerie seller in the United States.

From 1995 to 2018, the Victoria's Secret show fashion was an essential part of building the brand's image. This annual runway show featured models the company promoted as 'fantasy angels'. During the 1990s the company expanded further into shopping malls in conjunction with the introduction of the miracle bra, the new brand Body by Victoria, and the development of a line of fragrances and cosmetics. In 2002 Victoria's Secret announced the launch of PINK, a youth-oriented brand. Starting in early 2008, Victoria's Secret expanded internationally, with stores in international airports, franchises in major cities outside the United States, and in company-owned stores in Canada and the United Kingdom.

By 2016, Victoria's Secret's market share began to decline, coinciding with increasing consumer preference for sportswear. The company discontinued distribution of its famous catalog in 2016. The brand was struggling to maintain its position in the market after criticism and controversy over inappropriate business behaviors and practices by its corporate leaders under the leadership of Wexner and Ed Razek. As of May 2020, with more than 1,070 stores, Victoria& #39;s Secret remained the largest lingerie retailer in the United States. Parent company L Brands announced plans to close 250 Victoria's Secret and Pink stores in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Marketing

Presentation of Victoria's Secret merchandise with display of Angel wings in a shop in Las Vegas, Nevada, 2006

The mail order catalog was the first form of merchandising used by the company in the 1970s. Early editions of the catalog featured models dressed in red lingerie holding violins and a glass of liquor. it shifted towards the use of female models accompanied by men for several years in the 1980s, a practice that was finally abandoned in 1991.

In the early 1980s, Victoria's Secret retained the services of FCB/Leber Katz Partners to develop its branding, marketing and advertising.

In 1989, FCB/Leber Katz Partners and Victoria's Secret ran a national advertising campaign in the United States with a ten-page glossy insert in the November issue of Elle magazines , Vogue, Vanity Fair, Victoria, House Beautiful, Bon Appetit, New Woman, and People. Victoria's Secret used the insert mode to announce expansion into the cosmetics and perfume business. the inserts, the company's growth was realized through its catalogue, sporadic advertisements in fashion magazines, and by word of mouth.

Edward Razek joined internal brand management operations at Limited in the 1980s and progressively shaped the marketing and management of the Victoria's Secret brand. However, Razek credited Wexner as the creative force behind much of the marketing effort. The company rose to prominence in the early 1990s after it began casting supermodels for its advertisements and fashion shows. Models hired in the early 1990s included Stephanie Seymour, Karen Mulder, Yasmeen Ghauri, and Jill Goodacre. Models helped the brand build an audience and soon appeared in television commercials.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, was a great marketing tool used by L Brands from 1995 to 2018. The show was a mix of "barely beautiful models covered with lingerie" and a list of musicians and show people who over time became "less of a fashion presentation and more of a show".

In 1999, a 30-second Super Bowl ad produced one million hits on the company's website within an hour of airing.

Victoria's Secret sued a store in an Elizabethtown, Kentucky strip mall called Victor's Little Secret over the issue of brand dilution. In March 2003, the Supreme Court The United States Court of Justice ruled against Victoria's Secret in the case Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc., since it considered that there was insufficient evidence that concrete damage had been done to the brand.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Kelly Gale at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, 2014

The first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was held in 1995 and aired on prime time US television. The fashion show, overseen by Ed Razek, was described by Newsweek as "a combination of self-assured swagger for the women and voyeuristic pleasure for the men" that turned lingerie into mainstream entertainment.

Victoria's Secret Vice President Ken Weil and Tim Plzak, IT Manager at Victoria's Secret's parent company, Intimate Brands, led Victoria's Secret's first online broadcast of her fashion show in 1999. The 18-minute webcast broadcast on February 2, 1999 was at the time the "biggest event" of the Internet from its inception. The 1999 webcast was reported as a failure by several newspapers due to the inability of some users to view the show featuring Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and Stephanie Seymour as a result of Victoria's Secret technology failing to meet the requirements. requirements. High demand from online users caused network congestion and users who were able to watch the webcast received choppy signal. In total, the company's website received more than 1.5 million hits, while Broadcast.com's computers were designed to handle between 250,000 and 500,000 concurrent viewers. In total, 1.5 million viewers attempted or viewed the webcast.

The 2018 show was the last, and was held in New York City. The parade was opened by Taylor Hill. Swedish model Elsa Hosk was chosen to wear the $1 million Dream Angel Fantasy Bra and Dutch Romee Strijd was chosen to wear the Shoting Star Swarovski Outfit. There were presentations by Leela James, The Chainsmokers, Kelsea Ballerini, Halsey, Shawn Mendes, Rita Ora and The Struts. In the middle of 2019, Victoria's Secret, faced with various difficulties, announced that it had decided to cancel the holding of new fashion shows.

The Fantasy Bra

Each year the brand creates a bra called Fantasy Bra, set with precious stones. It was presented in the brand's Christmas catalog in 1996, but since 2001 it has been worn by one of the angels of the house during the show, except in 2004. The only Fantasy Bra that was worn for sale was the one from 1996, for 1 million dollars. The one from the year 2000 reached the Guinness Record as the most expensive undergarment in the world. It was valued at $15 million and was worn by Gisele Bundchen.

The Swarovski Outfit

Although Victoria's Secret had been working with Swarovski for several years, it was only in 2011 that a special garment adorned with crystals from the prestigious jewelry store was introduced to its fashion shows, and it has been done until today. After the Fantasy Bra, the Swarovski Outfit ("Swarovsky Garment") is considered one of the most expensive pieces in the show and can be worn by an official angel of the brand or any other model that works for it.

The Swarovski Wings

Like Swarovski Outfit, since 2011 the brand has created the so-called Swarovski Wings ("Swarovski Wings"). Every year a model is chosen that may or may not be an official angel to wear them, Alessandra Ambrosio is the only one who has used them three times.

Victoria's Secret Angels

Though the "Angels" are the brand's most visible spokespersons today, they started out as a Victoria's Secret lingerie line. The models included in the original 1997 campaign were: Karen Mulder, Helena Christensen, Daniela Peštová, Stephanie Seymour and Tyra Banks. Due to their increasing popularity, the company used them in different advertising campaigns until the departure of Helena Christensen.

In February 1998, the Angels made their runway debut at the 4th annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, with Chandra North standing in for Helena Christensen. The models that make up the group of Angels have changed several times since then. Other representatives of the brand have been Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigová, Ana Hickmann, Naomi Campbell, Oluchi Onweagba, Jessica Stam, Isabeli Fontana, Toni Garrn, Bregje Heinen, Kelly Gale, Barbara Fialho and Irina Shayk, among others.

For the year 2018, the brand officially launched Sui He and Ming Xi as official spokespersons for the brand in China.

Pink

Founded in 2004, the Pink sub-brand sells lingerie, pajamas, beauty products and accessories geared toward teen customers. Ambrosio, Kerr, Prinsloo and Hosk have been the official image of Pink. The first model to appear in a show in the Club Pink section was Canadian supermodel Jessica Stam. Other models summoned at brand events have been Erin Heatherton, Chanel Iman, Elsa Hosk, Jessica Hart and Sara Sampaio. The promotion of the line includes events such as university tours and agreements with the music channel MTV and social networks. In 2011 the line announced a partnership with all 32 NFL teams and began selling apparel containing NFL team names and logos. Grace Elizabeth became the brand's official spokesperson in late 2016, replacing Rachel Hilbert.

PINK's Main Spokespersons

Nationality	Name	Contract
Brazil	Alessandra Ambrosio	2004–2006
Australia	Miranda Kerr	2006-2008
Namibia	Behati Prinsloo	2008-2011
Sweden	Elsa Hosk	2011–2014
United States	Rachel Hilbert	2015–2016
	Zuri Tibby	2016-presente
	Grace Elizabeth	2016-2018

International expansion

Until the early 2000s, Victoria's Secret executives actively decided not to expand business operations outside of the United States. The decision to promote growth along with a maturing US retail market led to a change in that decision and a decision to expand Victoria's Secret outside of the United States.

Victoria's Secret announced a plan to expand into Canada in 2010. The company opened 23 stores in Canada with locations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. In November 2005, the company opened its first UK boutique at Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, with the help of World Duty Free. This was followed in 2009 by 6 Victoria's Secret stores located in airports outside of the United States. Victoria's Secret opened its first at Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford, London in July 2012, most of the outfits worn in the runway after the show are displayed annually in this store. Its 4,000-square-foot store in New Bond Street, London, opened in August 2012 with further expansion planned across the UK. In 2014 it was announced that it will expand in Mexico, choosing Playa del Carmen, in Quintana Roo, as the place to open its first boutique, while in Chile it will open new stores in the Beauty & Accessories in the Mall Costanera Center and Mall Parque Arauco in Santiago de Chile. Also in other countries in the region, such as Panama and Ecuador, the brand opens new stores in Panama City and Guayaquil, respectively. At the end of 2021, it opens a store in the Punta Carretas Shopping mall, in Montevideo.

Criticism and controversies

Harassment and abuse

In 2019, lobby group Model Alliance and various magazines drew attention to existing issues at Victoria's Secret, promoting initiatives in California, New York and the United States to protect models from sexual harassment and abuse.

Silencing Complaints of Harassment

After Razek left Victoria's Secret in 2019, Monica Mitro, a senior executive at the company, said she had been verbally abused by Razek numerous times while at the company. Mitro was the brand's executive vice president of public relations and was heavily involved in the production of the annual fashion show, having been one of the brand's public faces. The day after Mitro made her comments, when she arrived at her workplace, she was not allowed to enter the building and she was given administrative leave. Although the brand maintained that the decision had been made before Mitro filed her complaint, many considered that this had been a retaliatory action taken by the company and at the end of 2019 Mitro indicated that she was initiating legal action for the dismissal of she. In 2020 it was learned that she and the brand had reached an agreement for a sum of money.

Racism and corporate apologies

The company has had to deal with several high-profile complaints related to racism, profiling and discrimination by Victoria's Secret managers and employees, with several recurring issues being raised by former employees, the federal government of U.S., state governments, and customers in the United States, from Pennsylvania to Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and California. At every opportunity, Victoria's Secret's corporate spokesperson has issued apologies and disavowed discriminatory actions carried out by an individual employee. Victoria's Secret has changed some employment practices, and sought settlements in some of these cases, including a $12 million settlement in California and New York in 2017, and an agreed compensation of $179,300 with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Influence on the sociocultural norm of body image

In the 2008 scholarly research article "Victoria's Dirty Secret: How Sociocultural Norms Influence Adolescent Girls and Women", the authors from Wilfrid University Laurier and the University of Waterloo stated: "Women's body dissatisfaction is influenced by sociocultural norms for an ideal appearance that are pervasive in society and are especially directed at women". These norms tell women that they are valued for their body, physical appearance, and attractiveness scale. The perception of inadequacy influences girls, as young as 10, to start dieting in an effort to control their weight and body perception, a pattern that can continue throughout their lives. The authors warn that Victoria's Secret's marketing practices, delivered through television commercials, advertisements, and magazines, send a message to girls and women that their models are the standard of beauty.

Girls are comparing themselves to these unrealistically high standards presented by the media. The women in these ads are highly objectified, idealized, and sexualized. If women feel like they have to live up to this sociocultural norm, it's just telling men that it's okay to objectify and sexualize women. The article concludes by stating: "Exposure to social messages that reflect the sociocultural norm for ideal appearance has a negative effect on women".

Perfect Body Campaign

In 2014, a petition was created against the company's newly launched lingerie collection, Body by Victoria, when billboards featured the words 'The Perfect Body' on the back. (The Perfect Body) about well-known Victoria's Secret Angels. The organizers called for the company to take responsibility for creating a negative body image.

The petition, which quickly became popular on social media, demanded that Victoria's Secret "apologize and take responsibility for the harmful and unhealthy message that its 'Perfect Body' campaign #39; sends over the bodies of women and how they should be judged". The petition also called for changes to the wording of body ads to "something that does not promote unhealthy and unrealistic standards of beauty," urging the company not to use such marketing harmful in the future. The petitioners created the hashtag "#iamperfect," which was trending on Twitter for body-shaming women. The petition had more than 30,000 signatures.

Though no formal apology was issued, Victoria's Secret changed the words of its ad campaign to 'One Body Fits All.'

New Age

After many controversies and the onslaught of the phenomenon of feminism, Victoria's Secret has made the decision to do without the famous "angels" to make way for today's women, including celebrities and athletes, such as the American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, the Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, mothers and others, but the "angels" They will be taken into account in other campaigns.