Victoria's Secret

Have you ever heard of Victoria’s Secret? I’m sure you have, everyone has. There are television commercials of these models just wearing their bra and panty playing in their bed or just walking around. Most of the time they don’t even talk in the commercials, there is just some music playing and then it ends with someone in a sexy British accent saying the store’s name or something like, “Now at Victoria’s Secret.” This store is located in every mall and it bares the pink capital letters “VICTORIA’S SECRET” on top. Often, there are mannequins in front of the store wearing lingerie or they may have a big supersized poster of their super beautiful models. The store is mainly white with some pink colors. There are two sections of the store: the lingerie and clothing section, and the lotion and beauty supply section. In the clothing section, it contains white drawers full of underwear organized into different sizes. All the bras and fancy lingerie are put on racks or laid on tables. This store attracts women of all ages because they sell bras, panties, lingerie, perfume, lotion, makeup, loungewear, and etc. When you make a purchase, your items come packed in a cute pinked striped gift bag with some pink tissue paper. On the weekends, you can find this store swamped with teenage girls and women between the ages of 18 to 35 years of age. Now what makes this store so successful?

The reason Victoria’s Secret is so successful is because of their models. All of their models are super models. To be exact, Adriana Lima, a Brazilian model, one of the highest paid models in the world, models for Victoria’s Secret. Gisele Bundchen, a American model, still one of the most famous super models also modeled for them. Tyra Banks, the world’s first well-known black model, also modeled for them. These models are everywhere on their website, in their stores, on their purses, and sometimes even on their gift bags. Another reason why Victoria’s Secret is so successful is because of the way they represent themselves. The vibe the store gives off comes to us as sexy, secretive, fun, sweet, innocent, playful, and young. Their catalogs contain pages of the models pillow fighting, putting on makeup, lying in the sun, running on the beach, etc. Almost all of their perfumes have the word “sexy” in it. Most perfumes are named after the creator, not an adjective. Not only that, but when you have made a purchase and get that cute little gift bag stuffed with tissue paper, it makes a big difference.

With all of these effects, the store creates a welcoming and fun atmosphere capturing teen’s and women’s interest. The gift bag you receive at the checkout makes you feel like you’ve just bought yourself a present. You must admit getting a white plastic bag that says “thank you” to put your items in is not very pleasing. Also, their technique of having the word “sexy” on every label makes people buy the items even more; it makes women think and feel sexier when they have sprayed something on that says “sexy.” Now, how can a commercial with no words, only music, appeal to the audience? Don’t commercials usually have someone talking? Isn’t that the whole point of a commercial? In this case, the commercials that Victoria’s Secret makes are not about listening or hearing, but about looking. Their idea is to have you focus at the pretty models and want to be everything like them. They want you to do your makeup like them, dress like them, wear shoes like them, etc. That is why the only thing they actually say on the commercials are the words “Victoria’s Secret,” so you will know where to go to buy their products. This is very smart marketing. They know that sex appeal sells so it is what they are using to lure consumers in to buy their products.

I actually don’t think that Victoria’s Secret is a bad store for teens to shop at. They do not come off as slutty; I think they do want to be good role models for teens. I have read in a few magazines and they quoted Adriana Lima’s words about wanting to wait and get married before she has intercourse with anyone. Any teen who has Adriana Lima as her idol, will probably follow to that. From my perspective, I believe the store sets a good example to anyone who may like their line of products. Their models are successful and independent women who help out orphanages. They are not super skinny and they do not do drugs and alcohol like others do. Victoria’s Secret sets a good example about eating healthy and being fit along with loving your body, which is a major issue that teens deal with everyday. I, myself, like to shop there for their perfumes and makeup. I don’t buy their bras because it costs about $50 for one. They are pretty pricey, but they’re advertising pretty smartly and people are still buying their products. I see teens wearing the Victoria’s Secret brand “Pink” all the time. It is just cute and comfortable loungewear for teens to wear. Even though the quality is really not that good (I bought a shirt from there and it ripped after one wash), teens are crazy about fashion and style, so they will buy it no matter what price. I used to wonder why most of their commercials didn’t have any talking in it. I later came up with the idea that maybe in some commercials, the girls don’t talk because they can’t speak English properly or maybe they have a manly voice. The girls who model for Victoria’s Secret are super beautiful, however, some of them seem to have manly voices. There have only been two models who spoke in their commercials. One of them was Heidi Klum, she sang a song for the Christmas commercial. I don’t think I will really ever find out why some commercials involved talking and the others didn’t, but that will be fine with me. Overall, Victoria’s Secret is a fun and easy brand to fall quick in love with!