Company Orientation Towards the Marketplace
Victoria’s Secret. It’s probably not the company name you were expecting to read about when
you picked up this paper. While it may not come right out and scream “something for everyone”
it really does appeal to almost all. Women love the lingerie, beauty products and other apparel.
Teenage girls are drawn to the trendy PINK line. While men will begrudgingly walk into a store
with their significant other or make an extremely quick trip in for a gift card at Christmas, they’ll
be the first to check out the wife’s catalog when it arrives in the mail.
When I first started thinking about using Victoria’s Secret as an example, I was sure I was going
to be writing about how they fall into the marketing concept. The television ads with beauty
queens, catalogs, online store and annual runway show all screamed write about how they market
to attract customers. As I re-read the chapter though, one line grabbed my attention. “The job is
to not find the right customers for your products, but the right products for your customers”. In
Victoria’s Secret, products they have aplenty.
I’ve had a long-term relationship with Victoria’s Secret. I remember as a little girl going into the
English boudoir style stores with my mom on shopping trips. I flipped through the catalog when
it arrived in the mail thinking supermodels like Helena Christensen were the most beautiful
women on the planet and who I wanted to be like when I grew up (clearly, that didn’t happen
when I maxed out at 5’4”). When I was in college, I worked part-time during Christmas seasons
when they started moving from the dark boudoir style into the sleek black and white stores with
accents of pink. As an adult, I help keep them in business buying anything from PJs and
sweaters to perfumes and makeup.
While women make up the majority of the consumer base for Victoria’s Secret today, what most
don’t know is the original targeted customers were men. Founder Roy Raymond felt
uncomfortable trying to buy his wife a gift in department store and found all the options were
just too plain. After researching the industry, he and his wife started the first store in 1977. The
original concept selling in stores and through catalogs directly to men nearly bankrupt the
company. In the 80s the company was purchased by Limited Brands Inc. (same owners of The
