…but there really is a serious marketing point to be made. Indeed, you might even call it “Victoria’s Marketing Secret”!
Recently London hosted the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show for the first time. Naturally, this attracted a HUGE amount of media attention. The show featured appearances by music stars Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, along with plenty of the Victoria’s Secret “Angels”. Of course, the show featured the dazzling multi-million dollar Dream Angels Fantasy Bras.
Now, jewel-encrusted, multi-million dollar bras might seem a somewhat ludicrous idea…but, again, there is a serious marketing point here.
In any business, it is well worth having what might be called an “aspirational” product or service. Something that is the ultimate, absolutely top-of-the-line version of what you offer. You might never sell many of these items but they can (a) attract attention (b) enhance your standing (c) make your regular product line seem more valuable.
But this is not the marketing secret I had in mind.
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show certainly attracted a huge amount of interest for the company. No doubt it will have attracted new customers and gained a ton of free publicity.
Exactly, the kind of marketing activity you might expect from a big-name company operating in a glamorous business.
BUT…what you might not expect is that high-fashion Victoria’s Secret is also…
…one of the biggest users of that fuddy-duddy marketing technique…direct mail!
In fact, in 2013 Victoria’s Secret was at #45 in the Top 50 Mailers in the USA.
After the company was set up in 1977 a mail-order operation was set up within a couple of years and the catalogue business has consistently delivered a large proportion of sales.
At the Victoria’s Secret website you can sign up for a catalogue as well as the regular email list.
So, although direct mail might be regarded as “unfashionable” by the hipster online and social media crowd…
…one of the world’s most fashionable companies is quietly using it to great effect.