“We have not grown weaker but strong by accepting the self-evidently ridiculous myths that sacramentalize mass-produced objects” James Twitchell remarks in the article Two Cheers for Materialism. In today’s society everything revolves around how you look and present yourself. Well, Victoria Secret and Victoria Secret PINK have made it less of a hassle for people to look their best without trying very hard. One place of the marketplace that sticks out to me is Victoria Secret online and Victoria Secret Pink Online.
These stores are very popular in today’s society and are one of the leaders in selling clothes to women. Victoria Secret and Victoria Secret PINK deceive their customers into thinking that they need an excessive amount of their brand to be able to fit into today’s society. They have figured out how to sell their clothes and advertise them so women get interested in them. They use the 4 P’s, product, price, place, and promotion. I learned that theses all work together and help a business become successful in personal finance last year.
First off, Victoria Secret/ Pink’s product has to be something that consumers want to buy. This means that it needs to look good, to feel good, and want other people getting jealous of what you are wearing and they want it. Price is the next element in the marketing business. Price is a key thing when you are selling to a majority of college aged kids. If it is too high in price then they will not be able to afford it and your sales will be down. On the other hand when you go into the store and you see everything at a very low price then you wonder, was there a manufacturing error?
What is wrong with this product? There are many questions that you ask yourself to see if that products price should really be that low or what else is going on. The third part is place. There are many stores around the United States and around the world. I am over 3 hours away from the closest Victoria Secret, but that does not stop me from buying their product. I shop online. Even though place is a big part of marketing, sometimes the web takes away that aspect in the marketing world.
Ordering online versus driving 3 hours is more convenient for me. The 4th and last major part in marketing products is promotions. If you have shopped at VS/VS PINK before then you have probably given them your email. This is one way they get their promotions out, by emailing us almost every day that they have a sale going on, BOGO (buy one get one free), a free blanket with a purchase of $75 or more. All of these are promoting that if you spend money you get something in return. All of these examples I would say relate to weasel words.
They are weasel words because they lead you to thinking that you are getting a good deal when you get something for free but actually you are spending more money in the end. Another aspect of promotion that comes to mind when I think of Victoria Secret is the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This is when all the prettiest, skinniest models and actors dress up in expensive, high-end lingerie and are able to show it off on the runway, with millions of people watching. When you are shopping online, depending if you are going for Victoria Secret or Victoria Secret Pink the layouts of the sites are different.
Personally I do not shop at Victoria Secret, I only shop at Victoria Secret Pink. When going on to VS PIINK’s website the first thing that pops up is the newest trend of clothing and the popular sellers. These clothes they advertise and push to sell so the buyers are ready for the new season and look good. The layout is pretty simple. Right now they are pushing selling swim suits, baseball caps, tank tops, shorts, lace bras, and a new neon line of clothes. There are also options to buy sport items if you to look good and feel good when you work out.
My favorite section is the clearance. In the clearance, there are many options available for you to buy from, but the sizes and colors are more than likely limited. These products are on sale because they are out of that style, or there is only a few of them left. One last thing that catches my eye is the color scheme on their website. On VS PINK their colors are bright and colorful, allowing your eyes to want to keep looking into their website. Victoria Secret is still needs to sell their products as PINK, but they come across in a more subtle way, and a little easier on the eyes.
VS’s online has simpler graphics and designs than the teen populated VS PINK. The reason that it is simple is that they are more focused on their products and not now the main page looks. Yes, they want all of it to look good but with a simple background, their products will stand out. Right now Victoria Secret is pushing the summer look, Valentines lingerie, and fragrances to make your Valentine’s Day the “sexiest” day. These stores offers many appeals to different people. For me I think Victoria Secret PINK appeals to me more than Victoria Secret because I want clothes instead of lingerie.
PINK just has more options that look better for high schoolers and college kids compared to VS. The appeal to me is that when you are wearing their brand that people will know that you like to have a high fashion, you want to look good, and represent yourself. To someone else like my grandma, who is 65, she does not think the same about that. She thinks that Victoria Secret and Victoria Secret PINK are not good for me because they are not professional, and some clothes show too much skin, when clothes are supposed to cover up your body not show more skin.
My mom on the other hand is a little shorter than me but still wears a lot of my clothes. On the weekends she will grab one of my sweatshirts and usually they are VS PINK. This does not mean that the brand and market appeals to her, she is just wearing it because, most likely she is just cold. By buying from VS and VS PINK you are showing that you want to look good in the new trends and name brand clothes. There are other brands that represent this new trend and name brand clothes look also, not just VS and VSP.
Personally I think that when we buy from these two stores that sometimes depending on what you are buying that you are just trying to show off that you have money and you spend it on clothes because you can. Sometimes the effects that these clothes on us are of great extent. They make us feel more powerful than someone who is just wearing a generic article of clothing. This is wrong and we should not be doing that because they could have more money than us, but they are saving it for something more important than clothes that you may outgrow in a few months.
James Twitchell made the comment in the article “Two Cheers for Materialism” that “Getting and spending has become the most passionate and often the most imaginative, endeavor of modern life. ” This is honestly sad to think this because the most passionate thing in our lives should be living a good life and providing for your families, because life is too short to have the most passionate thing about your life is to throw money down the drain on clothes when you need to save it and set up a child’s college fund.
Victoria Secret and Victoria Secret PINK I think have both positive and negative appeals on everyone. It does not negatively affect the people who buy the products, compared to the people who do not like what the store represents. The people that see the negative appeal in their products tend to stay away from them and sometimes are discouraged when they see someone wearing that product. Allowing, Victoria Secret and Victoria Secret PINK deceive their customers into thinking that they need an excessive amount of their brand to be able to fit into today’s society.
