Showing posts with label sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sales. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2011

Unity in Marketing - Victoria's Secret

If the product marketing is based around looking sexy, shouldn't they hire sales associates look the part to have unity in marketing?

If Victoria's Secret is marketing their products by using their beautiful sexy angels models like the ones on the left, I assume that they are trying to tell the consumer that ...

" If you buy VS products:

- you can look like this too!
- you will feel better about yourself
- you will look sexy
- you can have ______ (fill in the blank)

I get the sex appeal, telling women that they can look like the models in their ads. Looking at their sales, what they are doing in their ad campaigns is definitely working in their favor.

From the sexy models, sexy bras with pink tags, pink shopping bags, pink gift wrapping paper and boxes, pink stores, little pink details on all of their lingerie products to everything else they sell, you can see a unity in the marketing of the Victoria's Secret empire. Everything speaks "sexy".


 It is working! It makes me want to go in the store. Because I do want to look skinny and sexy in those lacy under underwear, and have my breast looked plumped up and fighting the natural gravity. We all know in reality no one looks that perfect. Thanks to the invention of PhotoShop and airbrushing. But we don't care if the image is not real, we still like the illusion that VS ads shows us. We refuse to admit to ourselves that no one has perfect smooth skin like that. CLICK HERE to see an example from Dove


I walked into a Victoria Secret in an outdoor shopping mall. The first thing I noticed is that the lighting wasn't as enchanting as the bigger VS stores I usually go to. It looks like a Macy's that hasn't been updated since 1984, it looked old. Second, one of the sales associate hollered across the store " we have 75% off on all Love Spell sprays".


Instantly, I felt the store was cheapened. I am not sure why I felt that way, maybe it is because I was not expecting a VS sales associate holler across the entire store to tell me about their sale. Don't they usually walk up to you and tell you in a normal voice?
The normal enchanting VS store that lures you in

The store is there to sell products, and creating a good feeling experience to the consumers. If the product marketing is based around looking sexy, shouldn't they hire sales associate look the part to have unity in marketing? This particular VS sales associate is on the heavier built (ok, she's what most people would consider overweight), and part of her lower back was showing from a size too small shirt. Not professional, not pink, not sexy at all.

I walked into the VS store hoping that I might feel more sexy (even if its temporary) when I walk out with my pink VS shopping bag. That was not my experience today.

Maybe I am insane, but I imagine the VS angels sexy and graceful. I doubt they holler.

This VS store manager really need to do something about the lighting in the store. Don't they have some sort of guideline they have to follow? Lighting is so important in stores, it sets the mystique mood, and creates illusion of a halo glow of the product. Making it so temping, that the consumers have to have it.

Com'on VS! You spent so much money on the models and the stores, hire the right people that look the part. Make your marketing a successful sexy circle!

At the end, VS is just all cheap junk that are sold for more than it's worth. We still buy them anyway.




Why I Love Shopping at Nordstrom

After couple hours of shopping, my feet are tired, and the babe is hungry. Where do I go to solve the  fatigue and the hunger problem? Nordstrom!  

You see this here? 



This is the Nordstrom's Women Lounge. This is where I nurse my baby when I am shopping in the mall. The women's lounge gives you some privacy, and the peace and quiet you need for nursing.

Look at those comfy couches! Usually you will be in there alone, but once in a blue moon another nursing mother would be doing the same thing as you.

I am glad that I don't have to sit in the middle of the mall, and whip out my "nursing gears". I don't mind if people see me, but I don't like to offend people who might find nursing distasteful.
 

While I was nursing my starving baby in the Nordstrom Women's Lounge today, another mom with 2 of her kids came in. We were both nursing, and we started talking about how we would never shop in a mall without a Nordstrom.


I prefer to shop in malls with a Nordstrom. Because I know that if my baby has to be changed, I have a nice, safe, clean place to change my baby.  There is a sink right next to the changing station for you to wash your hands afterward.


It was nice to shop at Nordstrom before I had a baby, everything is well marketed, even the sales associates. Products are well displayed, and the lighting makes the products even more appealing. The sparkly shoes that you have to have look even more heavenly under those magical lights.You know you are getting good quality stuff if you shop at Nordstrom. The return policy is unbeatable. You can return anything, even if you have already taken the tags off, worn them, or even putting them through a wash.

Well done Nordstrom's !