Is Victoria's Secret Lingerie the New Work Wear?
Victoria's Secret, a unit of L Brands (NYSE:LB), caused a stir with its new ad campaign promoting its lingerie as office appropriate. Despite the controversy, the move appears to be well calculated.
“People are outraged but we have to understand something, the main, the core customer of Victoria's Secret are Millennial women between the ages of 18 to 24. I mean these are women who are going out there looking at Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner, those women are the ones that are, they’re wearing lingerie as shirts,” said retail analyst Hitha Herzog during an appearance on the FOX Business Network.
She also noted that Victoria's Secret is a big growth driver for its parent company.
“In terms of same-store sales for Victoria's Secret for the last couple months they’ve had actually an uptick,” which Herzog says is helping the overall company.
When asked if part of the motivation behind the ad campaign was to get more shoppers into the stores as an increasing number of consumers are shopping online, Herzog responded, “According to RetailMeNot people are going to start online shopping more, about 20% more people are going to start shopping online as of November 1 for holiday, so exactly, that is one of the strategies for Victoria's Secret.”
The new ad campaign coincides with L Brands’ corporate restructuring efforts.
“They [L Brands] cut a lot from the bottom line, they eliminated a couple hundred jobs, which was unfortunate, but now they’re really getting streamlined and focused.”
Shares of L Brands have declined 23% this year.