Victoria’s Secret is a wildly successful company and obviously possesses impressive strengths and opportunities, but how can they improve? To assess this, one must analyze their positives and negative to continue their strengths and diminish their weaknesses. A SWOT Analysis is a useful technique in dealing with this objective. In this SWOT Analysis, Victoria’s Secret will have their most pertinent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analyzed on compared.
One of Victoria’s Secret’s most powerful strengths is the in-store experience for the customer. They receive one-on-one attention, almost like a personal shopper. This makes the customer feel that they are important to them, not just the business they contribute. There are attendants in the fitting rooms willing to help the customer thoroughly by bringing them new options in a range of styles after measuring them to know their size precisely. There are also sales associates roaming the sales floor to answer any questions, put the items the customer may find in a fitting room for them to try on as, or even just to provide a bag for the items the customer selects. Overall, this exceptional service provides the customer with a wonderful shopping experience and thus, they are more likely to go Victoria’s Secret (even if their prices are slightly higher) than to a store that does not provide such services.
Another tremendous strength Victoria’s Secret possesses is their undeniable brand recognition. Their pink striped bag is recognized by everyone from near and far. Their entire store is pink from their fitting rooms to the décor to the stands where all the merchandise lays, They have furthered their brand even more by using such recognition with their line of clothing they’ve named Pink. Also, they put on an annual fashion show that millions of people watch and never fails to generate not just nationwide, but global buzz. Who all will be a Victoria’s Secret Angel this year? What celebrities made the cut? What supermodels got turned down? The publicity that surrounds this event is outstanding. This is often free publicity for them that promotes their brand even more. Reporters come and write articles on how beautiful or extravagant the clothing was, and this costs Victoria’s Secret nothing.
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One major weakness Victoria’s Secret has is that they charge more than competing stores. This would influence customers to pursue a store with similar products at lower prices. Thus, causing Victoria’s Secret to lose potential business. By lowering their prices to competitive prices, they would gain customers from competitors without losing their loyal customers.
Another weakness Victoria’s Secret has is that’s they keep a large inventory. This says they produce more than they sell. By producing less, they would make more money that they could focus elsewhere like promotion, marketing, or advertising to increase business. Thus, bringing in more money to produce more merchandise to make up for the increase in business. If they found their proper balance, this company could potentially be significantly more profitable. In addition, Victoria’s Secret only has store in the United States. Although they have their merchandise available online and can ship globally, they are missing out on entire markets throughout the world. If they were only to open a few other stores throughout the world, that could bring in a striking increase in brand recognition, and further their overall business. They are not taking advantage of a potential demand in other big cities with a demand for Victoria’s Secret’s products.
By taking consideration of the weaknesses, opportunities arise for improvement. As stated, there is an entire international market that is not being explored. Even by opening a few stores in other countries, they could create an exclusivity to their brand that is even more attractive to these potential customers. They could increase their prices and quality of their merchandise. Also, in these stores, they could build upon their in-store experience. They could actually have personal shoppers for their customers in these stores. This would increase desire for their products amongst the elite in these countries/big cities.
Another opportunity available to Victoria’s Secret is growing the demographic they intend to reach. As of now, by observation, they intend to reach young women to make them feel sexy and beautiful. They could expend this to reach middle-aged women to make them feel sexy and beautiful as well. Often, this is where women begin to feel increased insecurities. So, by offering products that make them feel confident, that could increase business tremendously.
A big threat to Victoria’s Secret is the competition of other companies. These companies provide extraordinarily similar products at significantly lower prices. Nowadays, customers are looking for lower priced goods rather than the exclusivity of a higher priced good. However, Victoria’s Secret is not particularly exclusive in the United States seeing as how they have excessive inventory, have stores available in any decent mall, and their prices are not ridiculously high.
With a recent body positivity trend, another threat is the negative body image Victoria’s Secret is imposing on women. Many women may not feel comfortable enough with themselves to even enter the store. By creating a plus-size line, advertising without retouching their models, and promoting a woman’s natural beauty, they open their brand to a much larger population while maintaining the same products. The message stated with the products is arguably more important than the products themselves.
When comparing strengths and weaknesses of Victoria’s Secret, there are strong points for each. However, in this assessment, these weaknesses can be resolved and turned into strengths. The true difficulty is determining how much it would cost the company to do that or if it would be more effective to keep the weaknesses and focus their energy on what they already know works for them. Since this is Victoria’s Secret, it can be inferred that they have the resources to diminish their weaknesses as well and build upon their strengths. By lowering their prices, lessening their inventory, and opening stores abroad, the major weaknesses would be gone. Their strengths really do support the company in a way that carries it almost effortlessly. They show interest in their customers and are recognized throughout the world even though they only have stores open in the United States. This brand recognition makes the lack of international stores not only a weakness, but an opportunity.
The differences between opportunities and threats may be more difficult to resolve. For years and years, Victoria’s Secret has been a brand for slim young women. Changing that already strong impression of the company will be wildly difficult. This is doable, but it will take a lot of effort and require a lot of advertising to show their customers their new interest in supporting body positivity. The threat of competitors will always be present, but by having competitive prices, the threat would be less intimidating. As for the opportunities, they are quite promising and provide a chance for this company to grow immensely and become even more profitable. Overall, the opportunities outweigh the threats.
