Spread you wings and own all the market shares

Hey you, 

Did you know that Victoria’s secret owns more than 1500 stores spread over the U.K., U.S and Canada, and 400 stores in more than 70 other countries like Latin America, Venezuela, Middle east and Africa  and the United Arab Emirates. The Market share of Victoria’s secret in the world has a total of 3,6%. These are divided in a couple of countries, examples of these are Latin America 0,2%, Venezuela 6,1%, Middle East and Africa 0,6%, North America 21,0%, Canada 6,1%, USA 22,0%, U.K. 0,2% and United Arab Emirates 4,2%. (Euromonitor, 2016)

When you look at the other countries where L brands and Victoria’s secret have stores you see a difference in what they sell there. For an example Sweden and New Zealand have only Fragrances, and Singapore has beauty and personal care, fragrances and sets/kits. And Venezuela does has underwear but not night- and swimming wear because these would not be appropriate in this market. These are examples of market entry strategy.

We al know some international turmoil (e.g. ukraine crisis/ trade with russia, isis in the

middle east, war in israel/gaza, ebola virus in africa, Brexit etc etc. I was wondering if any of

there factors had any impact on Victoria's secret, and this is what I found:

Victoria’s secret does export their products to U.S.A., the middle East, U.K. And Africa so you could assume that the recent international turmoil effects their sales, but when you look at their market shares they all have increases of an average 0.1%. Their world shares even went up 0.3%. So all these factors didn’t affect Victoria’s Secret underwear (Euromonitor, 2016)

If you think about international legal forces like the government pilicies and tax regulation there are always laws to guide them. Every country had their own laws, and these are very useful for me as a international business and management student. So I searched for some of these to show you the value of laws, and the differences in each county.

So when you look at Victoria’s secret lingerie you can think of a couple of laws that may have impact on the product, for an example the international trade law of the U.S.A : Trade Expansion Act (1962, c. 76 s. 872) or an International Tax Law like the Finance Act (2004 c 12 s23C) from the United Kingdome and the income tax act (1952, c. 148 s. 1) from Canada.

All these laws have correspondence with Victoria’s secret lingerie by where the Law/Act stands for and from which country they are.

Thank again for the attention that you give my blog! and love to see all the vieuws! Also if you want to know something else of have an topic that you want to read about, write it below and I will see what I can do for you!

Bye everyone!

xoxo Renée

Canada justice laws website. (2016, 10 11). income tax act. retreived from Laws Lois justice: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-3.3/page-1.html

Euromonitor. (2016, October 11). Statistics Victoria's Secret. retreived from Euromonitor: http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.saxion.idm.oclc.org/portal/statistics/tab

L Brands. (2016, October 10). Victoria's Secret. Opgehaald van Our Brands: http://careers.lb.com/our-brands/victorias-secret/

Tullo, C. (2004). Finance Act 2004 Chapter 12. retreived from Legislation: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/12/pdfs/ukpga_20040012_en.pdf

Woolley, G. P. (2016, 10 11). Remarks Upon Signing the Trade Expansion Act. retreived from The Presidency: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8946

Victoria's Secret in the Netherlands!!

Hey guys, nice to see you here again. This week will be about market potential and sales potential if Victoria's Secret would export to the Netherlands. To estimate these things you can use an break down or a build up approach, and I used the build up approach like you see in the table beneath.

Age	Nr. of females in NL	Estimates purchase	Total
Younger than 20	1.863.687	0.1	186.368,7    (186,4 K)
Between 20 and 65	5.018.661	0.4	2.007.464,4 (2 M)
Older than 65	1.679.637	0.15	251.945,6    (251,9 K)
Total market potential			2.445.778,7 (2,5 M)

The reason behind my estimated purchase is that L brands sales are 11,5 billion (11.500.000.000). And Victoria’s secret has a 59% part of that. So sales of Victoria’s secret in 2015 was 6,785 billion (6.785.000.000). Victoria’s secret is located on different locations but you can buy it online from all over the world. So then I took the total market share of underwear of The Netherlands compared to the world, this is : 0,1%. So I did 6,785 billion times 0,1 (= 6.785.000) and this is how I got my total estimated purchase. After this I divided this in 3 categories. Assuming that the generation younger than 20 only buys for 10%, of 20 till 65 buys for 40% and 65 and older for 15%. So Nr. of females times the estimates purchase in the total per age group.

So the total of market potential using the Build-up Approach is: 2.445.778,7 (2,45 million) is divided by 33.3 because of possible competitors you have the sales potential of: 814.444,3071 (814,5 K)

Why Victoria’s secret should write a marketing plan for Dutch Market? This because the GDP of the Netherlands is growing with a growth rate of 0,6 percent, so this is steady but still save for the economy.

Also because of Brexit. Nobody know what will happen with the UK after they are separated from the Netherlands. And since Victoria’s secret is based in the UK they don’t know either what the future holds for them. So it would be wise so cross the North Sea to a country that is based in Europe after Brexit is done.

And my last argument is that the population is growing in a steady line. This means that over the years there will be more potential buyers for VS.

But to every upside there is a downside. The Netherlands is a small country, so there will not be as much expansion possibilities in the Netherlands compared to Germany or France for an example.

Also you can think about sales forecasts. In my case I would use surveys and specifically to question experts regarding their expectations about future purchases. This because of all the data they can get. From previous sales to possible future sales. They are experts for a reason, so their judgment has an important factor in sales markets. Also do they know what trend is in at the moment, and what consumers tend to buy in which season and in which country. The downside is that they only know these things about the past, so future trends and fashion statements are unknown for them. Another downside to this method is that the exports work outside of the company, so the experts may not be as motivated as company personnel to do an effective job

Bibliography

Euromonitor. (2016, october 19). Victoria's Secret. Retrieved from Euromonitor: http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.saxion.idm.oclc.org/portal/statistics/tab

statline. (2016, october 19). population. Retrieved from statline: http://statline.cbs.nl/Statweb/publication/?DM=SLNL&PA=03759ned&D1=2-3,6,9,12&D2=129-132&D3=0-4&D4=l&HDR=T&STB=G2,G3,G1&VW=T

worldbank. (2016, October 19). The Netherlands. Retrieved from Worldbank: http://data.worldbank.org/country/netherlands

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2016). Marketing: Concepts and strategies: Houghton Mifflin.

Euromonitor International, E. (2016). Passport database.   Retrieved from http://www.portal.euromonitor.com/portal/magazine/homemain

Daly,J. (2015). How Ikea sends super-targeted promotional emails.  Retrieved from https://www.getvero.com/resources/ikea/

every woman is her own hero.

Week 1.5

Hi everyone,

Here I am again with my 5th assignment week. This week I will talk about L brands. Like I told you in week 1, L brands is the mother company of Victoria's Secret. I will also tell you about some statistics, and where you can find them. And last but not least about the differences in The Netherlands concerning my product.

First lets talk about L brands: Which environmental factors have a major impact on the marketing policies of the company.

So in the Annual report 2015 of L Brands Mr. Leslie H. Wexner talks to all the partners of Victoria’s secret, Bath and Body works, Pink, La Senza and Henri Bendel. He talks a lot about sales. How they are reaching their goals and are well on their way of being the best specialty retailer in the world. He uses the term: Focused, Fast and Frugal.

And if you look at the Press Releases of L Brands the first thing you see are the webcast for their sales report and the Sales reports itself. They post these reports every month.

So if you look at all the date and information L brands let the world see, it is safe to say that they are mainly focused on sales. (L brands, 2016)

The last thing they are focusing on and have an impact on their marketing is the Quality of their product. There have been reports that claimed that VS and La Senza bra’s caused skin reactions. This is not true and there for one of their Marketing factors.

(L brands, 2016)

“FOCUSED: We focused on our top priorities and the goal for each … and just as important, we intentionally decided what we were NOT going to do. For example, we exited the apparel and makeup businesses in Victoria’s Secret – a tough decision, to exit businesses, but the right decision to put more time and resources into core categories. We intensified our focus on our customers … spending more time in stores … so that we can significantly improve our customers’ experience.

FAST: Speed matters … we further reduced our lead times and managed inventory well, increasing inventory turns. We made decisions faster … so that literally everything moves faster.

FRUGAL: We were more efficient in time and money. As I said last year, being frugal isn’t about cost – it’s about value”  (Wexner, 2015)

If you want to find data in the Netherlands about external environmental issues concerning you company, you can find these in CBS. I looked there to find 2 statistics, let me tel you about them.

So the first statistical publication I found is about (47712) Shops selling ladies’ wear.

Here you see data about value, price and volume of the Turnover indices, this is important to see because you can indicate what the growth is of ladies’ wear is in the Netherlands. (CBS, 2016)

The second statistical publication I found is about Producer Prices of 1419 (underwear)

I find this data very useful because you can see the consumption of foreign products and total consumption. This data is relevant because VS lingerie is an product that is for the Dutch database an Foreign product. You can see how in just 6 years the sales have  increased with 27.8% and total consumption increased with 30% (CBS, 2016)

And the last thing I want to talk about this week is social, cultural and religious differences. This might sound weird coming from a dutch girl, because we are such a small country, but yes! There are social, cultural and religious differences in the Netherlands. This is because we are a very multi-cultural society. We recognize a lot of different religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and more. This means that there are a lot of norm and values about lingerie. For an example, the Islam thinks that you can’t show yourself to men in general except for the man that you are married to. But if you are a not religious woman in the Netherlands you can wear whatever you want. This is also an example for cultural differences. Because in some cultures it is normal to show a little bit of skin, and in some it is forbidden. These cultures all live in The Netherlands. A social different is for example the age gap. The elderly woman in the Netherlands think that we (the youth) are dressing to provocative sometimes, while we think that the elderly woman are too conservative with their lingerie.

Time flies! only 2 more weeks after this one. So keep tuned, and maybe I will continue my blog after my assignment finished. If you have and questions or additions for my blog, massage me and I will see what I can find.

Till next week.

Xoxo Renée

Bibliografy

CBS. (2016, 10 1). publication. Opgehaald van CBS: http://statline.cbs.nl/Statweb/publication/?DM=SLEN&PA=81804eng&D1=0-5&D2=22&D3=179-195&LA=EN&VW=T

CBS. (2016, 10 1). publication. Opgehaald van CBS: http://statline.cbs.nl/Statweb/publication/?DM=SLEN&PA=71934eng&D1=a&D2=a&D3=123&D4=90,103,116,129,142,155,l&LA=EN&HDR=T,G1&STB=G2,G3&VW=T

L brands. (2016, 10 1). L Brands, Media. Opgehaald van Our responses: https://www.lb.com/media/our-responses/our-bras-are-safe1/our-bras-are-safe1

L Brands. (2016, september 28). Press Releases. Opgehaald van L brands Media: https://www.lb.com/media/press-releases

Wexner, L. H. (2015). Annual report 2015. ohio: L Brands.

There are no angels without wings

Heeeii guys!

So nice that you are back here! this week is the fourth week already for my Marketing environment assignment. I hope you guys enjoy this weeks information.

So we know victoria's secret is a consumer product, but a lot of products are also a product for the business market. I will give a a couple of examples for this: 

First of all the have the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show is one of the biggest examples for this product in the business market. You can see the jewelries, the wings, the hair and make-up. These are all extern businesses. VS is also used in photo studios all over the world. For their own product and for the product of others to make it more sexy and show the “sensual fashion”. VS is also used in the television industry. You can see Victoria’s secret lingerie during the MTV Movie awards in 2015 on comedian Rebel Wilson and in different movies.

Even though Victoria’s secret can be used as an business product, VS has not adapted their product for any other business sell. They have their own standards, and if other businesses want their product they have to adapt to them.

Most business purchases are one of three types: new task purchase, modified rebuy 

purchase or straight rebuy purchase. Victoria's secret uses Modifies rebuy purchase, this is because victoria’s secret is always changing their products and lines. Always finding new products to add to their product line, and altering already existing products.

Lets discuss the buying procress and buying center of a business product for VS.

So if I would choose the photo studio you have a sales department who makes sure there is always in inventory to use during photo sessions, with different sizes and shapes for every (model) body type. The users are in this case the models who will wear the lingerie for the shoots.

so the last question that I had for this week, (because you all know this is part of my school assignment) Describe the concept of derived demand, and give an example how this impacts the demand for your product in a business market.

So derived demand means that the demand for the product constantly changes. It depends on the needs and demand of the consumer. So if you use this theory in the photo studio, the demand of the photo studio depends for example how many models there are, and which season we are in. Because in the winter season the models will be less likely to wear lingerie than in summer.

Bibliografie

business insider. (2016, september 23). victorias secret. Opgehaald van business insider: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/victorias-secret

forbes. (2016, augustus 7). why-is-victorias-secret-undergoing-restructuring-changes. Opgehaald van forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/05/24/why-is-victorias-secret-undergoing-restructuring-changes/&refURL=https://www.google.nl/&referrer=https://www.google.nl/

environment of customers.

Dear reader,

Maby you are new here, maby you have been here before? Either way I will try my best to entertain you all with my blog about the Victoria's secret lingerie. A little recap: this blog is for a school assignment for marketing environment and I will be answering a couple of questions every week. So hold tight, get your fancy drink and put your bra straight, here is my blog for this week.

So first of all it would be rude to put all the consumers of Victoria’s secret in the same box. This because it is different from person to person how easily they are persuadable and if the social factors really has an influence on them. But after stating that, I will do my best to make some stereotypes about the consumers of Victoria’s secret for my assignment

Cultural factors: “Cultural factors are coming from the different components related to culture or cultural environment from which the consumer belongs.” (Perreau, 2013)

The cultural factors are different for every VS consumer, this is because there are stores all over the world, so there are a lot of different cultures involved. But if you look at what sells more per country, you will find that in Asia there will be selling more warm and bright colors, and in Europe there are more basic colors like black, white and red for an example.

Social factors: “social factors are among the factors influencing consumer behavior significantly. They fall into three categories: reference groups, family and social roles and status” (Perreau, 2013)

So for girls in collage there is always a girl more popular, more rich, more beautiful and so on. These girls who are more … than you always have an opinion about what you should and shouldn’t wear. So if they think you should wear VS instead of H&M, you probably will search online for VS rather than H&M. But if your role model or idol thinks you should but it at hunkemöller, you might go there instead of VS. But if you are from an very strong religious family, they will probably tell you that you can’t but it there, because it will be to provoking. This is of course why VS has their “body by Victoria” line for the cultural barriers. The “young and sexy styles” for all those collage girls, and all the other sexy lingerie for the role models.

Personal factors: “Decisions and buying are obviously also influenced by the characteristics of each consumer” (Perreau, 2013)

So if you are a size 0 you will choose another kind of lingerie, sleep wear of bikini than a size 10 of 12. This is why VS has bra’s up to DDD and panties up to size XL.

Some girls like sparkle, some like plane and some like something in the middle of these two. This is why VS has so many different models, styles and subcategories in their products. All these products are in different price ranges, so a lot of women can buy their product.

Psychological factors: “Among the factors influencing consumer behavior, psychological factors can be divided into 2 categories: motivation as well as learning.” (Perreau, 2013)

So the main reason why someone buys something is because they have a need for something new. They need to satisfy this, and will motivate them to buy this. Whether it is a need for something sexy for that special occasion or if it is a primary need because all their other stuff are broken. For both of these customers VS has the inventory to satisfy their needs. But they can also learn to buy something. If you bought your lingerie at Primark, and it broke after a short period of time, you will learn that Primark is not an store with good quality. You will learn to buy your Lingerie somewhere else. Although if you buy your lingerie al VS, and you notice how great their quality is, you learn that you can buy your product there more often.

Victoria's secret is for every age, I will explain this to you with the use of the family life cycle.

So in the family life cycle you have 5 main characters. You have a child, the child will become a teenager, the teenager will become an adult who will become a couple, this couple will grow old together and will have kids again somewhere along the way. So in this family cycle there are a couple of categories who would not buy Victoria’s secret lingerie, but underneath I summed up a couple who would.

Teenager: there is a sporty generation at the moment. The gym is more busy now a days

then it was in the past. This is why they picked the perfect moment to start their sport collection. Also are teenagers growing, and they need good lingerie with that so support their growth. This is why VS had firm products with great quality. They also have the PINK line special for the younger ones.

Young adult: As a young adult we are looking for connections, a special friend of a partner. At this age we want Sexy, we want that WauW factor, and we want to feel secure doing this. This is why VS has fashionable lingerie for every need. They have the comfortable ones, they have the see trough ones, and they have the ones you don’t really need a shirt for anymore. They have everything for you to flatter you guy or girl.

Adult: They have been through the teenage stage, and have successfully passed the young adult phase. They are now arrived at the age to be comfortable with being their self, and dressing like how they feel like it. If you want to wear something that nobody will see under that old shirt, or want something amazing to waken the flame you once had of still have. For all their needs VS had the solution, and perks of being an adult is that you have worked for a long time already, and probably have more to spend on your lingerie then when you were a young adult.

I bet you are wondering: but Renée what kind of consumor behavior will you most likely see in the VS shoppers? Well let me tell you, the most likely will be that consumers of Victoria’s secret will want something shiny and sexy, because that it what VS what to show the world. The Feminine and luxurious side of lingerie. They present them self like that in their market. If you go on the internet and search for VS, the first thing you will see are the newest items, they are see trough, they are colorful and they are revealing. You wouldn’t search for VS if you want plane HEMA bra’s or cheap Zeeman bra’s. You want to feel beautiful, you want to feel sexy, and you want to feel fashionable and if you want to feel like an ANGEL, you will go to www.victoriassecret.com

Last but not the least I made an attitude scale for my blog, with some questions how I can

find out your opinion about Victoria's secret lingerie. If you guys would take some time so

comment down below what you think about VS, and what your experiences are with this

brand I would be so grateful to you all.

Victoria’s Secret Lingerie	0	1	2	3	4	5
How much do you think that they fulfill the needs of their customers?
How originals do you think their product is?
How wide is the range of their product?
What do you think about their quality vs. quantity rate?
What do you think of their customer service?
How do you rate the Quality of VS?
How bad you want another VS lingerie set?

Rate this attitude scale, with 0 being horrible, and 5 being perfect.

Thanks again for reading everything, and I will see you guys next week!

Loves Renée

Bibliografie

Perreau, F. (2013, Novermber 28). 4-factors-influencing-consumer-behavior. Opgehaald van the consumer factor: http://theconsumerfactor.com/en/4-factors-influencing-consumer-behavior/

Victoria's secret. (2016, September 19). Opgehaald van Victoria's secret: https://www.victoriassecret.com/

competition and the competitive position of #VS

Hii guys, 

Nice to see you came back this week.

This week I had to answer  a couple of question about the mission statement of the company that I choose. #VS

For these questions I found that Victoria’s secret is owned by L brands, so their mission statement is also the mission statement of Victoria's secret.

The mission statement of L brands is to build a family of the world’s best fashion brands offering customer experience that drive long-term loyalty. This is obviously good for their shareholders. And they also want to do good. Good for communities, for the market and the environment.

Of cource every company has competition, but there are different kinds of competition. You 

generic competition, product form competition and brand competition.I made a little list of these competition forms and who are the compitition.

Generic competition: agent provocateur and their l’ agent, Primark, H&M, Hunkemoller

Product form competition: negative underwear, true&co anya lust,

Brand competition: aerie,  adore me, thirdlove, la perla

(Dishman, 2016)

So VS has a lot of competition but the competitive position of victoria's secret is pretty low because they own 40% of the huge apparel market. And apart from that they also have a product that no one else can offer because they have a world famous fashion show around it. No one has this in the same market as big as they have it. This makes their position very stable. Also are they very renewing, this means that they are constantly looking for new technology and marketing perspectives to enhance their products and their customer base.

Ansoff Matrix:

Most of all you see how Victoria’s secret is always busy with “product development”.  They also have a “market penetration” skill that everybody is familiar with.

Product development:

Every year they have the Victoria’s secret fashion show. Here they show the newest items of their collection, sometimes showing bra’s who are worth 2 MILLION dollars. They have the permanent theme: Angels. So al the models will be decorated with wings etc. These are things other brand don’t have. They are constantly developing their products, so they can keep impressing their customers. And basically every men and woman who watch their show from their sofa’s with a big bucket of ice/chips.
Bibliografie

Market penetration:

So when you sit on the sofa with you big bucket of ice/chips you see these pretty angels, but underneath everything they have lingerie. Pretty lingerie, shining lingerie, soft lingerie and colorful lingerie. But nothing the less still lingerie. Lingerie has always been part of our lives, so that isn’t something new or anything, but they do know how to sell it like it is something new, something we have never seen before. That is how they penetrate their own market.

References: 

Dishman, L. (2016, march 7). victorias secret competitors. Opgehaald van fortune: http://fortune.com/2016/03/07/victorias-secret-competitors/

marketing portaal. (2016, september 14). ansoff matrix. Opgehaald van modellen strategieen: https://www.marketingportaal.nl/modellen-strategieen/ansoff-matrix