The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - Essay Example

THE VICTORIAS SECRET FASHION SHOW By Location The Victorias Secret Fashion Show Marketing Audit Target Market The Victorias Secret Fashion Show is a fashion show that is always held annually and is sponsored by Victoria’s Secrets. Victoria’s Secrets is a brand popular for the production of sleepwear and lingerie. A common misconception is that the targeted market for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is women. However, given the statistics, this can be disapproved. In the year 2012 40% of the people who attend Victorias Secret Fashion Show were men. As much as most of the men who attended the show might have attended for entertainment purposes, the attending men will obviously have products produced by Victoria’s Secrets in mind when considering during holiday seasons (OCass 2004, p. 872). People who are always attracted to Victorias Secret Fashion Show are the middle class. One of the reasons as to why it is believed that Victorias Secret Fashion Show can target both is that they are always entertaining. Victoria’s Secret knows exactly how they can be able to attract both men and women to their fashion shows. Aspects such as sparkling runway, unique fashion creations, and performances by artists are ways through which these fashion shows have been able to become irresistible to men (Kite& Student 2011, p. 17). While men go to the show to watch the gorgeous models, women would go with the aim of catching up with some of the trends in fashion. Event objectives The main objective of Victorias Secret Fashion Show is to market products that are produced by Victoria’s Secrets. The company is well aware of the fact that the targeted market is always keen on fashion, fashion show is a way through which they can be able to showcase women of their new products so that they can enhance awareness or individual products and the brand at large. Through the use of some of the popular fashion models, the company is able to enhance the demand or their products. This is a more interactive way of advertising products as it has been observed to enhance brand loyalty. Even the men who are not always keen on fashion, especially women fashion can be introduced to the world of lingerie and nightwear because they will definitely be exposed some products that they might buy their lovers (Kurtz 2012, p. 178). The Victorias Secret Fashion Show is credited for the increase in the number of men who have been going to stores specifically for the purpose of buying Victoria’s Secrets’ products for their lovers. They attend Victorias Secret Fashion Show for entertainment, but leaves potential customers. Pricing strategy Victorias Secret uses premium pricing for Victorias Secret Fashion Show. For instance, the show charged $14,000 per seat in the year 2013. This is an indication that only the people who have the financial ability to raise $14,000 will be able to attend the shows. It is believed that the high pricing is because of the lingerie’s of millions of worth are usually used during the fashion show (Chrisler, Fung, Lopez & Gorman 2013, p. 649). The other reason might be the fashion models that are used in modeling the company’s products and the artists who usually entertain the people in attendance. The pricing strategy used by Victoria’s Secrets for Victorias Secret Fashion Show has always been criticized by the public. However, the company has always insisted that the tickets are not for sale, and that there were private companies that were taking advantage of the prestigious nature of Victorias Secret Fashion Show to overprice the tickets. Distribution Victorias Secret Fashion Show is not always sold directly to the attendees. The tickets are sold through third party companies, such as the companies that are responsible for organizing the event. In the years 2014, Cornucopia Events, an event planning company that organized the year’s version of the fashion was given the mandate of selling the tickets (Bartlett, Cole & Rocamora 2013, p. 212). This came a year after Victoria Secret asserted that they were not in any way selling tickets to the fashion show and that there was no third party that was mandated to do the sales to the tickets. A statement given by Victoria’s Secret Sharen Jester said that, “Victoria’s Secret does not sell tickets to our invitation-only show and does not authorize any third-party agent to sell tickets on our behalf. The only way to obtain tickets is by special invitation or through charitable contributions to pre-approved non-profit organizations." However, later clarification as made that the tickets that were being referred to were those to attend the fashion show, but not the afterparty. Promotion/communication mix Promotion is an important part of Victorias Secret Fashion Show. One of the ways through which the show is promoted is through fashion magazines. This is because most of the people who will be interested in attending the show are the people who have a level of keenness on the newest fashion trends. Victoria’s Secrets also promotes the event through their website and other online communication platforms that the company uses for public relations (Hume & Mills 2013, p. 466). This makes it easier for people who frequent these platforms to get details that they need to know regarding the attendance of the show or the after party. Event Website The principle purpose of the event website is to increase visibility of the event. This should be in line with the expectations of the targeted population. The website should be able to highlight the shortcomings of previous events and how the company plans to work them out. This website, however, does not identify previous problems and possible planned solutions for the same. This leaves possible event attendees with doubt on whether their grievances were attended to or not. The site has very limited literature to explain and support the content on it. The content used is in place. They properly outline the expectations of possible attenders and other stakeholders. However, the developer of the website should increase the functionalities of the website and beef-up the page with the proper literature to support the imagery used. The website provides sufficient information for participants and other stakeholders. Apart from the issued mentioned above that should be attended to, it would be in order to highlight the fact that stakeholders can get sufficient information about the participating models from the website. This is quite useful in decision making. The website provides a provision for those who missed the live show to watch it afterwards. This improves the event’s visibility and widens the fan base (Park & John 2012, p. 427). The information on the website, however sufficient, is not arranged in a logical manner that would give site visitors an easy time when searching for content on the active page. For instance, the live shows are usually aired every Tuesday. Even though this information is available on the page, it is not placed logically and strategically to provide this information. It I necessary to note that information on how to shop for the show on the page is provided visibly that anyone visiting the page would clearly and simply access this information from the site. The information issued on the website, however limited, is reliable and trustworthy. This is because the contact information provided on the page can allow any queries to reach the developer for possible adjustments. Furthermore, the information on the models and guests provided is definite, concise and clear. If discrepancies were to arise, these people could be contacted to shed more light on their involvement in the event A very vague picture of the hotel is, however, depicted by the website as it gives minimal information on the same. Apart from the mention, the information on the website does not provide clearer information about the hotel. However, the website is very clear on the date of the event and the active time remaining to the event. This is quite appropriate and important for planning and organization for those planning to attend and other stakeholders to be involved. Accessing information from the website is eased by the division of the functionalities into different icons that have been clearly labeled for easy access. The list of the participating models has been clearly differentiated from the list of the musical participants to avoid a confusion that may arise from a mix-up of these. The developer also provided specialized icons at the bottom of the page to help access information faster from the site. The developer enables connecting into the site through social sites such as YouTube and Facebook (Kim 2010, p. 138). This significantly directs traffic into the site. At the bottom of the website page, it is possible to get information on gift cards, stores and catalogues. Stakeholders can also get direct feedback on specific issues through the customer service functionality included in this page. This channel of receiving feedback is quite encouraging when it comes to attending to major threats and concerns of the event. Instead of bulking up all the information in a single webpage, the developer has enabled visitors to get more detailed and specialized information on specific issues and subjects on clicking onto the specific icons and images that they wish to know more about. This ability has also enabled the website to only give visitors information they require other than provide them with everything. The latter would also lead to boredom that is least desired by the developer. Grouping the information under icons enables easy access of the information a visitor is seeking. Most people go into websites with pre-empted decisions on the information they wish to obtain from the websites and this layout makes it very easy for them. The developer of the website made it such that most of its content is self-giving. First time visitors into the page can get access to most of the information they require. The icons issued at the bottom of the page allow visitors to access specific information provided under each. The customer service icon allows visitors to express issues of concern for which immediate feedback is provided. The page also has a provision for subscription whereby customers can be issued with special offers upon registration (Richtman 2013, p. 201). From the website visitors can learn about the Angel card. From the information provided on the site, it is possible to learn how to manage angel cards and access information on the benefits a customer would enjoy, by possessing the card. The developer of the website has also enabled visitors to be able to apply directly for the Angel Card within the page, thus bearing them the trouble of having to apply for the same manually. Apart from the inclusion of social media icons at the bottom of the website page, the developer also enabled the access of social media sites that are linked to the main page. Through this extension, stakeholders and other possible clients who use social media are likely to be reached through the social media pages linked to the main website page (Hume & Mills 2013, p. 672). The use of social media and their tags improves the visibility of the event. It largely publicizes the event and increases the participation of different stakeholders that can be reached through social media. These social media tags also allow for a wide-fetched positive criticism that betters the event. Through the access of positive criticism, the event’s organizer can be able to make changes that will impact positively on the event to be carried out in subsequent years. Furthermore, some stakeholders, sponsors and direct participants may be easily acquired through social media. Conclusions and Recommendations Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show is one of the most priced shows or events. This is a discouraging factor to many people. However, it should be noted that the fact that only few invited people attend the show in advocated to by the fact that not all people can be allowed to attend the fashion show because Victoria’s Secret is a global brand, and nobody knows exactly how many people will attend the event. However, the fact that the event organizers allow for live streaming means that people from various parts of the world have the ability to follow the proceedings. At the end of the day, the event is able to serve its purpose of promoting the products that are produced by Victoria’s Secret. However, the company could consider making the after party tickets more affordable because the prices that are always charged re so high that sometimes the pricing seems ridiculous. Promotion of the event should me more intensive, so that even those who are not able to attend the event can be able to watch the details through streaming. The website is very captivating with pictures of models who are wearing products produced by Victoria’s Secrets. However, the missing part is that there is not enough literature to give more details about exactly what the event is about and a short history about the event. This is an addition that would make the site more informative. However, the website developers did an excellent job as they made sure that navigation through the site is easy as they introduce sections with relevance, allowing people to seek specific information at the time that they require to. The inclusion of the social media buttons was also a brilliant idea because this is a way through which the website is able to spread their information through other platforms of internet communication. This is a factor that can be said to have led to the high publicity of the event. 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