Products Lingerie | ||
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Founded October 16, 2002; 14 years ago (2002-10-16) Parent L Brands
Victoria's Secret Website victoriassecret.com/pink | ||
Pink (stylized PINK), a subsidiary of L Brands, is a lingerie line by Victoria's Secret targeting younger women than their main line. The target demographic consists of youth, ages 13 to 30.
Contents
History
On October 16, 2002, Victoria's Secret announced the launch of Pink, a new product line targeted to 13-30 year-olds. The strategy driving Victoria's Secret's launch of Pink is to introduce the teenage girls to Victoria's Secret stores. Pink sells underwear, swimsuits, sleepwear, loungewear, beauty products, and accessories, with the intent to transition buyers into more adult product lines, such as Angels, Very Sexy, and Body by Victoria.
Pink's competition in the lingerie market for the youth demographic includes Abercrombie & Fitch and Aerie by American Eagle. Pink's pajamas and sweat pants were popular within the teenage and preteen set from 2006. On November 1, 2009, Pink established its first stand-alone store in Canada, prior to the main Victoria's Secret brand opening its first store on August 12, 2010. In 2010, sales at Pink reached $1 billion.
Pink has a college line that focuses brand recognition through public university athletics. Promotions for the line come from college tours, tie-ins with the music channel MTV, and social media such as Facebook and MySpace. In 2011, the line announced a partnership with all 32 NFL teams and began selling apparel containing NFL team logos and names. The partnership is part of a marketing strategy for the NFL to market to teenage girls and college-aged women. It remains available for some teams as of 2017.
Controversy
In March 2013, the company mounted a marketing campaign for sexy underwear titled "Bright Young Things" directed at teen and pre-teen girls that drew considerable negative attention. The underwear contained wording including "call me", "feeling lucky", and "wild". The company was accused of "sexualising" teenage girls. When the ad campaign was launched, Victoria's Secret chief financial officer Stuart Burgdoerfer said that the line of underwear allowed "15 or 16 years old... to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college". After the criticism increased, Victoria's Secret removed the items from the company's website and said that the ad campaign was meant for college-age women.
Kylie Bisutti, a former Victoria's Secret model, headlined the two "Pink to Purpose" campus events in 2013 and 2014. This campaign, unrelated to the retailer, describes itself as an encouragement for women "to leave the PINK lifestyle to find PURPOSE!" Bisutti perceives her past as "being at the pinnacle of the PINK lifestyle of fake, broken relationships".
Spokesmodels
Pink has its own spokesmodels, the first one being Alessandra Ambrosio, followed by Miranda Kerr.
PINK has partnered with both the MLB and the NFL for lines launched by Prinsloo as well as then Angels Chanel Iman, Erin Heatherton and Candice Swanepoel. Since then, various spokesmodels, including Hosk and Jessica Hart have attended sports events to promote those joint ventures.
Each year since 2010, the brand has hosted spring break parties to promote its collegiate collection, usually hosted by two female models (having included Behati Prinsloo, Chanel Iman, Elsa Hosk, Rachel Hilbert, Sara Sampaio, Gigi Hadid and Devon Windsor) and a male guest such as Alexander Ludwig, Nick Jonas, Cody Simpson, or Diego Boneta They have also held campus bashes. Zuri Tibby became the brand's first spokesmodel of color in 2016.
Other models, such as Taylor Marie Hill, Emily Didonato, and Jessica Strother as well as numerous celebrities (including Ashlee Simpson) have appeared at events for the brand.
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
There has been segment in the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show since 2006. In 2007, the brand held an event featuring spokesmodel Miranda Kerr, alongside Jessica Stam and Rosie Huntington Whiteley. A spot in the 2007 fashion show was given to Katie Wile after she won a contest called "Pink Road Trip to the Runway." Segments that aired in the 2000s only featured recorded music. Katy Perry was the first live performer for the Pink runway at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2010, performing a medley from her Teenage Dream album that she recently released at the time, in addition to performing "Firework" from the album in a segment for the main Victoria's Secret brand. Since then, the Pink runways consists exclusively of live performances where the artist may or may not also sing for the main VS brand.
PINK also sponsors fashion show viewing parties when the show airs.
Pink runway history