Victoria's Secret Deal With the NFL Is No Wardrobe Malfunction
The National Football League always has been about spectacle, so it makes sense that Victoria's Secret would cut a deal with the organization for its PINK collection of intimate and sportswear apparel, one that can get the line another look see from those who have thus far resisted its charms.
More flirty than dirty, PINK has always had a purpose, to introduce teens to Victoria's Secret in a way just acceptable enough to get past parents who are gradually losing control of their children's fashion choices. Of course, that happens earlier today than once was the case, so the bun-hugging position of PINK logo on bottoms was designed to tread the line between offending parental sensibilities and straining them, but that's all part of the game. Victoria's Secret always has been its ability to take lingerie mainstream, making it fun rather than flagrant.
Yet the NFL has a relatively conservative audience. Consider that a wardrobe malfunction associated with the sport can have widespread consequences. However, Victoria's Secret has both a need and opportunity in pursuing new audiences.
Aimed at a collegiate crowd, PINK has contributed to a phenomenon that Victoria's Secret has experienced: Its audience is trending younger. Thus, the college age crowd is increasingly becoming a core audience, one that the company wants to build on with both high school and young adult shoppers. PINK has become important enough to Victoria's Secret that it has developed an independent catalog for the brand. Given the sports-links PINK already maintains with licensed products featuring college teams, the NFL license gives shoppers occasion to adopt a popular style in circumstances that might be more consistent with their post- or pre-collegiate lifestyles. Thus a New Yorker attending Michigan State can switch from her Spartan green PINKs to her Jets green after graduation.
The NFL deal offers Victoria's Secret another advantage. The football season is short and, as it runs, focuses more and more intently on a smaller number of Super Bowl bound teams that often have fans nationwide. With that kind of momentum proceeding through the autumn, and right through the holidays, Victoria's Secret has natural NFL-related promotional opportunities it can exploit.
As the Victoria's Secret audience tracks younger, parent company Limited Brands (LTD) is looking at other ways to broadening its popularity. The Pout brand, which the company developed with a more European sensibility in mind, may tickle the aspirations of fasionistas who would never deign wear the oranges and golds that sparkle out of the PINK collection. Pout, said Sharen Turney, Victoria's Secret CEO in Limited Brands first quarter conference call, as transcribed by SeekingAlpha, "really fits in between PINK and the kind of the core bra" that represents the heart of the Victoria's Secret brand.
Back in the PINK, consider that just because the NFL audience is conservative doesn't mean it will have a problem with PINK licensed apparel line. In football circles, the juxtaposition of scanty dress and all-American values often produces success, and not just in the case of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Who would have thought Joe Namath could sell pantyhose? Not everyone was comfortable with the 1974 Namath pantyhose commercial, but it got the public's attention, and even if it provoked some consternation, it eventually generated amusement and even affection. Lifelong Jets fans wince may wince they see the camera pan up Joe Willie's pantyhose wrapped legs, but they laugh, too.
Young women clad in their team's PINKs surely will win approval across the NFL as grandstand beauties that television broadcasts like to contrast with the on-field beasts. They might even muster something like the air time cheerleaders get as broadcast directors go about their endless task of filling in air time between plays. And that's another potential plus and plug for Victoria's Secret.