-the brand is in the bag-

Via adlist, I happened on an interesting article about shopping bags and branding. It claims that, in fashion in particular, shopping bags are a crucial element of the branding and advertising mix.

I'll say. Let's look the famous lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret, whose stores are all adorned in the same sick pink.

"Now," I thought, "Guys buy a lot of lingerie, so why did you paint the stores a color men naturally find abhorrant?"

This is why I'm not in branding, yet.

Victoria's Secret has embraced their retail image wholeheartedly, and one of the trademark brand images is their bag and the corresponding gift box: white and white stripes with a black satin bow. The bag and box are visually reminscient of the store--a conservative pink background broken up by a slightly naughty black strip of satin. That image follows shoppers out of the Closet, and serves as a slighty sexy advertisement for women and men shoppers alike.

The bag is a success, but that success is because of the attitude--the brand personality--the bag respresents.

See, when you're a guy, walking into a lingerie store can be a bit harrowing. But Victoria's Secret has made in-roads by being unabashedly feminine but still focusing on the male customer. They even focus on selling their Victoria's Secret credit card memberships to men. When I am asked that question at checkout, the subtext is, "it's ok to be here." For a nervous shopper, that is huge.

And the subtext of the Victoria Secret bag is different for every consumer. For females, the bag says, "I'm sexy." For males, it says, "Oh, yeah, I'm lucky." Either way, it proclaims a message people want to shout out. And it makes everyone proud to be out of the Closet.

That, more than anything else, is probably why there is a sort of public embracing of Victoria's Secret's racier television forays.

Posted by brandon barr at February 16, 2004 09:37 AM | TrackBack