An exploration of brand perception and brand identity in female luxury designer fashion

Abstract

The fashion industry has witnessed significant changes in the past few years. The industry has opened its doors up diverse groups of women that do not conform to the fashion world’s definition of ‘female beauty’ (Givan, 2017). Society has started to voice profound situations of thoughtlessness and cavalier culture appropriation, in order for the fashion world to start embracing diversity (Givan, 2017).Therefore, the aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the opinions and views that women in South Africa had toward Victoria Secret, in order to determine if their perceptions aligned with the brands identity. This study was based on an axiological position of interpretivism. The primary research findings were collected using semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The nine participants that took part in the study were; female consumers between the ages of 18 to 25 that reside in the East of Pretoria, South Africa. Participants had either come into contact with, or purchased the Victoria Secret brand previously. The semi-structured interviews contained the following; eighteen in-depth questions, two Victoria’s Secret advertising communication campaign video’s, and one visual image of the Victoria Secret angels in the “2018 Strapless Bra Campaign”. From the primary research findings, seven prominent themes appeared; buying behaviour, brand association, culture, diversity, beauty standards, self-image and sexualisation. Furthermore, the findings revealed that Victoria Secret continued to portray an image of ‘idealised female beauty’ with clear absence of female diversity in their advertising and marketing efforts, highlighting the contrast of consumer perceptions in relation to Victoria’s Secret brand identity. This had fundamentally impacted the consumer buying behaviour toward the brand.