Will Victoria's Secret PINK Become the Next Juicy Couture?

RIP, PINK? Victoria’s Secret’s line marketed to a younger demographic than their VERY SEXY everything else that was once touted as the brand’s saving grace might to be going the way of Juicy Couture, to become a distant memory in fashion’s history of things that used to be cool.

BuzzFeed reports that according to a new customer survey, PINK, which was started by Victoria’s Secret to target their college consumers, could see a downward trend in sales in the near future:

…they said shows the majority of women in Pink’s core audience are not buying more of the brand and don’t view it as becoming more popular in the future. “Overpriced” and “expensive” were the top words to describe Pink’s most notable qualities, according to the survey, and respondents said they would prefer to shop for lingerie and loungewear at cheaper stores.

This news sits in sharp contrast to recent reports that showed that the brand was starting to make up a larger portion of Victoria’s Secret’s annual sales each year. “If the PINK brand does fall somewhat out of favor, we believe this is similar to what played out at competitor Juicy Couture,” the report reads. “PINK and Juicy Couture are similar in that they both target college age girls and a focus on lounge wear with novelty items such as the brand logo featured on sweat pants and sweat shirts.”

This isn’t dissimilar to what we’ve seen with brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Aeropostale, who have seen drops in sales over the past few years, which BuzzFeed has also reported on. In the case of AAA, their logoed, preppy style which once indicated money and status has fallen out of favor in exchange for trend-based clothing companies like Forever 21 or H&M.

PINK always seemed, to me, to be an attempt to get younger women in the door at Victoria’s Secret to buy a product they feel more comfortable buying than, let’s say, a lace corset. At the same time, they’re getting used to being around the more expensive underwear and are more likely to keep going back to that same store to buy when they’re older – only this time, the product will be different.

But the success of the line, which has prompted the company to open stand-alone PINK stores, seems to have turned it into a much larger endeavor than was perhaps originally intended; they’ve moved into selling NFL and MLB branded clothing and featured college sports teams on their wares as well. This means that, depending on which PINK location you’re in, you’ll see city and/or school specific clothing, a relatively unique way to sell clothes. The difference between PINK and Juicy Couture as products that is in PINK’s favor is that PINK is maybe something you’d want to be in active in, whether that active is watching a baseball game or playing in one. Juicy has always been about being cute and comfy while doing absolutely nothing.

As for Victoria’s Secret overall, their annual fashion extravaganza is still scheduled for December. A portion of that show over the past few years has been devoted to the PINK brand; the brand always features clothes that have a zany weirdness far more entertaining than simply watching the bazillion dollar bra walk down the runway (see the above photos from last year’s event, a look I’ve dubbed Woman As Bike). So that’s something exciting, for the time being at least.

Victoria’s Secret’s PINK Headed Down Like Juicy Couture, Analyst Says [BuzzFeed]