Social Media Marketing, Brand Awareness: How Victoria’s Secret Cuts Its ROI Short

Logo TheMainStreetAnalyst 8713679455_e0394e3f7e_zFrom time to time I check on my social media marketing and brand management skills and knowledge to see if I can add something. When doing so, one of my tasks is visiting social media platforms of some of the big shots in the social media world and business to see what they do and how they do it. What comes to light is mostly confidence boosting, for me, many other social media marketing consultants and small businesses. Not so much for the huge brand Victoria’s Secret, which I today use as an example on “how to do better”.

One of my sticks is, even the big brands make mistakes in social media marketing, brand management and in their attempts to accomplish better results. I use this more in support of the entire social media marketing industry rather than a bragging argument regarding my skills and knowledge about the subject. The support is needed because there are still many people out there that have doubts about what social media can do for brands, businesses and organizations of all trades. But this an entire different story and I have talked about that in the past and will probably talk about it in the future again.

Let’s have a look at my findings regarding Victoria’s Secret’s shortfall in brand management and revenue creation using social media. I came across their Twitter page on Tuesday, 08/13/2013 and some of the numbers caught my attention.

Victoria’s Secret has 2,500,000+ followers and is following only 1,100+ people. With all due respect of the brand, this is a waste of resources! Why so? Well, there are a couple of things to consider:

  1. Brand advocacy and influencer marketing. There are lots of people that re-tweet stuff of VS, but how about you get another 50,000 more people (this could very well be a much higher number) to deliver your message to their network, daily? Just think of the number of people 50,000 advocates or influencers can reach with tweets and re-tweets.
  2. Sales. If I calculate this with low multipliers, Victoria’s Secret is leaving approximately $20,000,000 in annual sales revenue on the table. That’s a good number and not even VS is big enough to let that one pass, especially if they don’t have to do much for it. Think ROI!

I admit that the sales number is difficult enough to calculate. I also admit that I don’t have a case that is comparable to this one, or has shown this calculation works. However, I do claim that the number is a rather conservative number. Using 50,000 people (or more) that are excited that VS is following them will create a big enough reach to make the sales number above a realistic one.

Some might think they don’t need to follow, they have enough business or recognition. That might be true, but I am sure that L Brands Inc., who owns Victoria’s Secret wouldn’t mind further growth. Besides that, doing business never means resting on past accomplishments.

What to take out of this? Well, first of all, not everything has been tried to make a final stand on whether social media marketing works as a major revenue creator or not. If not for revenue, it also shows that even the big guns with huge budgets forget the small stuff in the social media world and in their efforts to boost their brand.

2 responses to “Social Media Marketing, Brand Awareness: How Victoria’s Secret Cuts Its ROI Short

  1. Pingback: Social Media Marketing, Brand Awareness: How Victoria’s Secret Cuts Its ROI Short | Sannsab

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