The Secret that Victoria Didn't Know

What the best way to move into an adjacent market?A recent Bloomberg Businessweek* article highlighted how not to do it, reporting briefly on the difficulties that Victoria’s Secret has had in moving from lingerie into the markets for sports bras, sweaters, jeans, and dresses. None of these new ventures has fared as well as planned, and in the words of CFO Stuart Burgdorfer, “we bought a lot of sports bras,” meaning far more than the chain of 1000 stores has sold.What Victoria is trying to do is to stretch in two directions at once, from the core lingerie space into sport apparel in one direction, and general apparel in the other.So what’s the problem?An innovation pro might tell her that if she wants to move into a market adjacent to the one she's presently occupying, she'll have to build credibility with consumers and convince them that she's knowledgeable in the new space. Somehow she's got to show them that her brand’s core values translate, and that hasn't happened yet.  Market feedback tells us that "bras" do not equal "sports bras."Many firms do through careful research – often ethnographic research – that explores the values, attitudes, and associations that people have, seeking to identify how to extend the brand successfully by leveraging and expanding on some core capability or message.  Based on the lack of success, it would appear that this is what Victoria did not do.  Indeed, the company should not have assumed that just because they sell a lot of bras, people would suddenly expect to buy sports bras from them also.  Instead, they’ve got to build credibility on the “sports” side of it before the product will work, but as of today, their web site shows absolutely no attempt to tell a new or different story, no athlete as a spokesmodel, no WNBA or tennis pro or Olympic athlete endorsement deals, just the more pictures of women in bras with the same seductive stare at the camera (except they’re a little sweatier), and hence no sports cred.An obvious question to probe this line of thinking is, “When was the last time anyone went into one of their stores, or browsed their web site, looking for sports apparel?”  And the answer could be, “Never happened.”Hence, the lesson – just because you can make the product and push it out to the market doesn’t mean people will want to buy it from you. We know from 3 decades of tech industry push that the “pull” approach is far stronger and achieves much better results.Pull happens when the product fulfills latent needs, and the maker has credibility as a legitimate vendor.  Perhaps a distribution deal with a major sports apparel retailer would have worked better; or a PR campaign about the company’s extensive research into consumer needs; or a few seconds of sports bra cred tucked into a Super Bowl commercial; maybe anything!The “field of dreams” era of marketing is over. Consumers have so much choice today – too much – and if you don’t reach them with a story that gives you credibility and speaks to their values, you probably won’t reach them at all. Apparently Victoria hasn’t done that, yet. * Bloomberg Businessweek, May 12 -18, 2014. Lindsey Rupp. “Victoria’s Secret Gets No Lift from Sports Bras.”