PESTEL Analysis VS

PESTEL Analysis

Political:
-NuNude protest outside London Oxford Circus. “We were fed up seeing these so-called perfect body images online, with there being just one perceived beautiful body type,” Said Mac (Founder to Huff Post). After the VS show they stood outside the VS shop in London to show true diversity. 
-Means that VS are behind in the ideologies and not in line with consumer needs and wants e.g Gigi Gorgeous video, Tess Holliday Instagram Post (Lack of influencer support)

-CEO/ Marketing told Vogue that Trans and Plus size models didn't fit into their 'fantasy' of the brand. Huge backlash, backwards ideologies, not keeping up with current brands and competitors e.g Savage X Fenty, Aerie, Ann Summers

Economic
-Target audience has a smaller disposable income. According to a Mintel report, women aged 16-24 spend £37 in the last 12 months on underwear. This had significantly increased in women aged 25-44 to £52 a year. This suggests baby boomers and millennials have more disposable income, this may be due to being in full-time work, and having 2 incomes. The target audience for VS is 16-24, the prices of bras start from around £20-£60, this doesn't coincide with income of their audience. Their consumer demographic may be unable to afford the brand and therefore turn to other brands e.g Primark, Ann Summers etc


Social
-The brand was originally created for Men to be able to shop comfortably, oversexualises women as as 'fantasy'. Women values have changed over the years to become more inclusive and body positive.
-The right in feminism especially over recent years, including the 'me too' movement has brought forward the empowerment of women and shuts down sexualisation of women. The brand is behind on this.
-Survey Monkey (Primary) 38% had liberal values and 82% were 16-25 suggesting that Gen X and Z are liberal mainly but VS doesn't reflect the consumer.
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Technological
-20 stores set to close in the US (Huff Post), may be due to a decline in Brick and Mortar and increase in online industry. 32% people buy their lingerie online (Mintel)
-No much engagement on social media online, only use angels as social influencers.
-According to https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2018 in March 2018 17.4% of all retail sales were online.
-The brand manager of VS stores (Primary) said that 70% of people are wearing the wrong bra size, which is why they do in-store experiences and fittings
-No interaction with consumer on website on social channels

Environment:
-WWF study L Brand given 0.5/19.5 for cotton sourcing. They have been caught for having poor traceability on their sourcing and low commitment to sustainability.
-The Rainforest Action Network (2015); VS were in the fashion 15 for contributing most to the fashion footprint on the environment. This includes, land grabbing, abusing human rights and deforestation in areas that communities depend on. (Indonesia is main victim)
-According to IPE, VS scored 5/100 based on their supply chain in China. They haven't disclosed their supply chain in China, nor have they pushed suppliers to look at environmental impacts.

Legal:
-PETA has disclosed the brand who 'do test on animals' and urges people not to buy from them. VS is a part of this group and consumers have been exposed to the horrors of animal testing and as we are becoming more aware, we are choosing the companies that are fighting against this. This could cause VS to decline.
-The International Trade Union Confederation looked into sweat shops in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. VS uses these suppliers. They found the workers were forced to meet impossible targets or had pay cuts, received abuse, forced to work rest days and worked 100-130 hours overtime a month.