Primary Research: Visiting VS Meadowhall Store

9th January 2019

Visiting the VS Meadowhall Store

Today I visited my local VS store (Sheffield) to understand the branding of the stores, the atmosphere, customers and layout of the store.

The front of the store highly advertised the January Sales happening, with a big sign saying 'up to 70% off' to draw the customers in. The model behind has sketch like images around her.

The first display that caught my eye was the perfumes. The display catches my eye and was dark and sultry, it followed onto the them of the store and there was a lot of dim lighting and editorial models in similar poses around the store. The perfume are popular and the 'bombshell' was especially was advertised right as you walked into the store. This was extremely on brand. 

Above nearly all the bra display were these images, editorial in black and white and advertising the angels. Again fitting the theme os sexy and sultry. Quite dim lighting around these too. 

Towards the back of the store, the angels were advertised. Through framed photos on classic VS pink walls and with sketchy hearts drawn on, this is very on brand and seems to be seen around all the stores in the UK.

From visiting this stores a few other in Yorkshire and the London store, all of them so far have had the latest VS Fashion Show playing on a huge screen in store. This is a great marketing tool, for people to ask, watch and enjoy the shows in store. This is a huge part of VS as a brand, it brings in huge business and a lot of new engagement from consumers on different social media channels. This is also bringing the digital world into in-store experience. VS for a long time has prided itself on the in-store experience, fittings and finding the perfect bra, this is combining both and keeping up with the fast-moving digital world by bringing that online aspect into store. 

An eye-catching display was the black and red range in the middle section of the store. Filled with classic colour schemes, bra styles and material. In the classic style of VS there was VS logo straps 'logo love' tartan, lace and 'bombshell' written all over a bra too. This is very on brand but very eye-catching with the colour combination.

The best-selling products had their own display, not to be missed, both had handwritten style writing advertising the bras on display. Dream angels were advertised with muted colours, lacey sides but lightly lined for comfort. Not as eye-catching due to colours but has the classic pink and red running through the display to keep on brand.

-The T-shirt bra stand seem to attract Gen x and Z consumers, very colourful display and was central to the store. Being very focused on comfort and with the style of print on the style of bra it seemed the advertised was aimed at the younger side of their audience. However the must have listened to the consumer due to comfort being very important to women when bra-shopping.

-The displays were kept tidy and well-stocked

The back half of the store was full of VS accessories, body sprays and lotions being the main product advertised here. Many of the photos above shown were close ups and seductive style poses of the angels. It's clear to see the body spray were popular, this was the most popular area along with the sale area right at the front of the shop. Lipgloss and mini accessories were displayed on the till area as 'quick grabs' for customers. These were sectioned by scent and colour.

The sale across the front section of the store looked very similar to this. It looked a little like a jumble sale and bras were mixed into different sections. The ones at this section were all around £15 which is more than 50% off. Due to this low sale price, it was obvious this was the busiest section. 

Customers: There was a very wide range of customers across the from of the store. Older, different sizes, values etc. The diverse range in customers came to my surprise but this was mainly around the front section. The target audience was those shopping the full-price/ All year round products. The sizes had a big range and it was quite busy. The time of day I came in was 12:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, it's good to note that this is the quietest day of the week here. I am going to do another visit over the weekend and hopefully get a few customers views of the store and experience they had etc.