VICTORIA’S SECRET
AND CORPORATE
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
NINA FALCONE
VICTORIA’S SECRET MISSION
STATEMENT
“Our mission is to deliver best in class, captivating,
branded customer experience that builds loyalty
and enables consistent sales and profit growth.”
This statement is missing a socially responsible
approach that will greatly help both the company
and the world at a local, national, and global level.
Corporate Social Responsibility
According to DePaul University’s definition, corporate social
responsibility “challenges us to maintain vigilant attention to the
common good and to the sacred dignity of all people, especially
the poor and marginalized.”
Five core principles of understanding socially responsible
leadership:
1. Self-understanding and personal integrity
2. Taking seriously the perspective of others
3. Contributing to a larger community
4. Knowledge and intellectual competence
5. Striving for excellence
Why Victoria’s Secret?
Victoria’s Secret is a multi-billion dollar American
company that is best known for its glamorous bras,
intimates, swim suits, and top fashion models. As a
leader in the retail industry, Victoria’s Secret has a
great influence on society and other companies. If the
fashion company incorporated socially responsible
leadership into their work, they would be improving
the moral of their name, the world around them, and
set a great example for others. With that being said,
today I will be presenting three news ideas that
Victoria’s Secret would greatly benefit from.
The Models
Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio: Brazil
Behati Prinsloo: Namibia
Candice Swanepoel: South Africa
Chanel Iman, Erin Heatherton, Lindsay Ellingson,
and Marisa Miller: United States
Doutzen Kroes: Netherlands
Heidi Klum: Germany
Miranda Kerr: Australia
Rosie Huntington: United Kingdom
When people think about Victoria’s Secret, they
immediately think about the beautiful models
on the runway, in the stores, and on their
television. These angels have come from all
over the world to be a part of this company, so
why not celebrate that?
The Guardian Angel Project
The Victoria’s Secret Angels are seen in advertisements
all across the United States. While most would
recognize the VS models, the public is not given any
information about who these girls are when they are
off the runway. They are the face of Victoria’s Secret,
and they also receive a great amount of criticism from
the public for all having “perfect”, “unnatural” bodies.
The Guardian Angel Project will be a good way to
introduce the angels to the public and show how they
are helping the countries that they come from.
How it works…
Victoria’s Secret will be sending each model back to
their home country for two weeks. Each girl’s
assignment will be to find a charity that they believe
could help the greatest number of people. They will
set goals of how much money they would like to
raise and then head back to the United States. Each
angel will be then be assigned a different region of
stores that they will work with directly in order to
help raise those funds. They will visit each store,
sign autographs, meet employees and shoppers,
and well as collect donations for their charity.
How VS will benefit…
This will help shoppers connect with the
models at a more personal level while
proving to society that the girls do much
more than walk down a runway. Victoria’s
Secret will gain support, therefore their sales
will rise, while charities all across the world
will benefit as well.
Fun Fact: According to dictionary.com, the definition
of an angel is “a person whose actions and thoughts
are constantly virtuous”.
Today, Victoria’s Secret will be celebrating local angels
who are fully beautiful, inside and out.
beautiFULL Campaign
The beautiFULL Campaign has been created to help find
local females who have proven to be fully beautiful,
both on the inside and the outside. Each region of
Victoria’s Secret stores will hold a contest to find a local
angel who has dedicated much of her life to help the
poor and marginalized in neighborhoods around her.
Each winner will be featured in a nation wide
commercial that will give a description of their work,
followed by them modeling their favorite bra, showing
the relationship between the strength of a woman who
is comfortable in her own skin and the power of the
work that they are doing.
What society will see…
The beautiFULL Campaign will show that Victoria’s
Secret not only cares about strong physical qualities in
their angels, but also that they have a deep love and
compassion for helping others. This campaign will
encourage young girls to go out and make a difference,
proving to society that a good heart is necessary to be a
true angel. At this point, both the Victoria’s Secret
supermodels and those participating in the campaign
will be working to help different charities through both
beautiFULL and the Guardian Angel projects.
Victoria’s Secret: Supporting the
World Initiative
Many women all across the world are braless due to financial
instability, destruction of countries, or lack of materials.
Today, Victoria’s Secret is looking to its loyal customers to help
make a difference. The Supporting the World Initiative will
run in stores all across the United States, encouraging women
to help others who are less fortunate than they are. Every
time a customer brings in a bra to donate (new or used) they
will receive ten percent off of their entire purchase. At the
end of each month, the bras that were donated will be
distributed all over the world to women in need.
A Win-Win Situation
How the Supporting the World Initiative helps all parties…
• Victoria’s Secret gains the recognition of helping others in
poor areas while sustaining the support of loyal customers
and gaining help from new customers who want to see a
difference in society. The rise in customers will cover the
cost of the discounts and delivering the bras.
• The customer gains the satisfaction of knowing that they
are helping out another woman who desperately needs
their help in addition to getting a discount on their
purchase.
• Women at a local, national, and global level are given bras
that they need to support and comfort them.
Victoria’s Secret: A Leader in
Improving Society
The Guardian Angels, beautiFULL, and Supporting the World
Campaigns will work together to help improve Victroria’s Secret’s
work in terms of socially responsible leadership. These three
efforts will improve how the company is viewed by shoppers, help
neighbors in need, and influence other companies to do the same.
Both society and the company will greatly benefit by participating
in these efforts. Similarly to Starbucks and Enron, Victoria’s Secret
will investigate into the financial aspect of these endeavors.
However, unlike those other companies, Victoria’s Secret will not
hurt financially with the discounts or delivery due to the income
brought in by the extra customers that are expected to visit the
stores and help fundraise. Our stores, models, and strong work
ethics can be a great example of socially responsible leadership all
around the world.