lingerie brands

LINGERIE BRANDS

BRAND SENTIMENT SURVEY REPORT

DECEMBER 3, 2015 | MARY CATHERINE PFLUG

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Literature Review ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Methodology ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Survey Contents ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Demographics ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Brand Selection ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Brand Details ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Consumer Spending Habits ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Favorite Brands ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Love & Hate ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Brand Awareness ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Hypotheses ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Hypothesis 1 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Hypothesis 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Hypothesis 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Hypothesis 4 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Hypothesis 5 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16

Hypothesis 6 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16

Hypothesis 7 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

Hypothesis 8 & 9 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Hypothesis 10 ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Hypothesis Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 21

Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Appendix .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24

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Introduction The lingerie industry has yearly revenues globally of $32 billion, with 40% market share in the US.1 Lingerie is defined as undergarments including bras, panties, corsets, garter belts, and more. Since the recession in 2008, the demand for lingerie has rebounded strongly. The industry is still in the growth stage of its lifecycle and has very few regulations. Technology changes also do not strongly impact this industry. There is low industry globalization, with many of the major players based in the US. Revenue volatility and capital intensity are both low. There are no direct tariffs on lingerie goods. This industry is dominated by a single major player: Victoria’s Secret. This lingerie mammoth is owned by L Brands, Inc. which brought in 11.454 billion in revenue in 2014, with 1.042 billion in net income. The industry is filled with other players, seen in Table 1. No other company comes close to Victoria’s Secret when it comes to profit creation or social media reach.

Table 1: Social Media Statistics and Financials of Key Players in Lingerie Industry

Brand Social Media Followers2 Net Income (in millions)

Fashionbi Index ®3 Facebook Twitter Instagram Total Score Rank

Victoria’s Secret4 26,399,950 8,320,000 24,600,000 59,319,950 1,042.00 142.27 6 Soma Intimates 546,724 17,200 7,109 571,033 64.64 1.12 1277 Aerie5 1,468,740 98,700 324,000 1,891,440 80.32 9.02 309 Agent Provocateur 406,853 44,200 245,000 696,053 4.67 3.83 571 Hanes 2,987,299 20,200 0 3,007,499 404.52 n/a n/a Intimissimi6 2,287,293 32,400 369,000 2,688,693 20.99 4.68 512 La Perla 127,954 29,100 185,000 342,054 -11.79 4.12 573

Even though Victoria’s Secret is the behemoth of the lingerie industry, there are people that are unsatisfied with the brand. Anecdotally, one hears the complaints (and praises too) of women about Victoria’s Secret’s products, customer service, sizes available, fit, advertising, and more. Thus there must be more to the picture. What makes Victoria’s Secret so great? How does it stack up against other different and smaller brands? Women’s intimates are important purchases – necessities and also luxuries. It’s a meaningful industry because women use and interact with the products on a daily basis, often forming “relationships” with their bras, feeling betrayed when bras wear out, stretch out, change shape, or generally fail due to poor quality. Bras can be status symbols, intended to be shown off, yet they also can be personal items not necessarily meant to be seen by anyone else, entirely comfortable and functional. It’s a purchase made based on comfort, quality, and style, and retailers have a unique challenge when making successful products. Literature Review There have been several research studies done so far on brand hate, brand love, and brand passion. This survey and resulting report focuses on this subject using the lingerie industry as a vehicle to study hate, love and passion. Article: What Type of Relationship Do We Have with Loved Brands?7 By Marc Fetscherin This article details the results of a study done (on a test group of students in Japan and the US) to explore the measure of “brand love” using two theories: the existing interpersonal relationship theory and the new 1 "How US Lingerie Dominates The Global Market." The Lingerie Journal RSS. November 11, 2014. 2 Data collected on November 2, 2015 3 Fashionbi Index ® scores & ranks for October 1–31, 2015. The Fashionbi Index® is independent rating system that uses social media & finances.

2 Data collected on November 2, 2015 3 Fashionbi Index ® scores & ranks for October 1–31, 2015. The Fashionbi Index® is independent rating system that uses social media & finances. 4 Net income stated is of L Brands, Inc., parent company of Victoria’s Secret. 5 Net income stated is of American Eagle, parent company of Aerie. 6 Net income stated is of Calzedonia Group, parent company of Intimissimi. 7 Fetscherin, Marc. "What Type of Relationship Do We Have with Loved Brands?" Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2014, 430-40.

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parasocial relationship theory. The Interpersonal theory likens the way that consumers form relationships with brands to the way they form relationships with other humans. The parasocial theory describes brand relationships as one-sided (like the love people have for celebrities). Through several hypotheses relating to brand love, brand loyalty, purchase intention and word of mouth, the study determines that the brand love theory should be constructed as one-sided rather than two-sided. This makes sense for the lingerie industry; people feel passionately about their bras and underwear because wearing, shopping for, and getting rid of these types of garments feels personal. When you wear something close to your skin that shapes a part of your body, it really feels like there is a two-way relationship. However, when it comes to the corporations that sell these garments and the garments themselves, there is no reciprocal personal love or hate. It is one-sided, where the consumer feels something toward the product and the company, and not the inverse. With products like these, the line becomes blurry, and thus in this study it is important to keep that in mind. The questions of the survey were written with special care to ensure that no questions were asked to mislead the respondent into talking about how they believe brands behave in a way towards them, but instead how respondents feel about the brands. Article: Negative Double Jeopardy: The role of anti-brand sites on the internet8 By S. Umit Kucuk This article explores the idea that the more popular/valuable a brand is, the more anti-brand sites there are on the internet related to the brand. This concept is labled “Negative Double Jeopardy” or NDJ. This concept is created and explored by the author in order to minimize the negative impacts of anti-branding efforts. Hate sites take advantage of clever domain names and mistyping to attract viewers. The most anti brand sites were found for brands with both high rank and high consistency. This is relevant to my study because there are several anti-brand sites and countless anti-brand articles about Victoria’s Secret online, criticizing Victoria’s Secret for its advertising campaigns, quality, employee treatment, and feminist issues. Article: The Power of Brand Love9 By Ryan Barker, Jeffrey Peacock, and Marc Fetscherin This article provides alternative evidence against the statement that there is ‘no evidence that building brand love leads to higher market share, sales or profitability.’ The idea of brand-love is universal and should not be confined to a single product category since consumers will often look at all brands equally when it comes to love. The results of the study indicate that brand love does in fact signal superior company performance and higher total shareholder return. My survey results are contrary to the findings of this article; the most loved lingerie brands are actually not the financially highest performing brands. Source: Consumer Brand Relationships: Introduction Chapter10 Susan Fournier, Michael Breazeale, and Marc Fetscherin This chapter outlines the major concepts of creating, maintaining, and finding strong consumer-brand relationships. Brand relationships are complex psychological and cultural phenomena, made even more complex by the internet and other technology. This book covers four parts: 1. Classification of brand relationship forms and types & comparison to interpersonal relationships, 2. Exploration of emotional bonds involved in strong brand relationships, 3. Discussion of interplay between people’s goals and the brands that reflect this, and 4. Theoretical exploration in the practice of these concepts in a managerial setting. The chapters are filled with studies and evidence for the ideas put forth, and vary greatly in topic within this area of study.

8 Kucuk, S Umit. "Negative Double Jeopardy: The Role of Anti-brand Sites on the Internet." J Brand Manag Journal of Brand Management 15, no. 3 (2007): 209-22. doi:10-1057/palgrave.bm.2550100. 9 Barker, Ryan, Jeffrey Peacock, and Marc Fetscherin. "The Power of Brand Love." International Journal of Market Research 57, no. 5 (2015): 1-4. 10 Fetscherin, Marc, Susan Fournier, and Michael Breazeale. "Introduction." In Consumer Brand Relationships. Taylor and Francis, 2012.

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The most relevant studies to this project occur in Chapter 4 (brand fling) & Chapter 5 (childhood friendship). These concepts illustrate the overlaps of human nature with views toward physical inanimate objects. Brand relationships must be viewed differently than human relationships based on the factor of (lack of) reciprocation, as discussed in Chapter 8. Many of the chapters study elements that connect human feeling and history with brands, and these ideas are worthwhile, since they connect on such a basic level to the human condition. Humans view all inanimate things in relationship to the human form; this is the basic foundation of architecture, classical art, computer systems design, and product design. Lingerie is no exception, and is, in fact, a very obvious example, since the products themselves are literally designed with the human form in mind, not just designed using theory, like architecture and art. Article: There’s No Passion; I Need Passion: Why Some Brands Excite Consumers So Much11 By Andrea Hemetsberger The author of this article defines consumer passion as “an intense feeling of attraction toward and desire for an object. Passion is linked to strong feelings like love, feelings of spiritual or religious excitement, and adoration.” In order for brands to qualify as ‘passion brands’, they need to serve certain psychological and symbolic functions. Some of these functions include helping consumers define & express a strong personality, improve or maintain a psychological well-being, and define social status. Some people’s passions for objects (and thus brands) are private, like lingerie aficionados or collectors of art, while others are very public, like those that are devoted to technology brands or fans of television shows. Hemetsberger states that there seems to be no relationship between a woman’s personality and her passion for lingerie (defined as private passion), whereas in public passions there is strong correlation between personality and brand passion. Lingerie is an ideal product that fits into her study well. My theory is that higher-priced and more luxurious lingerie brands could qualify as passion brands, whereas functional or comfort-focused lingerie brands could not. The profitability of passion brands vs. non-passion brands is another interesting concept that could be explored in further research. Methodology This report details the results of an online survey issued for two weeks in November, 2015. The survey contains 23 questions and the full text can be found in the appendix. Respondents were limited to being female and living in the United States with two filter questions at the start of the survey. This survey was created with the purpose of doing exploratory research. It was distributed using personal social media (twitter and facebook), emailed to friends and colleagues, posted by friends on their personal social media, and posted to private online forums. Thus this is a convenience sample, and naturally the respondents are not normally distributed in age, income, and location. 352 responses were collected. After cleaning the data, 263 usable respondents remained. 11 respondents were removed because they selected “male” as their gender, one was removed because they selected “other” as their gender, and 6 respondents were removed because they did not live in the US. The remainder were removed because they did not answer at least 50% of the questions. In Excel and SPSS software, the data was cleaned by labeling questions, correcting spellings, grouping question results into new categories (for example, transforming ages provided into age ranges), organizing results, and defining variables. Survey Contents The survey focused on lingerie purchasing habits and brand hate and love for the selected brands. Respondents were asked to rank the brands on a 5-point lickert scale ranging from “Hate it” to “Love it” with like and dislike measures in between. Next, respondents were asked to select the brands that they had actually purchased items from, and then the were asked to rank those brands on a satisfied to dissatisfied 5-point lickert scale for the areas of customer service, price, selection available, quality, store convenience, fit, and style. The next group of questions focused on spending habits. Respondents were asked the average 11 Hemetsberger, Andrea. "There's No Passion; I Need Passion: Why Some Brands Excite Consumers So Much." GfK Marketing Intelligence Review

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44.1%

26.4%

14.5%

6.2%

0.9%

2.6%

5.3%

Less than 25K

25-50K

50,001-70K

70,001-100K

100,001-125K

125,001-150K

More than 200,000

price they pay for a bra, the average price they pay for a pair of underwear, and average amount of money they spend on lingerie in total per year. Respondents were asked open-ended questions about the brand of their favorite bra and favorite pair of underwear that they own and then why they love it. Respondents were asked what percent discount would cause them to switch brands from their current favorite. Next, respondents were asked to measure the percent of their lingerie shopping done at each type of retailer. The survey concluded with demographic questions of age, state, and yearly salary. Demographics Because of the convenience sample taken, a majority of my respondents are female, young, and live in the Southern United States. Fig. 1 shows the most states with the highest number of respondents. Fig. 2 shows the age range of respondents. Fig. 3 shows the income of respondents. Income here is not a useful factor because of the breakdown of respondents. Likely most respondents are college students dependent on parents for spending income. More studies would have to be done to confirm this. Fig. 1: States with Highest Number of Respondents Fig. 2 Age Breakdown Brand Selection

Fig. 3: Income

In this figure, the numbers on the right represent counts for each particular state. Based on this figure, one can see that the most respondents (76 women) live in Florida, the survey issuer’s current state of residence.

In this figure, the labels “18 – 24” represent age ranges for respondents. 80% of all respondents are 30 years or younger. This is likely due to the fact that the survey issuer is a college student.

This figure shows the percentage of respondents that fall into each yearly salary group. As you can see, most respondents make less than 25,000 per year. This makes sense because a majority of the respondents are below the age of 30 and are likely college students dependent on parental income.

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Brand Selection Each brand studied in this survey was selected for specific purpose. Victoria’s Secret was used as the starting point for this survey. This study focuses on Victoria’s Secret for obvious reasons, having high market share, high social media presence, and high sales. All other brands that were selected were chosen with their relationship to Victoria’s Secret in mind. Soma Intimates was selected because it is has its own stores and branding campaigns, and is not sold in mass retailers or department stores, similar to Victoria’s Secret. It has a larger size range than Victoria’s Secret and has a

different advertising focus. Often, Soma is considered a brand for more mature women and emphasizes fit and comfort in their ads. Generally, their products are more expensive than Victoria’s Secret. Aerie is a monobrand like Victoria’s Secret and Soma Intimates, sold only in its own stores, however it is considered to be a very young brand. Aerie is known for its recent commitment to not using photoshop on its models. Agent Provocateur was selected because it is a high-end and very expensive brand. Victoria’s Secret has its designer collection which is comparable to Agent Provocateur in style and price. Agent provocateur is worn by celebrities and is considered a status symbol, mentioned in popular music. Hanes was selected because it is very different from Victoria’s Secret; it has low prices, is known for basics rather than fashion, does not advertise using fashion or sex appeal, and is sold in many retailers, not just its own stores. Hanes was selected over Fruit of the Loom because it has larger yearly revenues. Intimissimi was selected because it is similar to Victoria’s Secret in its marketing. Each year, Intimissimi hosts a performance, Intimissimi on Ice, with celebrity guest stars and musical guests, similar to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Intimissimi also selects well-known supermodels as the face of its brand and is worn by celebrities globally. Intimissimi differs from Victoria’s Secret in that it offers even fewer larger sizes, and has a smaller selection. It recently opened an online US retail website, and has yet to open a US Store. It is well-known in Europe. La Perla was selected because it is similar to Agent Provocateur in that it is a high-end, expensive brand, however it is advertised very differently. La Perla products are sold in luxurious but stoic and sparse stores, and is advertised online with photos of high-fashion models (pale, thin, and small chested) in a clean, simple, and white website. Agent Provocateur’s stores are highly elaborate, with black and pink accents, glitter, crystal chandeliers, and comfy seating areas, and its website has a black background with pink accents, showing curvy models and highlighting sex appeal alongside fashion. Brand Details Table 2 and Fig. 4 below show a breakdown of details about each brand and their position in relation to availability and price. Table 2 below shows the price, size offerings, and number of locations of the brands in this survey. Prices are derived by taking the average of all listed prices online, excluding sale prices. See Exhibit 6 for a breakdown of average prices. Size ranges and number of store locations are found on each brand’s website. Fig. 4 shows a perceptual map of the brands in this survey. Since it is limited to respondents in the United States, the x-axis of this two by two matrix shows the number of retailers in the US. Size of the circle is determined by social media presence, which can be found in Fig. 1. The y-axis is price.

BRANDS SURVEYED:

Victoria’s Secret Soma Intimates

Aerie Hanes

Agent Provocateur Intimissimi

La Perla

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Table 2: Comparative Competitors Table*

Company Average Prices Available Sizes Locations

Victoria’s Secret Bra**: $46.61 Panty**: $13.35

30A(32AA)- 40DDD

US: 1,185 Total: 1,570

Soma Bra: $57.28 Panty: $19.57 32A-44H US & Total: 250

Aerie Bra: $33.87 Panty: $9.30 30AA-40DDD US & Total: 101

Hanes Bra: $20.78 Panty: $4.17 34A – 48DD Variety of Big-Box

Retailers Nationwide***

Intimissimi Bra: $49.28 Panty: $20.76 32B(34A)-38D US: 0

Total: 550

Agent Provocateur Bra: $333.88 Panty: $236.95 32A-38F US: 16

Total: 106

La Perla Bra: $307.21 Panty: $93.13 32A-38D US: 14

Total: 150 *Data collected on October 5, 2015 **Outliers were removed for this calculation. Bra Outliers: $258 & $228 | Panty Outliers: $98, $128(3 pairs), $198, $228 *** Hanes products are sold in the following retailers: Bealls, Bealls Florida, Belk, Boscov’s, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Hanes, JCPenny, Kmart, Kohl's, Macy’s, Meijer, Sam’s Club, Sears, Shopko, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart

Fig. 4: Perceptual Map

As you can see from the perceptual map, Victoria’s Secret has the most social media reach and many US retailers. Hanesbrand is the only brand with more retailers, since it is ubiquitous, available in dozens of popular big-box stores. It is also the cheapest in price. Intimissimi, La Perla, and Agent Provocateur all reside in the first quadrant, with few retailers in the US and expensive prices, making them hard-to-get luxury items. Soma and Aerie float near Victoria’s Secret, with a higher presence in the US, with Soma slightly more expensive than Victoria’s Secret, and Aerie decidedly cheaper.

Many US Retailers

Few US Retailers

Less Expensive

AGENT PROVOCATEUR

AERIE

VICTORIA’S SECRET

INTIMISSIMI

LA PERLA

SOMA

HANES

More Expensive

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Consumer Spending Habits In the Figs below, one can see a breakdown of the shopping habits of the respondents of this survey. Fig. 5 shows a breakdown of the average consumer’s buying trends. Interestingly, most respondents shop at Monobrands (stores that only sell one brand of lingerie) and more people shop online than they do at boutique lingerie retailers. Fig. 6 shows the money spent yearly on lingerie items. Figs. 7 and 8 show the price ranges that respondents pay for their intimates. Not pictured here is data about the percent on sale that an item would have to be for the respondent to purchase the item. The average discount required for a person to try a new brand is 45.1%. A majority, 64.5%, of all respondents selected that the discount must be between 30% – 50%. This question was asked without asking about the regular price of the item, so it may be inaccurate for items that are priced very high or very low. Fig. 5: Shopping Habits at Lingerie Retailers Fig. 6: Money Spent Yearly on Lingerie Items

Fig. 7: Average Price Paid for a Bra Fig. 8: Average Price Paid for a Pair of Underwear

This figure shows the breakdown of where the average respondent purchases their lingerie items. The numbers listed above show the averages of the results obtained. The average person buys 40% of the lingerie items from stores that only sell one brand, 22% of their purchases from mass retailers, 19% from department stores, 13% online, and 6% from boutique retailers.

1.7%

11.3%

20.9%

26.5%

20.9%

12.2%

6.5%

Less than $10

$10 - $20 $21 - $30 $31 - $40 $41 - $50 $51 - $60 More than $60

21.3%

50.0%

24.3%

3.5% 0.9%

Less than $5 $5 - $9 $10 - $15 $16 - $20 More than $20

This figure shows the average price selected by respondents that they pay for a bra. As you can see, these results are normally distributed. 68.3% of all respondents pay between $21 - $50 for a bra.

This figure shows the average price selected by respondents that they pay for a pair of underwear. These results are left-skewed, with 50% of all respondents paying $5 - $9 for a pair of panties.

3.90%

12.30%

15.80%

20.20%

15.80% 14.00%

10.10% 7.90%

Less than $20

$20 - $50

$51 - $75

$76 - $100

$101 - 150

$151 - $200

$201 - $300

More than $300

This figure shows the money spent per year on lingerie selected by respondents. 51.8% of all respondents spend between $51 and $150 on lingerie per year. This data is normally distributed.

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Favorite Brands In the survey, I asked two open-ended question to respondents: Think about your favorite bra. What brand is it? Why do you love it? Then I did the same for underwear, asking two open ended questions asking what brand was their favorite pair of underwear and why. Everyone has their go-to pair of underwear and bra. Here are the results: Fig. 9: Wordcloud of Underwear Responses Fig. 10: Wordcloud of Bra Responses

As you can see from the wordclouds above, the most frequent and important quality for both underwear and bras is comfort, followed closely by fit. The words “cute” and “sexy” are frequent in both clouds, however an important quality of underwear is the importance of being seamless, and not showing through clothes. “Cheap” is another large word in the underwear wordcloud, not present in the bra wordcloud. Quality and support are also two important qualities for bras. What does all of this mean? Sexiness might just be overrated. Women want comfort most of all, and companies would be smart to emphasize this, along with fit, when advertising their products. Seamlessness is an important quality of underwear, likely due to the trend of wearing yoga pants. Table 3 shows a breakdown of the most frequently mentioned brands in this open-ended question. All responses with less than two respondents were removed for the sake of space. As you can see, 44.8 % of all respondents list that their favorite bra is from Victoria’s Secret. Gilligan & O’Malley is the name of the brand sold in Target’s loungewear department. Table 4 shows the most frequently mentioned underwear brands. 34.2% of all brands mentioned are Victoria’s Secret, followed by Hanes and then by Aerie. Table 3: Favorite bra brands Table 4: Favorite underwear brands

Brand Count Percent Victoria's Secret 90 44.8 Soma Intimates 14 7 Aerie 11 5.5 Maidenform 8 4 Lane Bryant Cacique 8 4 Gilligan & O'Malley 7 3.5 Gap Body 6 3 Calvin Klein 5 2.5 H&M 3 1.5 La Perla 3 1.5 Spanx 3 1.5 Vanity Fair 3 1.5 Panache 3 1.5 Hanes 3 1.5 Forever 21 3 1.5 Generic Walmart Brand 2 1 Marie Jo 2 1 Chantelle 2 1 Vassarrette 2 1

Brand Count Percent Victoria's Secret 90 34.2 Hanes 20 7.6 Aerie 19 7.2 Gilligan & O’Malley 16 6.1 Gap 7 2.7 Calvin Klein 6 2.3 Soma Intimates 5 1.9 Hanky Panky 4 1.5 Lane Bryant Cacique 4 1.5 La Perla 3 1.1 Fruit of the Loom 3 1.1 Maidenform 3 1.1 Xhilaration 2 0.8 Journelle 2 0.8 Lululemon 2 0.8 Intimissimi 2 0.8

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Love & Hate Brand love and brand hate are key, connected ideas that fuel this study. Most survey questions and thus many resulting hypotheses are related to brand sentiment. The first question in the survey asked respondents to rank each brand on a 5-point likert scale, where 1 = Hate it, 2 = Dislike it, 3 = Neither Like Nor Dislike, 4 = Like it, and 5 = Love it. The results of this question can be seen in Fig. 11. Hate and Dislike are grouped together, represented by the light pink bar, and Love and Like are grouped together, represented by the dark pink bar. By far, the most loved brand is Agent Provocateur, with 95.8% of people selecting “love it” or “like it” while the most hated brand is Hanes, with 44.7% of all respondents selecting “hate it” or “dislike it.” Second most hated brand is Soma intimates, and the third most hated brand is Victoria’s Secret. Even then, Soma, Victoria’s Secret, Intimissimi, and Aerie, fall within the same range. La Perla and Agent Provocateur, the two expensive luxury brands, have similar results, and Hanes stands out, the one low-priced big-box brand in the survey.

Fig. 11: Hate/Love Lickert Results

Some specific examples of quotes received by respondents regarding hate and love of brands are as follows: Victoria’s Secret “They size incorrectly, lie to clients, bras are pretty but not functional or built constructively well.”

“Unrealistic expectations for women, exorbitant prices for what Western society has deemed 'necessary' for women” “They have good follow-through across all media. I can appreciate the branding even though I think the models are all aliens.” “They have cute, fun, sexy things.” “Because their store is clean and organized and I can always find what I need in my size.” “I strongly object to the marketing of lingerie and the need to be sexy to young girls and teenagers.” “I think their lingerie fits well and is flattering/comfortable, but is overpriced.” “I love it because I like the style, variety of options, and fit. I always can find something that I like there.” “I love this brand because wearing it makes me feel sexy. Plus there's great rewards with the credit card.”

Soma Intimates “So comfortable, worth the money.” “These make your boobs look like an outdated pair of cones, they're more for older women. Can't wear under normal shirts, they're too high cut and old lady-ish.” “Besides sports bras, I wear soma bras exclusively. Not only did the sales associates take a great deal of time to find the right bra for me, they are really comfortable and don't have the ridiculous frills of VS bras.”

Aerie “High school days before I felt comfortable enough to shop at VS.” “They have good sales on panties and I like that they don't Photoshop their models.” “I feel pretty in them and models seem more real.” “Not made for adult women.”

Agent Provocateur

“Sexy; fun. Not ideal for daily use. Sizing is weird.” “The designs are amazing.” “Hott! It's too expensive for me, but would make a really nice gift for myself one day.” “High end lingerie, excellent quality.”

Hanes “Lame and unexciting.” “Comfy & cheap.” “Granny panties” “Very comfortable, widely available.”

26.5

27.6

23.3

44.7

10.1

25

4.2

73.5

72.4

76.7

55.3

89.9

75

95.8

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Victoria's Secret

Soma Intimates

Aerie

Hanes Brand

La Perla

Intimissimi

Agent Provocateur

Hate/Dislike Like/Love

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Intimissimi “European sex appeal.” “SO beautiful. Fits well, good price point.” “This brand has been a favorite of mine in the past - simple sizing, really beautiful, classy styles without padding, more au naturel.” “Had a good experience with them in Europe.” “Reminds me of target; not sure of quality.”

La Perla “Each piece is a WORK OF ART.” “Fashionable and well made.” “I'm not too familiar with this brand, just know it is expensive and fits really well.” “Makes me feel special.”

Brand Awareness A measure of brand awareness shows the number of people that are aware of each particular brand studied. This figure is determined by the number of people that responded to the first question, a Hate it – Love it likert scale and did not select “I don’t know this brand.” Marked in light pink in Fig. 12 are the number of people that are aware of the brand. In dark pink, one can see the number of people who have actually purchased from the brand. This was derived from a question asking each respondent to select the brands that they have purchased from.

Fig. 13: Social Media Monthly Posts (data for October 2015)

59

72

111

129

214

252

262

21

13

36

49

131

159

243

Intimissimi

Agent Provocateur

La Perla

Soma Intimates

Aerie

Hanes

Victoria’s Secret

Purchased Heard of

48 50 55

25

10

87

43

161

50

119

71

5

47

11

65

11

71 64

0

87

18

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Victoria’s Secret

Soma Intimates

Aerie Agent Provocateur

Hanes Intimissimi La Perla

Facebook Twi!er Instagram

Fig. 12 shows that, as expected, more people have heard of each brand than have purchased the brand. Victoria’s Secret has the lowest difference, with only 19 people who have heard of Victoria’s Secret but not purchased. Hanes has the highest difference, with 93 people who know the brand but have not purchased anything. Hanes is second with 252 in brand awareness, with Aerie in third at 214.

Brand Difference Victoria’s Secret 19

Hanes 93 Aerie 83

Soma Intimates 80 La Perla 75

Agent Provocateur 59 Intimissimi 38

Fig. 13 shows the social media posts for the month of October. Victoria’s Secret has the most posts, which makes sense because it has the highest brand awareness. However, Hanes, with the second-highest brand awareness, has the fewest posts on social media. Likely, Hanes is well known because of its ubiquity in stores across the world (see fig. 7). When it comes to efficiency, it can be theorized from this information that posts on social media are a more efficient and effective way to turn people that are aware of a brand into consumers. It is cheaper to make posts than to open stores or forge partnerships with retailers. While this is only one component of this complex trend, more research could be done to prove this theory. Even though Hanes is well known, it doesn’t translate into sales. Technology and the internet has changed the way the public has become aware of and consumers of products.

Fig. 12: Awareness and Purchasing

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Hypotheses The purpose of the study was to generate data that could be used to assess Brand Awareness, Brand Image, Brand Love, Brand Hate, and Consumer Behavior for the lingerie brands included in the study, especially as they relate to Victoria’s Secret. These themes were explored in this study to primarily address the hypotheses below. The hypotheses were created based on the questions in the survey. Going forward in this report, I will use a system to report hypotheses and the resulting calculations. If a significance level number (reported in the far right column in each table) is not significant at a 5% level, it will be marked in light red. Another use of light red is to highlight any N that is not greater than 20. I will either reject or accept each hypothesis. No null hypotheses are shown in this report for the sake of conciseness, however the definition of the null hypothesis is as follows: The null hypothesis is the opposite of the hypothesis; essentially it is the neutral position, stating that nothing is happening. The null hypothesis states that there is no relationship or difference between the two measured groups. After each table, I will provide a bullet point list of significant results, which explains what each significant result means. I use the words “brand sentiment” to refer to the measure of brand hate/love tested in the 5-point likert scale in question 1 of the survey, asked to all respondents, regardless of whether or not they purchased the brand. I use the words “satisfaction variables” to refer to the qualities of price, style, fit, store convenience, customer service, quality, and selection of each brand. This question was also a 5-point likert scale, however it was asked to only the purchasers of each brand.

H1 The amount people pay for a bra impacts the way they feel about different brands.

H2 The amount people pay for a pair of underwear impacts the way they feel about different brands.

H3 Luxury brands are perceived more positively by people that spend more than $100 per year on lingerie than by people that spend less than $100 per year on lingerie.

H4 Brand qualities are perceived differently by people that spend more than $100 per year on lingerie than by people who spend less than $100 per year on lingerie.

H5 Victoria’s Secret is the most loved brand.

H6 Brands are perceived differently by the public than they are by people who actually purchase the brands.

H7 Aerie’s recent advertising campaign where they do not photoshop their models is an important reason why people like the brand.

H8 Soma is perceived to be a brand for older women.

H9 Soma is most loved because of its size offerings.

H10 People who have not purchased from Victoria’s Secret think very poorly of Victoria’s Secret.

Hypothesis 1 The amount people pay for a bra impacts the way they feel about different brands. To test this hypothesis, one can use the data collected from the survey question asking respondents the average price they pay for a bra. This data was split into two groups, $40 or less for a bra and more than $40 for a bra. Then an independent samples t-test was performed in SPSS measuring the brand sentiment likert scale against the grouped bra price variable. As you can see from the results in Table 5 only three brands had results significant at a 0.05 level: Aerie, Hanes, and La Perla. Significant Results:

- People who spend less on a bra like Aerie more than those who spend more on a bra. - People who spend less on a bra also feel more positively about Hanes, than people who spend more on a bra. - People who spend more on a bra feel more positively about La Perla than people who spend less on a bra.

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Thus, we can must reject the hypothesis as stated, and can only accept the hypothesis for the brands of Aerie, Hanes, and La Perla. Not all brands’ sentiments are impacted by the amount spent by respondents on a bra, however it is statistically significant for these three brands. Table 5: Impact of bra price on brand sentiment Table 6: Impact of underwear price on brand sentiment

Hypothesis 2 The amount people pay for a pair of underwear impacts the way they feel about different brands. To test this hypothesis, one can use the data collected from the survey question asking respondents the average price they pay for a pair of underwear. This data was split into two groups, $9 or lessand more than $9 for a pair of underwear. Then an independent samples t-test was performed in SPSS measuring the brand sentiment likert scale (Hate –Love) against the grouped underwear price variable. As you can see from the results in table 6, only three brands had results significant at a 0.05 level: Aerie, Hanes, and La Perla. Intimissimi had significant results at a 0.10 level. Significant Results:

- People who spend less on a pair of underwear like Aerie more than those who generally spend more on a pair of underwear. - People who spend less on a pair of underwear also feel more positively about Hanes than people who spend more on a pair of

underwear. - People who spend more on a pair of underwear feel more

positively about La Perla than people who spend less on a pair of underwear.

- People who spend more on a pair of underwear like Intimissimi more than people who spend less on a pair of underwear. *Significant only at the 10% level.

Thus, we cannot accept the hypothesis as stated, and can only accept the hypothesis for the brands of Aerie, Hanes, Intimissimi and La Perla. Not all brands’ sentiment scores are impacted by the amount spent by respondents on a pair of underwear, however it is statistically significant for these four brands.

Brand Sentiment Price paid for a

pair of underwear Mean Sig

Victoria's Secret $9 or less 3.55

0.723 More than $10 3.61

Some Intimates $9 or less 3.37

0.638 More than $10 3.27

Aerie $9 or less 3.58

0.000 More than $10 3.02

Agent Provacateur

$9 or less 3.80 0.219

More than $10 4.12

Hanes $9 or less 3.20

0.008 More than $10 2.83

Intimissimi $9 or less 3.12

0.061* More than $10 3.57

La Perla $9 or less 3.62

0.028 More than $10 4.06

Brand Sentiment Price paid for a bra Mean Sig

Victoria's Secret $40 or less 3.55

0.793 More than $40 3.59

Some Intimates $40 or less 3.31

0.759 More than $40 3.37

Aerie $40 or less 3.56

0.008 More than $40 3.20

Agent Provocateur

$40 or less 3.80 0.207

More than $40 4.12

Hanes $40 or less 3.22

0.015 More than $40 2.90

Intimissimi $40 or less 3.18

0.230 More than $40 3.46

La Perla $40 or less 3.61

0.046 More than $40 3.98

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From Hypothesis 1 and 2, we can conclude that Aerie, Hanes & La Perla are differently impacted by bra price and underwear price than the other brands. The data for Victoria’s Secret, Soma Intimates, Intimissimi and Agent Provocateur does not show a significant difference in respondent sentiment when respondents are grouped by how much money they spent on two lingerie items.

Hypothesis 3 Luxury brands are perceived more positively by people that spend more that $100 per year on lingerie than by people that spend less than $100 per year on lingerie. To test this hypothesis, we must group the data collected from the “average amount spent per year on lingerie” question into two groups, a high-spender group and a low-spender group. Then, this grouped variable is used to test the brand sentiment values. An independent samples t-test was used to test this hypothesis. Ultimately, the sentiment of the spending groups about all brands except for Aerie are significant at a 5% level, as seen in table 7. This indicates that people who spend more per year feel differently about lingerie brands (except for Aerie) than people who spend less per year. Thus we accept the hypothesis and conclude that the amount people spend impacts their love and hate towards brands.

Table 7: Brand sentiment by spending levels

Brand Sentiment Spending Groups N Mean Sig

Victoria's Secret $0 - $100/year 119 3.41

.042 More than $100/year 108 3.72

Soma Intimates $0 - $100/year 56 3.46 .090 More than $100/year 60 3.18

Aerie $0 - $100/year 95 3.42

.969 More than $100/year 89 3.42

Agent Provocateur $0 - $100/year 21 3.43 .002 More than $100/year 39 4.21

Hanes $0 - $100/year 114 3.28

.003 More than $100/year 105 2.89

Intimissimi $0 - $100/year 15 3.00 .049 More than $100/year 32 3.50

La Perla $0 - $100/year 40 3.53

.024 More than $100/year 54 3.94

Hypothesis 4 Brand components are perceived differently by people that spend more than $100 per year on lingerie than by people who spend less than $100 per year on lingerie. To test this hypothesis, I used the likert scale question measuring satisfaction of different components of the brand and the results of spending distribution, split into two groups: a high-spending group and a low-spending group. I tested all brand qualities for all brands, which resulted in a total of 49 results. Seven of these were significant, and can be seen in the table below.

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Table 8: Satisfaction variables by spending levels

Satisfaction Variable Spending Groups N Mean Sig

Victoria’s Secret Store Convenience $0 - $100/year 104 4.05 .032 More than $100/year 104 4.36

Hanes Fit $0 - $100/year 73 3.99 .029 More than $100/year 64 3.56

Hanes Style $0 - $100/year 72 3.35 .019 More than $100/year 64 2.83

Aerie Selection $0 - $100/year 53 3.32 .010 More than $100/year 57 3.93

Aerie Price $0 - $100/year 55 3.78 .001 More than $100/year 57 4.37

Aerie Customer Service $0 - $100/year 55 3.71 .052 More than $100/year 57 4.05

Soma Quality $0 - $100/year 22 4.73 .047 More than $100/year 22 4.27

Significant Results:

Victoria’s Secret People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are more satisfied with Victoria’s Secret Store Convenience than people who spend less than $100 per year.

Hanes

People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are less satisfied with the style of Hanes than people who spend less than $100 per year.

People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are less satisfied with the fit of Hanes than people who spend less than $100 per year.

Aerie

People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are more satisfied with the customer service of Aerie than those who spend less than $100 per year.

People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are more satisfied with the selection available at Aerie than those who spend less than $100 per year.

People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are more satisfied with the prices of Aerie products than people who spend less than $100 per year.

Soma People who spend more than $100 per year on lingerie are less satisfied with the quality of Soma than those who spend less than $100 per year.

Because significant results were found for all components of the brand, we can accept the stated hypothesis, concluding that high-spenders do have different feelingss of the components of brands than low-spenders.

16

Hypothesis 5 Victoria’s Secret is the most loved brand. This hypothesis could be tested in many ways. One way to test it would be to use a Paired T-Test where the brand sentiment of Victoria’s Secret is compared with the brand sentiment of all other brands.

Table 9: Paired T-Test of Victoria’s Secret brand sentiment against all other brands

Brands Paired Mean N Sig

Pair 1 Victoria's Secret Brand Sentiment 3.57

129 0.062 Soma Intimates Brand Sentiment 3.33


214 0.070 Aerie Brand Sentiment 3.43


72 0.001 Agent Provacateur Brand Sentiment 3.94


252 0.000 Hanes Brand Sentiment 3.09


59 0.149 Intimissimi Brand Sentiment 3.36


111 0.010 La Perla Brand Sentiment 3.78


- People are less satisfied with Soma than they are with Victoria’s Secret. - People are less satisfied with Aerie than they are with Victoria’s Secret. - People are less satisfied with Aerie than they are with Victoria’s Secret. - People are more satisfied with Agent Provocateur than they are with Victoria’s Secret. - People are less satisfied with Hanes than they are with Victoria’s Secret. - People are more satisfied with La Perla than they are with Victoria’s Secret.

Thus, we reject this hypothesis. We can see that luxury brands, like La Perla and Agent Provocatuer, are more liked by respondents than Victoria’s Secret. This hypothesis can also be rejected using other measures that can be seen in the discussion of hypothesis 6.

Hypothesis 6 Brands are perceived differently by the public than they are by people who actually purchase the brands. In the survey, two questions are asked to measure brand sentiment. The first question is a general 5-point likert scale, where respondents are asked to rank the brands on a hate it to love it scale. Next, respondents were asked to select the brands that they had purchased items from. Then they were provided another 5-point lickert scale measuring their satisfaction with variables: price, quality, store convenience, customer service, fit, style and selection. Only respondents who had purchased items from each brand responded to the satisfaction scale. By comparing these scores, we are given two very different pictures of the opinions of respondents about each brand.

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Fig. 14: Results of Satisfaction Likert

In Fig. 14, we see the breakdown of each category of the satisfaction likert scale. Some brands, like Aerie, are consistent in that all of the factors receive a similar score. Other brands, like La Perla, have some variation in their scores. Agent Provocateur and Intimissimi were excluded from this calculation because their N’s were below 20, and thus unusable. Table 10 shows the numbers represented by Fig. #; highlighted in pink are the highest scores for each category. Soma Intimates actually receives the highest score when all scores for each brand are averaged together. Aerie is second, and La Perla is third. Victoria’s Secret is fourth with a score of 3.804, followed by Hanes with a score of 3.702.

Table 10: Detailed Results of Satisfaction Likert

Victoria's Secret Soma Aerie Hanes La Perla

Store Convenience 4.192 3.755 3.747 4.000 3.063

Selection 3.564 3.644 3.640 3.368 3.788

Customer Service 3.978 4.363 3.905 3.410 4.000

Quality 3.902 4.489 3.974 3.676 4.424

Style 4.288 3.778 4.112 3.105 4.606

Fit 3.924 4.444 3.991 3.799 4.424

Price 2.778 3.689 4.069 4.555 2.939

Average 3.804 4.023 3.920 3.702 3.892

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Victoria's Secret Soma Aerie Hanes La Perla

Store Convenience

Selection

Customer Service

Quality

Style

Fit

Price

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Fig. 15: Average Sentiment Scores vs. Average Satisfaction Scores

In Fig. 15, we see the scores from table 10 (dark pink) compared with the average hate/love likert score (light pink). As you can see, the sentiments of all people about their feelings towards the brand (seen in light pink) are very different from the average scores of purchasers ratings of satisfaction. Some brands, like La Perla, are relatively consistent in score, but others, like Soma and Hanes, are disparate. Both Soma and Hanes have low averages of brand sentiment, but score higher when components of purchased items are measured. Thus we accept the hypothesis that consumers and the public perceive brands differently.

Hypothesis 7 Aerie’s recent advertising campaign where they do not Photoshop their models is an important reason why people like the brand. In Spring of 2014, Aerie launched “aerie Real,” an advertising campaign where the company pledged not to Photoshop any of their models.12 I theorized that this significantly improved their brand image, since the aerie brand is targeted specifically towards the demographic age of 15 – 21. To dig in deeper into this hypothesis, we can look at the open-ended responses for why respondents ranked Aerie in the way that they did. In SPSS, this data was cleaned and then coded, so that statistical tests could be run using the data. The results of a count showed that “No Photoshop Used” was the most common reason for brand love, and “Childlike” was the most common reason for brand hate.

12 Krupnick, Ellie. "Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young Women." The Huffington Post. January 14, 2014.

3.561

3.310 3.425

3.944

3.091

3.356

3.784 3.804 4.023

3.920 3.702

3.892

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Victoria's Secret

Soma Aerie Agent Provocateur


19

Fig. 16: Aerie Brand Love Fig. 17: Aerie Brand Hate

We can then accept the hypothesis, since “No Photoshop Used” was the most mentioned reason why people love the brand.

Hypothesis 8 & 9 H8: Soma is perceived to be a brand for older women. H9: Soma is most loved because of its size offerings. Soma Intimates was the only brand in the survey that catered to women with larger bra sizes. The brand is known for providing fuller-coverage products and does not advertise with sex appeal. I theorized that people perceived that Soma was for older women. To test this, I looked at the open-ended responses for why respondents ranked Soma in the way that they did. In SPSS, this data was cleaned and then coded, so that statistical tests could be run using the data. The results showed that Soma was perceived as a brand for more mature women, however the results indicated that larger size offerings was not an important factor for those that responded positively. Fig. 18: Soma Brand Hate Fig. 19: Soma Brand Love

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16 14 13

10 6 6

3 2 1

15

7

3 3 3 2 1

75%

15%

5% 5%

Old Style

Una!ractive

Overpriced

Size Not Available

27%

23% 13%

10%

7%

7%

7% 3% 3%

Quality Comfort Overall Positive Sizes Available Customer Service Fit Style Price Reliable

We can thus accept hypothesis 8, because we can see that 75% of people that hated Soma said that the main reason was because it looks old. We must reject hypothesis 9 because people do not mostly love Soma because of its size range. The major qualities of Soma that are most liked are Quality, Comfort, and Overall Positive feelings.

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Hypothesis 10 People who have not purchased from Victoria’s Secret think very poorly of Victoria’s Secret. To address this hypothesis, I ran Independent Samples T-Tests using the results from the Likert scale question about hate and love and questions about purchase habits. I created coded columns that used the value 1 for respondents who had purchased from a particular brand and the value 2 for respondents who had not purchased from the brand. These variables were used as the group variables in the analysis. I ran the same test using each new variable about brand purchase behavior. The results showed that there is a significant difference (0.000) between those who purchased and those that have not purchased Victoria’s Secret. Those who do not purchase Victoria’s Secret products give the brand a lower average score (2.55) than those that have purchased from Victoria’s Secret (3.94). Table 11 below shows all of the results of the Independent Samples T-Test run between the purchasing & non-purchasing respondents for each brand and the Love/Hate likert scale results for all brands. Marked in red are N’s that are too small (less than 20). As you can see in Table 11, there is significance when each brand is run against their own purchasing and non-purchasing groups. In all but one case, brands were more liked by the group that purchased the brand than by the group that did not purchase the brand. The one exception is Aerie, where the group of people who have not purchased Aerie actually ranked Aerie higher than those who have purchased Aerie. This is important because it may indicate that Aerie’s image may be misleading; perhaps there is a quality issue, and people who have purchased the brand are less satisfied with the actual product than the brand image. It also could indicate that people who aren’t purchasing Aerie may have other reasons besides dislike for doing so. People may like the style or image of the brand, but they may not have access to the stores, the prices may be too high, or the garments may not come in large enough sizes. This is something that should be explored in more detail in future studies. There are people that feel positively about Aerie but do not purchase their products. More should be done by Aerie to figure out why.

Table 11: Customer Sentiments of Brands

Brand Sentiment Group Variable N Mean Difference of Means Sig

Victoria's Secret Purchased VS 242 3.64

1.09 0.000 Not Purchased VS 20 2.55

Agent Provocateur Purchased AP 13 4.46

0.63 0.002 Not purchased AP 59 3.83

Hanes Purchased Hanes 158 3.40

0.83 0.000 Not Purchased Hanes 94 2.57

La Perla Purchased La Perla 36 4.42

0.94 0.000 Not Purchased La Perla 75 3.48

Aerie Purchased Aerie 131 3.70

-0.29 0.000 Not Purchased Aerie 83 3.99

Intimissimi Purchased Intimissimi 21 4.19

1.30 0.000 Not purchased Intimissimi 38 2.89

Soma Intimates Purchased Soma 49 3.96

1.02 0.000 Not Purchased Soma 80 2.94

In the following table, you can see the significant results of the remainder of the tests run on all other brands. Please note that all other results that are not shown in Table 12 are not significant. This is important because only these three combinations below produced significant results.

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Table 12: Other Significant Results

Brand Group Variable N Mean Difference of Means Sig

Hanes Brand Sentiment Purchased Intimissimi 21 2.43

-0.72 0.003 Not Purchased Intimissimi 231 3.15

Hanes Brand Sentiment Purchased Aerie 125 2.94

-0.30 0.016 Not purchased Aerie 127 3.24

Victoria’s Secret Brand Sentiment Purchased Hanes 158 3.45

-0.28 0.049 Not Purchased Hanes 104 3.73


- People who have purchased Intimissimi dislike Hanes Brand, giving it an average score of 2.43. People who have not purchased Intimissimi like Hanes Brand more than those who have, giving it an average score of 3.15. Intimissimi and Hanes are very different companies, emphasizing different things. Intimissimi is known in the US as being a European brand, while Hanes is seen as All-American. People who have not purchased Intimissimi would likely score Hanes higher because people purchasing Hanes would likely not consider buying Intimissimi, and vice versa.

- Similar to the previous result, people who have purchased Aerie dislike Hanes Brand, giving it an average score of 2.94, as compared to people who have not purchased Aerie, who give Hanes Brand an average score of 3.24. This may be due to the fact that Aerie and Hanes Brand both emphasize comfort, so their target markets are similar. People who can not afford or may not have access to Aerie may purchase Hanes products, and people who purchase Aerie may not like the style of Hanes products.

- Victoria’s Secret is hated more by people who have purchased Hanes than by people who have not purchased Hanes. People who have purchased Hanes give Victoria’s Secret an average score of 3.45, as compared to people who have not purchased Hanes, who give Victoria’s Secret an average score of 3.73. This is possibly due to the fact that Hanes and Victoria’s Secret have very different marketing strategies and target very different consumers.

Ultimately, we can accept this hypothesis. People who have not purchased from Victoria’s Secret do think poorly of the brand. However, this is the same for all other brands, except for Aerie. The mean difference between the two scores is 1.09 for Victoria’s Secret, which is second highest below Intimissimi at 1.30. This means that people have strong feelings about these two brands. Hypothesis Summary

Table #: Hypothesis Test Results

H1 The amount people pay for a bra impacts the way they feel about different brands. Accepted: only for some brands

H2 The amount people pay for a pair of underwear impacts the way they feel about different brands. Accepted: only for some brands

H3 Luxury brands are perceived more positively by people that spend more than $100 per year on lingerie than by people that spend less than $100 per year on lingerie. Accepted

H4 Brand qualities are perceived differently by people that spend more than $100 per year on lingerie than by people who spend less than $100 per year on lingerie. Accepted

H5 Victoria’s Secret is the most loved brand. Rejected

H6 Brands are perceived differently by the public than they are by people who actually purchase the brands.

Accepted

H7 Aerie’s recent advertising campaign where they do not photoshop their models is an important reason why people like the brand. Accepted

H8 Soma is perceived to be a brand for older women. Accepted

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H9 Soma is most loved because of its size offerings. Rejected

H10 People who have not purchased from Victoria’s Secret think very poorly of Victoria’s Secret. Accepted

Conclusions Even though Victoria’s Secret is the most impressive financially, this study shows mixed results when brand love and hate are studied. In one instance, on the 5-point likert scale, Victoria’s Secret is the second most hated brand. However, when respondents were asked to write out the name of their favorite bra and underwear brand, Victoria’s Secret won by a landslide both times. It is clear that luxury brands, like La Perla and Agent Provocateur were the most loved brands, however the most looked-for quality in undergarments is comfort. By those that dislike them, Soma is seen as an “old lady” brand, while Aerie is seen as a childish brand. People who haven’t purchased Aerie actually like aerie more than those who have purchased Aerie. Soma is generally less liked by the public than other brands, but loved by the people who purchase their products. The amount people spend per year on lingerie impacts how they view brands. As seen above, many valuable assessments can be made from the results and tests in this study. Overall, many tests were performed with the data gathered. Only ten hypotheses were selected to be presented in this report. This represents just a slice of the existing results and shows the potential of this study to determine even more valuable conclusions in the future. There are a few changes that would have improved the study, including adding a demographical question about bra size, and changing the income question to be total household income rather than personal yearly income.

23

Works Cited Barker, Ryan, Jeffrey Peacock, and Marc Fetscherin. "The Power of Brand Love." International Journal of Market

Research 57, no. 5 (2015): 1-4.

Fetscherin, Marc. "What Type of Relationship Do We Have with Loved Brands?" Journal of Consumer Marketing,

2014, 430-40.

Fournier, Susan, Marc Fetscherin, and Michael Breazeale. "Introduction." In Consumer Brand Relationships.

Taylor and Francis, 2012.

Hemetsberger, Andrea. "There's No Passion; I Need Passion: Why Some Brands Excite Consumers So Much."

GfK Marketing Intelligence Review 6, no. 1 (2014): 34-39. doi:10.2478/gfkmir-2014-0006.

"How US Lingerie Dominates The Global Market." The Lingerie Journal RSS. November 11, 2014.

http://thelingeriejournal.com/us-lingerie-dominates-global-market/#sthash.Khals1oD.dpuf.

Krupnick, Ellie. "Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young Women." The

Huffington Post. January 14, 2014. Accessed December 4, 2015.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/aerie-unretouched-ads-photos_n_4618139.html.

Kucuk, S Umit. "Negative Double Jeopardy: The Role of Anti-brand Sites on the Internet." Journal of Brand

Management 15, no. 3 (2007): 209-22. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550100.

"Undressing the Lingerie Market: Evolution & Global Perspectives." Fashionbi. February 1, 2015.

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Appendix Exhibit 1: Pricing Breakdown

Brand Garment Type Total Number of Products

Total Sum of Prices

Average Price

Victoria’s Secret Bra 200 9,322 $46.61

Panty 143 1,908.5 $13.35

Soma Bra 108 6,186 $57.28

Panty 75 1,468 $19.57

Hanes Bra 37 769 $20.78

Panty 68 283.8 $4.17

Intimissimi Bra 22 1,084 $49.27 Panty 74 1,536 $20.76

Agent Provocateur Bra 85 28,380 $333.88 Panty 210 49,760 $236.95

La Perla Bra 104 31,950 $307.21

Panty 16 1,490 $93.13

Aerie Bra 367 12,431.85 $33.87 Panty 301 2,800.5 $9.30

CODEBOOK

1

SPSS CODEBOOK Question 1 How do you feel about the following brands? If you do not know the brand, please select “I do not know this brand.”

Hate it 1 Dislike it 2 Neutral 3

Like it 4 Love it 5

I do not know this brand -

Likert_VS Victoria’s Secret Likert_Soma Soma Intimates Likert_Aerie Aerie Likert_AP Agent Provacateur Likert_Hanes Hanes Likert_Inti Intimissimi Likert_LaPerla La Perla

Grouped variables used for analysis:

Likert_VS_Grouped Victoria’s Secret Likert_Soma_Grouped Soma Intimates Likert_Aerie_Grouped Aerie Likert_AP_Grouped Agent Provacateur Likert_Hanes_Grouped Hanes Likert_Inti_Grouped Intimissimi Likert_LaPerla_Grouped La Perla

Question 2 Please explain your opinion that you expressed in the question above. Why do you hate, dislike, like, or love each brand below? <<open-ended responses>> Explanation_VS Victoria’s Secret Explanation_Soma Soma Intimates Explanation_Aerie Aerie Explanation_AP Agent Provacateur Explanation_Hanes Hanes Explanation_Inti Intimissimi Explanation_LaPerla La Perla VS_Positive Clean Positive VS Responses VS_Negative Clean Negative VS Responses Aerie_Positive Clean Positive Aerie Responses Aerie_Negative Clean Negative Aerie Responses Soma_Positive Clean Positive Soma Responses Soma Negative Clean Negative Soma Responses Question 3

Hate it + Dislike it 1 Love it + Like it 2

Neutral -

CODEBOOK

26

Please select all of the brands below that you have purchased items from. 1 = purchased from - = not purchased from purchased_VS Victoria’s Secret purchased_Soma Soma Intimates purchased_Aerie Aerie purchased_AP Agent Provacateur purchased_Hanes Hanes purchased_Inti Intimissimi purchased_LaPerla La Perla purchased_None None of the above brands Question 4 Consider your most recent purchase at ________. How satisfied were you with:

Dissatisfied 1 Somewhat Dissatisfied 2

Neutral 3 Somewhat Satisfied 4

Satisfied 5

Victoria’s

Secret Soma

Intimates Aerie

Agent Provocateur


Customer Service

VS_CS Soma_CS Aerie_CS AP_CS Hanes_CS Inti_CS LaPerla_CS

Price VS_Price Soma_Price Aerie_Price AP_Price Hanes_Price Inti_Price LaPerla _Price

Selection VS_Select Soma_Select Aerie_Select AP_Select Hanes_Select Inti_Select LaPerla _Select

Quality VS_Quality Soma_Quality Aerie_Quality AP_Quality Hanes_Quality Inti_Quality LaPerla _Quality

Store Convenience VS_Store Soma_Store Aerie_Store AP_Store Hanes_Store Inti_Store LaPerla _Store

Fit VS_Fit Soma_Fit Aerie_Fit AP_Fit Hanes_Fit Inti_Fit LaPerla _Fit

Style VS_Style Soma_Style Aerie_Style AP_Style Hanes_Style Inti_Style LaPerla _Style

Question 5

CODEBOOK

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AvgPriceBra = What is the average price you pay for a bra? 1 Less than $10 2 $10 - $20 3 $21 - $30 4 $31 - $40 5 $41 - $50 6 $51 - $60 7 More than $60 AvgPriceBra_Group = Grouped variable used for analysis 1 Less than $40 2 More than $40 Question 6 BraBrand = Think about your favorite bra. What brand is it?

1 Victoria’s Secret 2 Gap Body 3 Express 4 Intimissimi 5 Aerie 6 Soma Intimates 7 H&M 8 Maidenform 9 Lane Bryant Cacique 10 Gilligan & O’Malley 11 Calvin Klein 12 Heidi Intimates 13 Generic Walmart Brand 14 La Perla 15 Cabernet

16 Spanx 17 For Love and Lemons 18 Le Mystére 19 La Senza 20 Vanity Fair 21 Panache 22 Uniqlo 23 Bali 24 Hanes 25 Playtex 26 Forever 21 27 Marie Jo 28 Journelle 29 Coutrelle 30 Chantelle

31 Fantasie 32 Wacoal 33 Natori 34 Urban Outfitters 35 Maison Close 36 American Apparel 37 Vassarrette 38 Genie 39 Xhiliration 40 Freya 41 Marylin Monroe 42 Josie 43 Torrid

BraWhy = Think about your favorite bra. Why do you love it? <<open-ended responses>> Question 7

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AvgPriceUnd = What is the average price you pay for a pair of underwear? 1 Less than $5 2 $5 - $9 3 $10 - $15 4 $16 - $20 5 More than $20 AvgPriceUnd_Group = Grouped variable used for analysis 1 Less than $9 2 More than $9 Question 8 UndBrand = Think about your favorite pair of underwear. What brand is it? 1 Victoria’s Secret 2 Gap Body 3 Intimissimi 4 Aerie 5 Soma Intimates 6 H&M 7 Fruit of the Loom 8 Maidenform 9 Lane Bryant Cacique 10 Gilligan & O’Malley 11 Calvin Klein 12 Hanes

13 Xhilaration 14 Hanky Panky 15 Cabernet 16 Journelle 17 Le Mystere 18 La Senza 19 it-se-bit-se 20 Primark 21 Torrid 22 Forever 21 23 Jockey 24 La Perla

25 Commando 26 Warner 27 Journelle 28 Honeydew 29 Lululemon 30 Lonely 31 DKNY 32 Cosabella 33 Just My Size 34 Muji 35 Bali

UndWhy = Think about your favorite pair of underwear. Why do you love it? <<open-ended responses>> Question 9

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AvgSpend = On average, how much do you spend on lingerie items per year? Lingerie is defined as bras, panties, hosiery, corsetry, sleepwear, etc. 1 Less than $20 2 $20 - $50 3 $51 - $75 4 $76 - $100 5 $101 - $150 6 $151 - $200 7 $201 - $300 8 More than $300 AvgSpendGroups = Grouped variable used for analysis 1 Less than $100 2 More than $100 Question 10 Sale = You are shopping for a new bra and see a brand that you are unfamiliar with. It is on sale. What percent would the bra have to be discounted in order for you to switch brands from your current favorite brand? Answers listed in percentage Question 11 What percent of your lingerie shopping do you do at the following types of retailers? Your inputs must total 100%. Per_Mono Monobrands (stores that sell only one brand of lingerie) Per_Bout Boutique Lingerie Stores (stores that sell only lingerie but many different brands) Per_Dep Department Stores (such as Macy's, Dillard's, Nordstrom, etc.) Per_Mass Mass Retailers (such as Target or Walmart) Per_Web Online Question 12 Age_Groups = What is your age?

1 18 - 24 2 25 - 30 3 31 - 45 4 46 - 65

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Question 13 State = In which state do you currently reside? 1 Alabama 2 Alaska 5 California 6 Colorado 7 Connecticut 9 District of Columbia 10 Florida 11 Georgia 14 Illinois 15 Indiana 17 Kansas

18 Kentucky 21 Maryland 22 Massachusetts 23 Michigan 24 Minnesota 25 Mississippi 26 Missouri 28 Nebraska 31 New Jersey 33 New York 34 North Carolina

36 Ohio 38 Oregon 39 Pennsylvania 41 Rhode Island 42 South Carolina 44 Tennessee 45 Texas 46 Utah 48 Virginia 49 Washington

Question 14 What is your annual salary (including bonuses and commissions) in U.S. dollars? 1 Less than $25,000 2 $25,000 - $50,000 3 $50,001 - $75,000 4 $75,001 - $100,000 5 $100,001 - $125,000 6 $125,001 - $150,000 7 $150,001 - $175,000 8 $175,001 - $200,000 9 More than $200,000

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Question below displayed for each brand selected above:

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