A Wren Says

“It was all push-up bras that were made for not necessarily what women want to wear, but made for what [Victoria’s Secret] thought men would want.”

Janine Stichter of Jefferies as quoted by CNN

Previously, I introduced the idea of self-concept and the three selves. Today, I’m focused on the “real image,” or how others see us. It might be a bit tricky to consider how others view us as our “real” selves, but it is more about your reflection. What is it that others are seeing when they look at you?

As I thought about this, I considered the previous marketing strategy of Victoria’s Secret. If you recall, the Chief Marketing Officer, Ed Razek ended up in a lot of trouble for this statement, when asked about the possibility of including transwomen as models in future shows:

“Why not? Because the show is a fantasy…”

As he spoke, you can see that the aim was to center how men view women. “When you wear our products, men will see you as sexy. Don’t you want them to see you that way?” It was all about shaping an image to fit into perceptions from someone else.

As you might have noticed, the brand pivoted away from that approach. It was partly due to the statement described above, plus additional workplace harassment/assault issues, and a dash of focusing on women and what (gasp) they wanted from their lingerie.  The public reception to this shift is another post altogether.

I think we can pull from the Victoria’s Secret example that using an other focused lens can be tricky. If you want to market your product to people, based on how other people will then see you, you had better make sure those opinions matter to your market. This is not to say you can’t have success with this approach. Think about truth and their prevention focused advertising. A large part of their success is that they are focused on teens, who largely care what their peer group is thinking of them. Advertising that focuses on the ways drug use causes damage to their image in their peers’ eyes will be more powerful among those who really want to be liked by their peers.

As you engage with marketing, think about what you see and the messaging put out. Are brands trying to get you by focusing on how you will be viewed by others? If so, you too have found a great example of the concept of real image at work.