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Product cover image for Victoria's Secret: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Marketing

Victoria's Secret: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Marketing

Karen Robson, Ronak Doowd

Product #:W43593
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:Marketing, Strategy
Setting:United States, 2024
Details:Case (PDF) • 12 pages • 2025-07-21

Subjects:

Corporate imageBrandingCorporate social responsibilityBrand positioningSales and marketingMarketingStrategy

Industries:

Goods, trade, and consumer services

Geography:

United StatesNorth America
Your Price:$9.71

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In 2025, lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret & Co. (Victoria’s Secret) was trying to reimagine itself after facing a range of challenges including changing consumer preferences and backlash over the brand’s narrow depiction of beauty. After splitting from parent company L Brands Inc. in 2021, Victoria’s Secret made several significant changes to its product mix and promotion strategies, many of these aligning with efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The company also articulated its vision to be “the world’s leading advocate for women” and hired its first ever chief diversity officer, Lydia Smith. Even with these efforts, the brand’s long history of promiting a tall, thin beauty ideal was seemingly at odds with its vision, and it remained unknown whether the brand could realize its vision. What could Victoria’s Secret do to support DEI efforts in marketing while retaining the brand image of fantasy and glamour many consumers had come to love?

Learning Objectives

This course is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses (online or in person) in core marketing classes such as principles of marketing or marketing strategy, or in more specialized classes such as those on branding or corporate social responsibility. Courses or modules focused on DEI would benefit from this case. This case is a useful tool to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in marketing, brands, and brand positioning; corporate social responsibility; the marketing environment; or public relations. Students are asked to explain the concept of DEI as it pertains to marketing and to understand how it overlaps with, but is not the same as, sustainable marketing. Students must assess the DEI initiatives Victoria’s Secret undertook and provide recommendations to support the DEI goals of the brand. After working on the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

  • Articulate the difference between diversity, equity, and inclusion in marketing and sustainable marketing.
  • Critique the DEI efforts of Victoria’s Secret.
  • Provide recommendations for future marketing activities to support DEI at Victoria’s Secret.
  • Provide recommendations for the future of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
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Case Study: Victoria's Secret: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Marketing (English version) | Ivey Publishing