Will Rihanna's Underwear Show Add To The Crisis?

From August 25th to August 31st, this week is a very important week for Rihanna's direct selling underwear series Savage x Fenty. The brand, which has been established for a year, first sent an invitation letter in August 26th. It announced that it would hold a big brand event in Broolyn on the evening of September 10th, the peak of the New York fashion week. The specific location has not yet been announced. In addition, they announced a new round of financing in August 28th, including $50 million from supporters, including Jay Z's investment company Marcy Venture Partners LLC and Avenir Growth Capital.

Details about the show are not yet clear, but the conference will be broadcast on Amazon video streaming media in September 20th, appearing in a documentary produced by Endeavor Content and Amazon. Referring to the past achievements of the brand and the celebrity effect of Rihanna, this is likely to be an activity of gathering stars, celebrating diversity, inclusiveness and contemporary femininity. In other words, this is Rihanna's response to the Victoria s Secret fashion show. This form of television banquet was once a heavy marketing platform for Victoria s Secret, the declining and dominant American underwear giant, but the latter was slow to adapt to changes in culture and technology.

Can Savage x Fenty really challenge Victoria 's Secret? Despite the disadvantageous development of Victoria s Secret, sales in the fiscal year of 2018 still generated 7 billion 370 million dollars.

Compared with Victoria 's Secret, Rihanna and Losangeles TechStyle fashion group (also owns the sports clothing brand Fabletics co founded with Kate Hudson) jointly established Savage x Fenty is still a negligible brand. But compared with other competitors of Victoria 's Secret, Savage x Fenty has faster development and expanded capital. The Wall Street Journal reported in a report last week that the brand's annual revenue is close to $150 million. Under the helm of Rihanna, this can be called a unique brand. Apart from embodying the cultural spirit, the brand can also create a new cultural trend like the Victoria s Secret.

Over the past decade, the Victoria 's Secret and the Victoria's Angel (bronze skin, curly hair, and a supermodel with similar bras) have played an important role in shaping the sex appeal in the eyes of consumers in the US and around the world. The brand has gained great popularity in Britain and China. But in the past five years, Victoria 's Secret has been divorced from the changing cultural values and aesthetic concepts. Although the brand still has a large customer base, there is a price to pay for the leadership's long-term resistance to change.

At the same time, Savage x Fenty keeps pace with the trend of development. As the cultural issues focused on diversity and inclusiveness, Rihanna sent a truly diverse model lineup on the first show of the brand, including two pregnant models. Besides, the brand is priced reasonably and the larger size of underwear is introduced. More importantly, Savage x Fenty decided to launch the upcoming fashion show streaming video in Amazon Prime membership service, which shows the brand's proficiency in the Internet is also leading Victoria "s Secret" for many years. The latter did not release the brand fashion show with the US Cbs Broadcasting Inc (Columbia Broadcasting System, or CBS) until this year. Next is Rihanna's own digital communication influence: she has more than 74 million fans on Instagram. The pop star, supported by LVMH, founded the Fenty beauty makeup series. In a very short period of time, the Fenty beauty products achieved a total sales of $500 million. It can be seen that the success of Savage x Fenty will also be obvious.

Of course, Rihanna's cultural attraction and digital communication influence do not guarantee that Savage x Fenty will be a great success. TechStyle, which has positioned itself as a "brand building platform," has raised over $300 million in funding. TechStyle may need to reconsider the key elements of its business model. A few years ago, TechStyle's brand Fabletics was criticized for its membership plan, which often tempted consumers when consumers did not know the details of their plans. Last week, a report on Vox.com raised the question again when referring to Savage x Fenty's "XTRA VIP" plan: members who joined the scheme could get new products and promotional information, but consumers often needed to pay $50 a month because consumers often did not realize the detailed terms agreed upon by registered members. This weakened consumers' trust in brands.

Another challenge may be Rihanna's fashion brand, which is supported by Lu Wei Xuan group. Savage's development from underwear line to swimwear products category may be limited, which is why Victoria s Secret has been successful. (Fenty) there are also problems of consumer confusion among different brands. These brands have some common basic characteristics, but their market positioning is different, but this is more like the problem of the high-end clothing series of Lu Wei Hun Xuan group.

Despite many challenges, Savage x Fenty is becoming the main competitor of Victoria's s Secret. This will not only change the entire underwear industry, but also bring about changes in culture.