|
Vic' Secret sales a go-go
|
 |
February 3, 1999: 10:24 p.m. ET
Baring it all for $5M marketing blitz for Web site, lingerie vendor racks up sales
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Victoria's Secret made the hearts of investors beat a little faster Wednesday after its parent company notched up its big-ticket marketing blitz and announced it beat sales targets for its latest fiscal year.
The announcement of unexpectedly strong sales from parent Intimate Brands Inc. (IBI), came in the midst of a $5 million media blitz to promote the web-cast of its "Spring Fashion Show" on Wednesday evening.
"I think everyone was satisfied with how things went," said Jerry Robinson, a spokesman for the company, after the show. Tallies of the viewership for the webcast were not expected to be available before Thursday, he said.
And for those who missed the show -- or who want to see it again -- the video is being archived on the site, Robinson noted.
The locale for the webcast, VictoriasSecret.com, debuted on Dec. 4 and has been profitable from day one, company executives say.
Web site already profitable
The attention grabbing began Sunday as the company ran its first Super Bowl commercial. That 30-second, $1.3 million pitch touting the fashion show drew more than a million hits in the first hour after it aired, the company said.
Daily sales volumes via the web site have doubled or even tripled since then, said Anne Marie Blaire, the company's senior manager for Internet brand development.
"We're blanketing the world with activity," in marketing the fashion show, Blaine said. And the sales climb, she added, "has not just been a Sunday night thing, it's been steady since then."
The last gasp of the media push on Wednesday involved running ads in some of the nation's top daily newspapers and draping the walls of the New York Stock Exchange with pink ribbons before one of its leading lingerie-clad super models, Stephanie Seymour, rang the closing bell.
All that has been aimed at keeping the momentum in cyber-space going after what company executives hailed as a blissful end to its latest fiscal year.
Better than expected profits
"Given the better than expected performance from each of our businesses, we now expect to report fourth quarter earnings per share of 98 cents," Leslie H. Wexner, Intimate Brands' chairman, said in a statement.
"This is a 24 percent increase, or 4 cents more than initially projected at the beginning of the period," he added.
But some criticized the hoopla generated about e-commerce -- which has markedly increased sales to men, in particular -- could alienate the company's core clientele: women.
"There is this danger of back-firing perhaps with women who might say they're just doing sensationalist advertising, sensationalist Internet events, and they are not watching as much the product quality," said Bernd Schmitt, marketing professor at Columbia Business School.
Shares surge more than 10 percent
Intimate Brands Inc. (IBI) shares rose 4-1/4 to 44-13/16, up 10.6 percent, after the lingerie vendor's parent said it would post a sharp gain in earnings per share in the fourth quarter from the same period a year ago.
Intimate Brands also said Sunday net sales in the four weeks ended Jan. 30 rose to $278.5 million, a 12 percent rise from the same month a year ago.
The company, which said it would release yearly results on Feb. 17, said it expects a 22 percent rise in net earnings for 1998 compared to the previous year.
-- by staff writer Jamey Keaten
|
|
|
|
|
|
Intimate Brands
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
