Victorias Secret Raymond Biography Roy Larson Raymond April

Victoria’s Secret Raymond

Biography • Roy Larson Raymond (April 15, 1947 – August 26, 1993) was an American businessman who founded the Victoria's Secret lingerie retail store. • Raymond worked for the Vicks company in their marketing department. • On June 12, 1977, he opened the first Victoria's Secret store at the Stanford Shopping Center after feeling embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in an awkward, public department store environment. To open the store, he took a $40, 000 bank loan and borrowed $40, 000 from relatives. The company earned $500, 000 in its first year. He quickly started a mail order catalog and opened three more stores. • In 1982, after five years of operation, Raymond sold the Victoria's Secret company, with its six stores and 42 -page catalogue, grossing $6 million per year, to Leslie Wexner, creator of The Limited, for about $1 million. By the early 1990 s, Victoria's Secret had become the largest American lingerie retailer, topping $1 billion. • On August 26, 1993, Raymond committed suicide by leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge at the age of 46.

Innovation • He innovated creating a unique, sexy, and feminine brand with high quality materials. He invented new designs of female underwear and classy. This brand became popular for their beautiful designs and elegance. • • In addition, each year the prestigious brand creates a bra known as Fantasy Bra , this luxurious bra is made of precious jewels or is embedded. It was presented in the catalog Christmas brand in 1996, but since 2001 it is used by one of the angels of the house during the show, except in 2004 where there was no show.

Logo and color • This lingerie and loungewear company uses pink to target their exclusively female audience. Variations of hot pinks and calm pinks are used throughout their clothing line to create a youthful and romantic brand that empowers its customers with confidence. • PINK's mascot is a silhouetted pink dog, which appears as a logo on some clothing items from the line, such as polo shirts. The dog was made into a stuffed animal, which is available at most Victoria's Secret stores. • PINK is sold at all Victoria's Secret stores, and, more recently, some stores have been created only for the sale of PINK items. In addition to having a section on the main Victoria's Secret website, the brand also has its own website, which allows users to view pictures from PINK fashion shows, look at new merchandise, and download PINK desktop backgrounds and buddy icons to their computers.

How did he expand? • In 1983, Leslie Wexner revamped Victoria's Secret. He discarded the money-losing model of sellingerie to male customers and replaced it with one that focused on female customers. Victoria's Secret transformed from "more burlesque than Main Street" to a mainstay that sold broadly accepted underwear. The "new colors, patterns and styles that promised sexiness packaged in a tasteful, glamorous way and with the snob appeal of European luxury" were supposed to appeal to and appease female buyers. To further this image, the Victoria's Secret catalog continued the practice that Raymond began: listing the company's headquarters on catalogs at a fake London address, with the real headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. The stores were redesigned to evoke 19 th century England. • From at least 1985 through to 1993, Victoria's Secret sold men's underwear. • In 1986, four years after the sale, The New York Times commented, "in an industry where mark-downs have been the norm, the new emphasis is on style and service". The lingerie business was changing fast. • 1983– 1990: Expansion into malls • In the five years after the purchase, The Limited had transformed a three store boutique into a 346 store retailer. [contradictory] • Howard Gross took over as president, from his position as vice-president, in 1985. [28] • In October that year, the Los Angeles Times reported that Victoria's Secret was stealing market share from department stores; in 1986, Victoria's Secret was the only national chain of lingerie stores. • The New York Times reported on Victoria's Secret's rapid expansion from four stores in 1982 to 100 in 1986; and analysts's expectations that it could expand to 400 by 1988. • In 1987, Victoria's Secret was reportedly among the "best-selling catalogs". In 1990, analysts estimated that sales had quadrupled in four years, making it one of the fastest growing mail-order businesses. • The New York Times described it as a "highly visible leader", saying it used "unabashedly sexy high-fashion photography to sell middle-priced underwear. " • Victoria's Secret also released their own line of fragrances in 1992.