👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
A few weeks ago, I watched the Hulu special “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons” about the rapid rise and recent unraveling of the lingerie empire.
While the behind-the-scenes story got really unpretty, really fast — the part that I found beautiful was the origin story of the brand.
Not the real origin story, but the one the marketers created.
The Secret Behind Victoria
Victoria’s Secret was always a company selling a dream — an imagined fantasy of what a woman could and should be.
That fantasy started with a real fantasy: an actual character that the brand created named Victoria.
And this Victoria didn’t have anything to do with angels.
Roy Raymond, the founder of Victoria’s Secret, named the brand after Queen Victoria. He envisioned the stores looking like Victorian boudoirs — with all of the fainting couches and red velvet that brings to mind. Her “secret” was a reference to the taboo nature of underwear, the beauty hidden beneath a woman’s clothes.
When Les Wexner, the King of Shopping Malls, bought the brand and set out to transform it into a mega-moneymaker, he had just read a book called Making Movies, an acclaimed guide to motion pictures by director Sidney Lumet.
It was with his literal director’s hat on that he approach the rebrand of Victoria’s Secret — emphasizing the importance of storytelling.
Wexner created a character named Victoria, a posh British woman who lived a privileged existence in London as the wife of a barrister.
They made an internal marketing video where everyone got to know Victoria, and she told them her story.
“I am Victoria Stewart White," the fictional character said.
"Father taught me about business, but Mother was determined that I develop my soul, my passion, and my femininity."
If the brand had a guiding acronym, it would have been “WWVD” (What Would Victoria Do?) — a question Wexner encouraged employees to ask themselves about every decision.
This strong character play worked… almost too well. New employees frequently wondered when they would get to meet Victoria because she seemed so real to them.
What I Love About This British Lady
In branding, we often create archetypes for brands. These are based on classic personas like The Rebel, The Caregiver, and The Lover.
What I love about the personification of Victoria is how it takes the concept of the brand’s archetype and quite literally brings it to life.
The character of Victoria was so authentic and compelling that she was able to guide the branding of the company for years through its meteoric rise.
And she serves as a reminder of how the elements of classic storytelling (like a strong main character!) can strengthen any brand.
Many brands winning on social media platforms today have started to embrace characters in their brands more fully — like Duolingo’s mascot getting into trouble on TikTok or Wendy verbally sparring on Twitter and literally sparring and Twitch.
Brands like these know that are only so many product photos you can show a customer before their eyes glaze over. What engages people is a story.
Every Character Needs a Home
To tell a good story, you need characters. You also need a setting where the characters exist and the action plays out. But distinct elements of setting like time and place are often not clearly defined for brands.
One of the best examples of a “time and place” brand that marketers can learn from right now is Vacation.
Born from the insight that sun protection had gotten too clinical, the founders of Vacation turned back to the days when sunscreen advertising was actually fun: the 1980s.
They immerse people in the world of an imaginary resort inspired by vintage Club Med advertisements and call themselves “Leisure-Enhancing Sunscreen.”
Vacation has skillfully taken its sunscreen-driven brand world and used it to inspire other products, including…
A $60 Eau de Toilette that smells like their sunscreen.
Format innovations like their Classis Whip SPF 30 — a sunscreen mouse that looks like whipped cream.
And fake products like the “sold out” Vacation® Hovercraft.
Vacation builds setting into every element of its brand so strongly, the world can not be denied.
Vacation also seamlessly works many fictional characters and plots into its setting — like this story about Phil Henderson, pictured below.
After a white wine spritzer and citrus infused pedicure, Phil Henderson hit the beach recliner and was finally ready to enjoy a long day by the community pool. That was until he noticed a major “leisure hazard” across the deepest depths of the shallow end of the pool. Meredith, Phil’s timeshare neighbor, was asleep on her pool float and heading southbound for Suzanne Velasquez’s Aqua Zumba class. Without hesitation, Phil dropped his crossword newspaper clipping and rushed to the edge of the pool to help. Seated with his feet at ankle’s length in the water, Phil performed a strong but controlled “45° Flamingo Flutter Kick.” Soon enough, an elegant row of waves rippled across the water, gracefully drifting Meredith to safety without waking her from her shrimp cocktail coma. And the potential “leisure hazard” was stopped in its tracks. From that day forward, residents all across the timeshare community celebrated Phil for his noble gesture. And he was forever remembered as the man who sacrificed his fresh, 1-hour pedi to preserve the leisure of the Vero Beach Community Center.
I never thought I’d want a candle called Ball Boy that smells like “uncanned tennis balls, Vacation® Sunscreen, Prince® Cotton Sweatbands, and fresh-cut cucumber sandwiches.”
But because the world Vacation has created is so engaging and compelling, I do.
And I’m not the only one. The Ball Boy candle is currently sold out.
How to Fail at Being Stale
Things get stale when they’re same-same all the time. But there’s a difference between brand consistency and brand boredom.
The brilliance of both early Victoria and modern Vacation lies in the close attention they pay to the most essential elements of good storytelling, the blocks upon which a plot is built.
We all know that people engage with stories. Having real elements of them — like characters and a setting— will give you a lot more to work with as a brand.
It’s how you keep your content fresh.
And it’s this kind of possibility for plots and twists that brands desperately need today to up their storytelling game in all of the channels where consumers are engaging the most.
Your Brand Challenge
This week, I challenge you to un-stale your brand by creating both a character and a setting, using the exercises I’ve created below.
And for all of my subscribers who complete the exercises this week, there’s a special bonus at the end.
Step 1: Character Exercise
Who is the embodiment of my brand?
Is it a person—or maybe an animal? Or a human transformed into an animal (Hello, Gregor Samsa!)
Give your character name, age, and physical characteristics.
What’s your character’s backstory?
Describe your character’s strongest and weakest personality traits.
Which relationships are most key in your character's life, and why?
What does your character want most in the world?
Step 2: Setting Exercise
When and where does the action of my brand takes place?
What year is it?
Where are you in the world? Be as specific as possible (Paris, France. The City of Lights. Boulevard Saint Germain).
What season is it?
Describe the weather.
Detail the historical context — what is happening in the world right now?
Step 3: Narrative Audit
Once you have your character and your setting — go look at your brand.
Think about the vocal elements… do they sound like your character?
Review the visual elements… do they evoke your setting?
Look at your product pipeline… are these things your character would make, at this time and in your place?
Dive into your social content… is there a way to bring your character and setting to life through fictional stories and interactions?
😀 Special Newsletter Reader Bonus 😀
If you complete the Character & Setting Exercises this week:
Email me your answers at kimberly@brandsthatgetyou.com
Use the subject line “My Character & Setting”
Include a link to your current brand (or assets for your brand-in-progress if you haven’t launched yet)
And I’ll send you my thoughts on your Narrative Audit.
Now go get your storytelling on!
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About Me
I help early-stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.