Lingerie Marketing: What (Wo)Men Want

The Lingerie category is finally noticing it’s target audience: Women

No category has undergone a metamorphosis like the way lingerie has. Significant product innovation in fabrics, features, sizes, fits, styles and colors, have been accompanied by radical changes in how this category has related to its most important audience — women.

A category that has traditionally either oppressed or shaped women to conform to societal norms, or oversexualized women’s lingerie to cater to men has now grown up to finally take notice of what women want from their underwear and how they want to be represented and spoken to, and more importantly how they don’t want to be spoken to. The new brands in the lingerie space are more in service of women and their needs from the category, and are elevating the dialogue to more than just underwear.

A history of women’s underwear is remarkable and significantly more so when juxtaposed with women’s role in society and how that relationship has shaped the category itself. Let’s take a moment to see how far bras have come for instance.

The first ‘bras’ were seen in literature dating back to the 14th century. However, we may all be familiar with the corset — the ruling undergarment of choice for women for 4 centuries and more. No other undergarment has gained such popularity as the corset, being the only undergarment that became so chic that it was worn as an outer garment. European fashion houses adopted the corsets of the old and fashioned them into statement pieces of the new.

But before corsets became chic, they had to do double duty — of supporting the breasts as well as pulling the waist in. Corsets were meant to “beautify” women and shape their bodies to conform to a certain ideal, ideals defined by society with the goal of making them more attractive to the opposite sex. But this was at the cost of comfort. These corsets look like torture devices, often causing women to faint. The structured nature of these corsets allowed for shaping and control, illustrative, perhaps of how women were regarded in society. The societal structures were defined by the clergy, the kings and the men, and women were confined to play within those structures and play the part of child bearers, the keepers of their households and the obeyer of their husbands’ wishes. Even though corsets aimed to make women more sexually appealing, the topic of what a woman found sexually attractive was not a part of societal consciousness.

Fast forward to the 20th century. Thanks to metal shortages in WW2, the corset was replaced by the modern bra. Millions of pairs of breasts started breathing easier and resting softer. More women started entering the workforce and owning their sense of style. Even with these changes, women’s underwear was largely seen as pragmatic and mass brands like Playtex, Maidenform, Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Jockey, were often sold in packs of three at department stores. “Lingerie” was reserved for special occasions such as one’s wedding night or honeymoon, more in service of the man than the wearer.

The underwear marketing of the 60s and 70s focused on the most basic product attributes and on function. Playtex promised to ‘hold you in beautifully’ or “as if fashioned for you alone”. Maidenform’s ‘Dream’ campaign was iconic, given the times — it featured women dreaming of winning elections, going to masquerades and generally assuming a higher role in society by stepping out from their limited roles in their households. Despite that, for a category that was so female, most decisions were made by men — including the women who would feature in these ads, and more significantly, the women that would not make the cut.

The 90s brought with them sweeping changes. It brought one of the largest percentages of American women to colleges receiving degrees, and subsequently to the workforce. Women had more money, more education, and more power than their predecessors. They also had more control over their reproductive choices, giving them the ability to live life on their own terms.

Despite this, Victoria’s Secret was founded with the vision of making men feel welcome while lingerie shopping.This vision and a predominantly male leadership catapulted the lackluster world of lingerie marketing to a bold new world where sexuality wasn’t just a finer point, it was the point. Ironically, it appears that it was men’s sexuality that was the point. This was evident from the supermodel-like ‘angels’ hired to strut the ramp at the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show and be featured in the print catalog, which beat Playboy to become the sexiest publication in America. All of this pomp and show was titillating to men, but a constant reminder to women that we do not look like these women and that while the underwear might make us feel sexy, it was only if we had flat stomachs, big breasts, tiny waists, long legs, blonde hair, light skin and blue eyes.

As a woman of color, the brand never resonated with me. While I begrudgingly like the product innovation they brought to a very dull category, I thought the brand created a world where it was imperative that women must ‘be’ sexy at all times, and more importantly, had to look a certain way to be sexy.

I wasn’t alone in thinking that the brand wasn’t for me. In recent years, sales started falling, and the brand started losing relevance. It failed to represent women of different shapes and sizes and colors, it failed to listen to what women wanted from the category and how they wanted to feel and be spoken to. More importantly, women rejected the unreachable, unreal, discriminating standard that the brand set for them.

The new lingerie brands like ThirdLove, Lively, True, Pepper are women led businesses that are finally banishing the male gaze and putting women where they deserve to be — in the center of their worlds. They are markedly more inclusive, more real, and are more aligned with what women want. They know how women shop, and they innovate to offer features and services that make shopping easier, more representative and more fun.

These brands know that women have a right to feel the way we feel, that we don’t always need to feel sexy, that we crave comfort and fabrics that move to our shape, that darker skin, curves, blemishes, asymmetric breasts, frown lines, and naked, non made-up skin can be beautiful too. And that we’re sexy the way we are.

For other female categories that are male dominated, there are important lessons to be learnt. If your leadership and employees are predominantly male or white, and you’re not bringing in, valuing and nurturing diverse talent and perspectives, or if you have a list of D&I initiatives to simply check a box and are not truly embracing and welcoming the perspectives of women, you’re risking losing relevance.

If you’re not expanding your understanding of what your audience wants by listening to them and constantly adding value in alignment of those needs, you’re not a brand they will relate to. And if you’re not relevant or relatable to your most important audience, a demographic that has more power, more knowledge and more money than ever before — you might as well not exist.