Victoria's Secret Tests Gift-With-Purchase CD
To promote its new swimwear line, Victoria's Secret began giving out music CDs this month with $50 swimwear purchases."Everybody's launching their swimwear program right now, and [Victoria's Secret] has to break through the clutter and get people excited about their swimwear instead of going someplace else," said Susan Broyles, director of marketing at Disc Marketing Inc., the Pasadena, CA, company that created the program.
The swimwear line is available in stores, catalog and online. But the CDs are available only at participating Victoria's Secret stores. Titled "A Day at the Beach," the CD has 12 songs, including "Twist and Shout," "La Bamba" and "Surf City."
The 5-year-old Disc Marketing produces similar custom CDs for clients such as United Airlines, Spiegel, Target, General Mills, Betty Crocker and Coca-Cola. Some custom CDs produced for clients like Toyota Corp. boast multimedia features and Web links.
Supported by a staff of 51, the company soon will open a new digital recording facility.
It is unknown how many CDs will be distributed in the month-long program, though Broyles said it would be in the thousands.
Victoria's Secret will pay a fee for Disc Marketing's services. Disc Marketing will pay royalties and loyalties to the artists and labels concerned.
Broyles was tight-lipped about the program's cost.
"It depends on the units purchased," she said. "Music CDs can be as low as $2 depending on the units and songs chosen."
Store marketing will play a key role in awareness of the new Victoria's Secret program. This includes signs in front of participating stores.
Based on response, Victoria's Secret may extend the program to other apparel lines.
"We're talking with them about a series of these," Broyles said.
