Victoria’s Secret PINK is worth $2 billion, sells $5 million in bras every week and attracts college women like wildfire.
Naturally, the brand approaches college women to bring their merchandise to campuses.
Victoria’s Secret PINK has 198 campus representatives at 99 different schools, and the University has had brand representatives for the past several years. The campus representatives act as a middleman between students and corporate executives by creating brand-themed events and alerting students about upcoming merchandise releases, sales and freebies.
Currently, apparel design junior Hannah Gadbois and marketing junior Brittany Styacich are the lead campus representatives for the brand at the University.
Gadbois got involved in the program during her freshman year when she received an email through the sororities about joining the Victoria’s Secret PINK street team. She then applied for the lead representative position, and after a “nerve-wracking” interview with corporate, she received it. A year later, Styacich joined the street team and then was promoted to the second main representative position. Both women also have worked in the Victoria’s Secret PINK retail location in Baton Rouge for two years.
The two didn’t know each other before working together and now consider each other best friends. Gadbois credits their good work relationship to their differences. She said she is more interested in the design aspect, while Styacich is interested in the marketing aspect.
However, the two have one thing in common: their passion for PINK.
Their adoration for the brand has allowed them to create as much brand exposure around campus as possible.
Styacich said being a PINK representative is time consuming, with promoting the brand through social media daily, attending Sunday night meetings and working PINK events. However, she said it’s not work for the team when they’re passionate about the brand and love working with their fellow team members.
“It’s fun. They want to be there, they want to come to the meetings, they want to be doing what they’re doing,” Styacich said. “They love PINK just as much as we do.”
Gadbois and Styacich agreed that their positions are time consuming, and sometimes, work for the street team is a higher priority than their school work. But they try to get everything done, knowing their degrees are just as important as their work experience.
The PINK street team words to get the University community involved in the brand.
One way the women do this is through social media, specifically Instagram and Twitter.
Styacich said the brand primarily appeals to college women because of its collegiate-themed clothing. She said some women wear the merchandise to LSU gamedays. The street team encourages brand involvement by having students post their outfits, tagging @vspinkLSU, and then the street team will repost it.
The campus representatives will also post their own content on the Twitter or Instagram about new merchandise or upcoming events.
“Even if these people aren’t liking it or not retweeting it, we still want them to see it because they’re still thinking ‘Hey, Victoria’s Secret,’” Gadbois said.
The events the street team hosts are also interactive.
Gadbois said they held a PINK Nation event at the Mall of Louisiana retail location two hours after the mall closed. She said previous events had issues with attendance, but this time, the street team thought of new events, including trying on a bra to receive a raffle ticket with the chance of winning free merchandise.
She said while women were winning free items, they also were buying things. After two hours, the street team made $10,000.
Styachich said the brand’s ability to attract college women helps it “sell itself to a degree.”
“Whether [women] don’t have a shirt that has PINK written across it, they have yoga pants … If you don’t get your bras from Victoria’s Secret PINK, where do you get them?” Gadbois said.
The corporate office appreciates the brand exposure the campus representatives do along with getting to pick their representatives’ brains about the brand’s target market.
Gadbois said she and Styacich went to brand training at the Ohio headquarters in late July.
“They would show us stuff from Urban Outfitters and Free People, and they’d be like, ‘Do you like this stuff?’ And we’d be like, ‘Absolutely, that’s trending right now, and they’re like, ‘OK, that helps us make the bras were going to make next year,’” Gadbois said.
Along with picking their brains to stay up to date on trends, corporate also makes sure the representatives are promoting the brand in a good light.
“[Corporate] sat us down and one of the days, it was a whole day about learning about this brand, like ‘What is the PINK girl, do you know who the PINK girl is, do you know who your target market is?’” Gadbois said.
While the campus representatives don’t get paid, they receive other perks, including free merchandise, gift cards and most importantly, job experience.
“For us, it’s not about the money … it’s for the experience,” Gadbois said.
Styacich said the opportunities to plan events and create blog content for the PINK blog gives them exposure and can lead to internships and then jobs.
For Gadbois and Styacich, the goal is to work at Victoria’s Secret PINK corporate after graduation.
Gadbois said she’d love to work in the design or merchandise, while Styacich said she’d love to work for the digital marketing team.
Both agree that having a job for more than a paycheck is important, but it has to be something they love. For Gadbois and Styacich, Victoria’s Secret PINK is that job.
You can reach Meg Ryan on Twitter @The_MegRyan.

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Javier Fernández