I believe the consumer holds all the power in the marketplace. Why wouldn’t we? We determine what we want to buy and how much we want to spend on it. If we don’t like what a company is offering they will be forced to lower the price or change the product to better fit our needs.
So let’s talk about Abercrombie & Fitch.
They started in 1892 as a sporting goods store named after David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. They had success until both founders retired and in 1977 the company went bankrupt. In 1988, the huge corporation Limited Brands, they own Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Express and Henri Bendel, bought Abercrombie & Fitch and turned it into an upscale teen brand.
At that time Abercrombie was rebranded, the teen market was growing at a rapid rate and Limited Brands wanted to attract those teenagers who had a lot of buying power. They immediately started with scandalous photographs and the sexualisation of their clothes. In 1997 they even launched a quarterly magazine that had pictures, interviews and articles about sex, pop culture, and other teen interests. They were about sex because that is what the 90s teenager wanted.
They saw continued success and popularity following into the 2000s. Entering the 21st century they were the sixth most popular brand before Nintendo and Levi’s.
2008 is when things started to turn sour. Due to the housing crisis consumers were not spending money on luxury items like $60 jeans and a $40 tee shirt. Abercrombie’s refusal to lower prices or offer discounts saw their revenue dropping $3.54 billion for the first time since their rebrand.
Enter: Abercrombie’s big bad CEO Mike Jefferies.
Now this is where everyone’s hatred for Abercrombie stems. Mike Jefferies turned the brand into more of the preppy casual clothes we think of when we think Abercrombie & Fitch. He took the brand from being sexy and provocative to being trashy and degrading. Photographs of models were featured all around the stores wearing virtually nothing. All their bags and standing outside the store greeting people were shirtless men oiled up with eight-pack abs. This took the tastefully scandalous brand too far. However, they saw continued success because although parents did not approve of the brand, teenagers continued to shop there.
While this was happening, Jefferies was digging himself into a hole. Jefferies discussed in an interview with Salon that sexual attraction was an important part to the “emotional experience” of Abercrombie stores. He stated “that’s why we hire good looking people in our stores… because good looking people attract other good looking people and we want to market to cool, good looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that”. Comments like that as well as the backlash from not providing XL or XXL clothes for women had Abercrombie & Fitch losing business.
Around 2010 consumers tastes were beginning to change, teenagers were no longer looking for the overpriced logo they wanted more clothing for a reasonable price, turning to stores like H&M and Forever 21 to do so.
Abercrombie began aggressively closing locations, cutting back on inventory, shifting away from logo products in an effort to stay alive.
Finally, they rooted the problem (or a huge part of it). In 2014, after seeing 11 straight quarters of sales declines Jefferies stepped down as CEO.
Yet again Abercrombie & Fitch is under a huge rebranding trying to find their place in the market. They have been forced by the consumer to get with the times. Scantily clothed men and women have been removed from their stores and a focus on quality has been determined. Abercrombie has shifted their target market from pre-teens and teenagers to young adults ages 18-25 who are looking for a higher quality product that is stylish yet classic and it’s reasonable yet not cheap. I think they are tapping into a market segment that is virtually untouched.
I like Abercrombie because they are the perfect example of the power the consumer. We told them by not buying their stuff that they weren’t providing us with something we needed or wanted and they were forced to figure out what it is we need/want.
Right now their clothes are trendy, they have a classic style to them like plain shirts and tasteful yet playful dresses. They’re always having a sale so never pay full price for something, just wait and it will be 40% off in no time. Their jeans fit well and are better quality than H&M however not quite as good or expensive as Joe Jeans or Seven for All Mankind.
I am not saying Abercrombie & Fitch is a perfect company by any means or that you should shop there, I am simply explaining why I like a company that has done a lot of sketchy things. So now when my friends make fun of me for going to Abercrombie I can pull up this article and smile.
