Abercrombie & Fitch Case

Summary - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (Abercrombie) is a specialty retailer of casual clothing
and accessories for youth. It was founded in 1892 and was originally an outlet for camping gear.
Later it sold conservative men wear to an older clientele, but eventually sales plummeted and
A&F filed for bankruptcy. It was acquired by The Limited in 1988. Mike Jeffries took over the
company and repositioned it as an aspirational youth apparel retailer focusing the consumers of
ages between 14 and 24.Sales exploded from $165 million in 1994 to $2.02 billion in
2004.According to a recent survey, A&F became the sixth coolest brand in the world among
kids. A&F hires employees less on skill than on how they look and act. The employee’s job is to
greet customers, walk around, and look beautiful instead of offering sales help. A&F also
successfully targeted young buyers via catalogs. The catalog is filled with erotic photographs of
scantily clad co-eds and buff frat boys cavorting on the beach or caught in compromising
positions.
Analysis – Ethical issue is the company’s key marketing issue.

Abercrombie & Fitch has faced numerous accusations in regards to its employment practices,
merchandise, and advertising campaigns which have been described as sexually explicit and
homoerotic. The catalog and the website of A&F are filled with erotic photographs proving time
and time again that sex sells. As teenagers are the main target market, they wear these types of
clothing to be considered well-dressed and fit in with the latest fashion designs. No matter how
they market it, the teenagers will have no objections and still sport the sexy clothes. The
demographic group that showed the most complaints were the parents of teenagers. In 2004, the
company was accused of discriminating against ethnic minorities by offering desirable positions
to White American employees.
Abercrombie & Fitch must constantly focus on the customer’s needs with high levels of service
in order to create and retain a competitive advantage. Ultimately, brand image, service, and
quality are the winning criteria for Abercrombie & Fitch. Their competitive advantage stems
from their ability to communicate these qualities to their customers better than their competitors,
while maintaining high profit margins. They should concentrate on a better way of advertising
without affecting the morality. The number of employees per store should be increased and they
should concentrate more in customer service/sales help rather than just greeting customers,
walking around and looking beautiful. The company should invest more time in Research and
Development and try to play with more fashion styles to keep up with the ever changing fashion
tastes and life styles of the youth. There is no evidence that Abercrombie is significantly
involved in sponsorship of any event or cause. Perhaps if they were to get involved in
sponsorship marketing, efforts would best be focused on fashionable college events such as
sponsoring a regatta or extreme sports event. They should consider expanding their business
inside United States as well as Outside United states.