... (Chakrabarty, 2011; Gill, 2007; University of Pennsylvania, 2002) Several financial organizations are working toward International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which will serve as a global guideline, allowing for comparison of financial reports produced by corporations regardless of where their headquarters are located. (Chakrabarty, 2011) This paper will discuss some of the differences between the accounting practices of two internationally operating retail companies; Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), with corporate headquarters in the United States, and H&M, with corporate headquarters in Sweden, analyze some aspects of their financial statements, and compare this information. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), is a retailer of casual apparel for men, women, and children, selling products such as casual sportswear, personal care products, and accessories. Its subsidiaries include Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, Hollister, and Gilly Hicks. (Abercrombie & Fitch, 2012a; Reuters, n.d.) A&F offers online...
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...Abercrombie & Fitch Executive Brief of External Environment From 2011 Annual Report Company Profile: Specialty in clothing retailer; operate store and direct to consumer operations; under Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie kids, Gilly Hicks, and Hollister brands; 1045 store in North America, Europe, and Asia. $3.5B net sales; 85,000 associates; HQ: New Albany, OH. PESTLDG Analysis Political/ legal Donation to lobbying of $120,000, issue health care reform. Abercrombie & Fitch does not give a many contributions to lobbying. This could be because they will like something change in the Obama Health care law. Abercrombie & Fitch is no estranger to legal problem. In 2002 has two pulled a t-shirt that said “ Wong Brothers Laundry Service – Two Wongs Can Make It White” An Asian American student at Stanford University organized a successful boycott. In 2009, they settle a Discrimination lawsuit in 2009 for $40 million dollars to thousand of minority plaintiffs claimed that African American, Asian, and Hispanic workers were steered to the backroom instead to the sales floor. In 2008, an assistant manager filed a lawsuit against Hollister chain because she was asked to wear short skirt to keep with acceptable work attitude. This can damage the company image. Abercrombie & Fitch No Stranger to Look related lawsuit. In 2008, Muslim teenager was told during an interview that her head scarf would violate Abercrombie & Fitch’s strict but secretive “ Look...
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...Abercrombie & Fitch: The Altering of Cultural Norms A Senior Project Presented to The Faculty of the Communication Studies Department California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts By Emily Nichole Pahler Dr. Bernard Duffy Senior Project Advisor Signature Date T. C. Winebrenner Department Chair Signature Date ©2009 Emily Nichole Pahler TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………........1 Justification……………………………………………………………………………........1 Critical Method Described………………………………………………………………….4 Object of Criticism…………………………………………………………………..…….13 Interpretation of A&F………………………………………………………………..…….16 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………21 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………..........23 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………...26 i 1 INTRODUCTION Abercrombie and Fitch is a store that targets a specific audience to make their customers feel young and beautiful. The young adult population is lured into stores like Abercrombie and Fitch because of the store’s sex appeal. Young and beautiful adults are ready at the door ready to greet customers (see figure 1). In order to understand the impact of Abercrombie and Fitch on the young adult population, semiotics, the media, research studies and autoethnography will be utilized. Nonverbal and verbal communication is also analyzed throughout this paper through visual aids and marketing tag lines....
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...Abercrombie & Fitch ABERCROMBIE & FITCH CASE STUDY COMPANY PROFILE Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a leading specialty retailer encompassing three concepts Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie, and Hollister Co. The company focuses on providing high-quality merchandise that compliments the casual classic American lifestyle. The merchandise is sold in retail stores throughout the United States and through catalogs. The company also operates an e-commerce website at www.abercrombie.com, a kids website at www.abercrombiekids.com, and publishes a magalog called the A&F Quarterly. Abercrombie & Fitch, which targets ages 18 through college, went public in October 1996 and spun-off from The Limited in May 1998. abercrombie kids (ages 7 - 14) was introduced in 1997. The latest concept, Hollister Co. was introduced in July 2000, and targets 14 - 18 year olds. BUSINESS CHALLENGE For the past two years Abercrombie has entrusted its order management, customer service and fulfillment needs of the direct side of the business to CommercialWare. CommercialWare’s robust CWDirect solution successfully captures a wealth of transactional data from the thousands of orders processed. The real challenge for Abercrombie is to turn this vast amount of transactional data into information that can be used to make better business decisions, and do so in a cost effective manner. Abercrombie was looking to easily answer the fundamental questions that would help them to grow their direct business: What are my best...
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...Abercrombie and Fitch: International expansion external and internal analysis Name Here Business Mgmt Name Here Date Here Executive Summary This case study was identified to examine why international sales volume of Abercrombie and Fitch have increased over the past three years and to recommend further international expansion to increase sales volume. The research draws attention to the fact that in 2009, the US stores generated 81.2% of Abercrombie and Fitch’s net sales. The shares of international stores and direct-to-consumer net sales were very small in comparison. Over the next two years the US stores decreased net sales percentages while net sales increased. Further investigation reveal that the US market shrinkage in terms of overall company net sales percentage coincided with the increase in international sales and direct-to-consumer sales and the overall company net sales percentage over the same time period. Since the economic downturn in the US economy in 2008 the disposable income for Abercrombie and Fitch clients appeared to decrease. Additionally individuals were utilizing disposable income for other items such as technology, cell phones and other gadgets. These two items appeared to be the major causes of the decreased company percentage in net sales of Abercrombie and Fitch in the US. During the same two year period the international stores and direct-to-consumer net sales increased dramatically. This was an increase of 342% for international...
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...Retail Marketing 10/5/12 Case 10 Case Study 1. Over the last decade, American Eagle and Abercrombie and Fitch have been two of the main clothing retailers competing for the affection of young adult shoppers, specifically within the teen-college age range of 18-22 years. While both companies carry a similar assortment of clothing apparel and try to cater to the same demographic, each company’s retail strategy does differ in various ways. A retail strategy is defined as the way in which a firm plans to focus its resources to accomplish its objectives. Being that both companies have the same target market and nature of merchandise, they both attempt to look for ways to gain a competitive advantage through their retail strategies. One main difference in their strategies is that American Eagle attempts to gain an advantage by selling their products at lower prices. By offering apparel that is equivalent to that of Abercrombie and selling it at a cheaper price they are able to attract the consumer who is looking to save money. On the other hand, Abercrombie keeps their prices a little bit higher to give off the appearance of higher quality in hopes to attract the consumer who looks to buy name brand, higher end clothing. Moreover, though it is incredibly important to gain a competitive advantage over other retailers in your market, it is even more crucial to sustain that advantage. Abercrombie has positioned itself strictly within the market of 18-22 year olds; to help bolster that...
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...III. Executive Summary Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the most famous apparel retail industry that have done a wonderful job to stay in the market position despite the changing trends and lifestyles that generations have nowadays. It’s hard to keep intact with fashion trends because once you cannot cope up with the changing lifestyle of your consumers, you can expect to have a decrease in your sales and market share in other countries. The industry offers a lot of new and existing potential competitors especially in the fashion industry; you’re not just competing within the U.S. brands but also with European brands that are getting popular in all over the world. They are also products that can substitute with branded apparel, some teenagers who are experiencing financial problems can just buy an imitation one just for a cheap price and even the quality’s great, no one will notice that it was a fake one. Young generations nowadays are conscious of what they have and what things they don’t have, especially with apparel, because the trend nowadays is when you are wearing that kind of shirt and it is a high class brand, you’re in with the trend and you are considered one of the coolest kids in your school. While the organization culture of A&F is very different from other brands because they are the only company who hires people based on their looks and how they act and not with the skills. They are always saying that they don’t treat them as salespeople; they are the image that...
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...{draw:frame} Abercrombie and Fitch Case Study 4/21/2010 Executive Summary: Abercrombieand Fitch was Founded as a High Quality sporting goods store in 1982 by David Abercrombie. Abercrombie Co opened its first store in Manhattan, New York with the intention of providing high quality equipment to an elite segment of the market. Throughout the years, Abercrombie and Fitch Co has proven itself to be able to adapt to the constant changing retail market and has slowly evolved in the retail giant we are familiar with today. Abercrombie and Fitch currently employ a focused differentiation strategy where they target customers ages 12-25. Instead of using conventional methods of strengthening their brand through advertising and a squeaky clean image, A&F instead takes full advantage of controversy and word of mouth advertizing in order to gain their customer base. It is through A&F’s unorthodox methods that they have been able to establish themselves as a highly desirable, high quality apparel retailer and due to these factors they are able to charge a premium price for their products. A&F’s current strategies have helped them to not only establish themselves in the United States, but they are now poised to expand into the global market. With the recent opening of flagship locations in Tokyo, London, Milan, A&F now has a solid foothold to tap into the Western European and Asian Markets. With the potential in these foreign markets, A&F should realize high levels of growth...
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...Levi Strauss & Co. V. Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co. 633 F.3d 1158 (2011) FACTS: Levi Strauss has stitched a design on the back pockets of its jeans since 1873. Levi Strauss holds multiple federally registered trademarks on this bow-shaped design, an “Arcuate”. They are required to actively monitor competing designs and enforce its trademark rights. In 2005, Abercrombie & Fitch attempted to register a “mirror” image stitching design for use on certain products. Levi Strauss argued that this design should be barred because it could potentially cause confusion with and dilute the Levi Strauss Arcuate mark. While the ninth circuit appeal was pending, Abercrombie announced the shutdown of the Ruehl brand and the Ruehl retail stores. Abercrombie then proceeded to file a new trademark-registration application with the PTO. This time they were attempting to register the same mirror image with a different brand name, Gilley Hicks. These would be sold at different prices, and through different channels than their former Ruehl line. After this, Levi Strauss attempted to have Abercrombie agree to amend the pleadings to add Gilley Hicks, or say that any injunction occurred would extend to include the Gilley Hicks line as well; Abercrombie refused. PROCEDURAL HISTORY: On July 20, 2007, Levi Strauss sued Abercrombie in the Northern District of California after learning that Abercrombie was selling products with this mirror image on a line of jeans- the “Ruehl”. The district court held a...
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...1. What impact had Abercrombie and Fitch Co.’s foundation had on the company today? 2. Examine the branding of the high fashion clothing market in order to answer: a. Which marketing technique(s) does Abercrombie and Fitch use? * They don’t use third party advertisements, instead: * They hire employees that fit the brand and use them as ambassadors to promote the brand * Focus on the in-store experience (cologne, lighting, look of the store, how the employees dress and act, etc.) b. What makes their strategy different from their competitors? * No third party advertising * Very specific target market, focusing on “cool, good looking people” * Through the use of very exclusionary marketing tactics, clearly stating that many people are not meant to wear their clothing * c. How would you interpret the success of their strategy? * Were able to dominate the market and become a leading brand through the use of unique marketing strategies. * Direct to consumer sales have nearly doubled since 2008. d. Discuss Abercrombie and Fitch’s decision to close domestic stores * Closed 20% of stores domestically in the U.S., in aging malls where their stores were under performing. * The reason for these closures was that the stores were no longer aligned with the desired brand image. The goal of the closures was to elevate the brands overall image and boost profitability. * 3. Discuss...
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...quickly moved into software, hardware and other services. IBM has been a Fortune 500 company since the 1970’s, and has survived, whereas over a-third of those in the Fortune 500 during that era have either merged, been acquired, sold in pieces, or just completely disappeared off the face of the earth. IBM launched an extensive e-business marketing campaign using its own initials Internet Business Machines during the 1990’s. IBM informed businesses that the Internet would be the new way to conduct business. By 1997 IBM had well over 10,000 e-business customers. IBM’s global e-business has expanded to Russia, China, Brazil and India. (Savov, 2011) Abercrombie and Fitch were incorporated in 1904; has an employee base of 9,500 personnel and has a sales estimate of over $1 billion in year 2000. Abercrombie & Fitch was calling itself "The Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World." It boasted the world's largest and most valuable collection of firearms and the widest assortment of fishing flies obtainable anywhere (15,000 in all) to accompany its...
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...Parent Company | Abercrombie & Fitch Co. brand | Category | Apparel and Accessories | Sector | Lifestyle and Retail | Tagline/ Slogan | 1922 | USP | Complete lifestyle brand for teens | STP | Segment | Young fashion concious teens looking for vibrant apparel | Target Group | Young boys and girls from the upper middle class | Positioning | True American lifestyle brand | http://www.wikiwealth.com/swot-analysis:hollister-co http://es.slideshare.net/Dominym5/hollister-case-study http://sussle.org/t/Hollister_Co. PRESENTATION OF THE BRAND The company was first established in 1992 by Mike Jeffries like a merchant shop in Southern California. Later on in 2000 Abercrombie&Fitch owned Hollister Co and opened the first store in Town Center, Ohio. Since then, the brand became famous all around the world and widely recognizable for their signature seagull. Inspired by the California lifestyle, Hollister markets clothes and fragrances. BACKGROUND OF THE FIRM * Target market: Their products are designed to attract both males and females between 14-24 years of age. * Expansion: Until 2006 Hollister was located just in the US and Canada but in 2008 the company expanded to UK, and then around Europe. * Hollister is very similar to Abercrombie&Fitch except that prices are a bit less expensive than Abercrombie. * Nowadays, the company is the second most popular teen brand in US. WHY THIS COMPANY Based on what we have mentioned above, we...
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...Too Sexy Too Soon? A Case Study of Abercrombie & Fitch Stephanie Roussell / MC 7999 / 11.21.11 Introduction Abercrombie and Fitch, an American retailer with nearly 800 U.S. and international stores, is no stranger to controversy. The company has long profited from shock value and consumer backlash not only in its marketing, but also in its clothing and employment practices. Known for its preppy, casual style of mid-luxury clothing, the retailer is a mainstay in the American shopping mall. But recent controversies about its product style and marketing practices have kept the company continually in the news. The latest controversy is no different. In March 2011, the company posted a new product on its Abercrombie kids website: the “Ashley” bikini, a striped triangle bathing suit, sized for girls ages 8 to 14. It seemed innocent enough until one small word in the clothing description caused a firestorm of media and activist backlash. The website described the bikini as a “push-up,” complete with “extra padding for breast enhancement.” (Mendez, para. 1) Because this description was added to a website that markets to girls as young as 2nd grade, it caused an uproar about the company’s intentions of over-sexualizing young girls. Comments began pouring in decrying the company’s apparent lack of decency or sensitivity. All were asking the same question: “how soon is too sexy?” Did this controversy expose a company intent on objectifying young girls? Or is it another cog in the...
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...Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however, senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.[8] All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.[9] While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. The website is based in San Francisco, California. Twitter also has servers and offices in San Antonio, Texas; and Boston, Massachusetts. Since its creation in March 2006, and its launch in July 2006, by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.[clarification needed][10] It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet".[11] Tween Brands (NYSE: TWB) operates retail stores that sell clothing to "tweens", girls between the ages of 7 and 14. TWB's stores sell clothing, jewelry, backpacks, purses, and other accessories.[1] The Limited Too was TWB's first chain, with 586 stores...
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...[pic] SWOT Analysis of Hollister Co. By: Jessica Gray, Mehrosh Hasher, Lydia Russo, Rachael Ware, and Desiree Urban October 4, 2009 AA 381 Fashion Buying Introduction: Hollister Co. was launched by Abercrombie & Fitch Company CEO Michael Jeffries in July 2000, and is a lifestyle brand that markets apparel and fragrances reminiscent of the southern California way of life (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co., whose clothing is known for their signature seagull logo embroideries, has become widely recognizable due to its success in creating a strong brand image (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co.’s retail stores, featuring only its own private label merchandise, are usually located in malls and generate significant traffic due to its unique atmosphere complete with ultra-dimmed lights and blaring popular music (Palmer, 2009). The brand’s target market consists of both males and females between 14-24 years of age (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co. is known for the model-like staff it employs, and the sensual advertisements and store décor that accompany them (Palmer, 2009). Their clothing reflects this ideal, running in notoriously small sizes and only consisting of a very limited collection of casual beach-ready graphic t-shirts, jeans, thermals, swimwear, leggings, shorts, and sweatshirts (Palmer, 2009). Though Hollister Co. has recently been suffering large net losses, it has ranked first place for the Teen’s Top Clothing Brand for four consecutive seasons since 2007, and...
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