...Identify and describe the greatest environmental threats that have immediate implications for A&F. Abercrombie and Fitch do not fit the image of being a company that is diverse. The store seems to focus a person’s appearance rather than what qualifications the individual has that will help to increase the company’s profits. They seek to find individuals who capture what they believe have the all American look. When entering the store there are photos are young attractive white men and women who appear to be physically fit and attractive. The brand labels as they are called fit that same picture as well. The store does not show a diversity when it comes to other races being employed there or items of apparel that would bring other races into the store to purchase their products. Employees are handpicked by this company both by going on college campuses and getting young attractive white men and women or they are chosen when they come into the stores to shop. The employees must agree to wear their make up a certain way, their hair has to look a certain way, and they have to purchase articles of clothing from the store to wear while they are at work as well as when they are not working so that they will display the look of the store at all times. The employees that are in the back stock areas of the stores are usually of other ethnicities, these individuals are not allowed to be on the sales floor or at the cash registers. Having a bad reputation for discrimination is not something...
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...Abercrombie & Fitch * Over 300 stores in U.S. * Chairman: Michael Jeffries * Founded in NY on June 4th, 1892 * 1055 locations (13 countries) * 9,000 full-time and 76,000 part time employees (2010) Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the most popular retailers of casual cloths in U.S. It was founded in Manhattan of NYC, NY by David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. They started current business style since 1988 by Michael Jeffries who is presently a CEO of A&F. Before that, A&F was a sports brand. Jeffries switched it to the casual cloth brand for teenagers and they start advertising their brand with high tone of sexuality. Their cool designed clothes and attractive marketing increased sales and popularity since then, and in 2000, they became the 6th popular brand among teenagers in U.S. after opening the first flagship store in the fifth avenue in NY, they made more reputation. Their brand concept was “ Casual Luxury,” showing them to attempt to design clothes that not only are comfortable but also have a high luxury. Their clothes are sold by high prices compared with other similar type of brands. They managed two more brands, Hollister Co. and Gilly Hicks, and both are also popular among teenagers. Abercrombie & Fitch is also popular all over the world. They expanded their business world widely. The first shop opened outside of the country was in Canada. After succeeding in the expansion to Canada, they opened stores in Europe and Tokyo...
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...Abercrombie and Fitch Case Analysis MGT625 April 11, 2012 Elizabeth Payne Abstract Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) is a typical mall front store. They have been in the business for a century and are not going anywhere. A&F sees their fair share of mock items and lawsuits. However, through it all, A&F has made it to be successful, overcome threats, and open similar chains to target a wider range age market. Introduction Abercrombie & Fitch was founded in 1892 as a unique clothing store. Over the century in business they have made a distinct target for young adults. The fashion giant specializes in apparel for ages 18 through 22. “The 118-year-old retailer has been acknowledged for operating a top-notch internal system that expertly managed transactions, communicated with vendors and streamlined its supply chain operations to fulfill assortments across more than 1,000 stores,” (Amato-McCoy, 2011, para 3). The brand mainly produces casual apparel; anything from jeans to tee-shirts, summer dresses, and flip flops. They are iconic to the American young adult population around the globe. A&F is primarily found in the USA but has ventured into other global markets. The company has been praised and criticized for their marketing approach and brand style. Environmental Threats A&F faces environmental threats based on the nature of their business. They are in the business of selling and marketing clothes to young adults. Other well-known...
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...Trends in Popular American Culture University Of Phoenix Introduction to Popular American Culture SOC 105 Michael Hilley November 11, 2009 Trends in Popular American Culture Trends in popular American culture, what we value and idolize will influence where we go in life. Where we look in life will often determine where we go, and how we end up. From my viewpoint now and what I see in friends in the media and in the values of the groups I belong to I can see where my future is heading. These trends are setting the course. This can be changed and have a profound influence on others that I am around and even those that are seemingly unconnected to me once I begin to take a different viewpoint or approach. One can never have too many viewpoints in life but, also when you really think about it the change in viewpoints were probably constructed in a market focus group by people who engineer trends in popular American culture. A shocking trend is gaining ground in teen dressing. For example, last summer, my 13-year-old daughter needed a dress to attend a friend's birthday dinner. What we found was a black “something” (is what I will call it) with a neckline so low that my condition for buying it was a fill-in-the-gap black undergarment. She was not happy about it but complied. This June, for her eighth-grade graduation, my daughter debated between a slinky blue dress with a plunging neckline which to me had more of a lounge...
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...The Chabot College Forensics Team hosted this event. The stage where the speakers were performing was in the center of the theatre. There were rows of seats surrounding three sides of the stage. The audience was mostly a young crowd of Chabot students. The audience seemed to enjoy the speeches. The Duo Interpretation of Literature speech seemed to be the crowd’s favorite. There were a total of six speeches through out the event. My favorite speech was delivered by Franciska Karpovich. She delivered a Persuasive Speech about Gender Shaming. The speech focused on “Slut Shaming”. She spoke about the psychological effects of Slut Shaming. The purpose of her speech was to persuade her audience to boycott stores like Victoria Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch for over sexualizing young girls. She also suggested for schools to start teaching boys how to treat girls. Karpovich claims that girls are bullied for drinking too much and that they are embarrassed of their sexuality. She used current issues about boys taking advantage of girls while they were intoxicated as evidence to support her claims. She talked about people taking sexual assault as a joke because the victims are accused of provoking the boys. According to Korpavich, people think promiscuous girls are worthless. She blames the media for sexualizes girls and eventually leads to slut shaming. The speaker dressed professional. She made eye contact with the audience. She was passionate about the topic. Karpovich was prepared...
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...Abercrombie's Ruehl NO. 925 Abercrombie & Fitch Company was founded in 1892 in New York City by David T Abercrombie and Ezra H. Fitch. Abercrombie, a former prospector, miner, trapper, and railroad surveyor, originally produced camping equipment in lower Manhattan; Fitch, one of his customers, was a successful lawyer in Kingston, New York, who loved the outdoors. The two men put their interests and opened a sporting goods store. By 1910, the company began selling women clothing, and became the first store in New York to supply clothing to women as well as men. Abercrombie & Fitch Company is a clothing retailer marketed toward the young people, from children to young adults. Abercrombie considers its clothing a "lifestyle brand," others have railed against its often sexually explicit tees and over-the-top marketing campaigns. The company oversees more than 800 stores nationwide, of which about 175 are its children's brand, abercrombie, and 260 are Hollister Company stores. Its latest in a concept, Ruehl, debuted in Ohio in 2004 appealing to more mature buyers. Abercrombie & Fitch is following a differentiated marketing strategy that appeals to the four target markets: Abercrombie Kids is geared for (7 to 14 year olds), Hollister targets (14 to 18 year olds), Abercrombie & Fitch aims for (18 to 22 year olds), Ruehl NO. 925 (22 to 35 year olds). Differentiated marketing aims at two or more distinct consumer groups, with different retailing approaches for each...
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... Abercrombie and Fitch ( ANF) Company overview Description The company incorporated in Delaware in 1996 . Abercrombie and Fitch is an apparel retailer specializing in trendy merchandise for young men , women , and children. The Adirondacks supply a clean inspiration to this peppy , youthful all American life style . The company 's strategy is to offer multiple styles of clothing for young shoppers . The portfolio consists of Abercrombie and Fitch , Abercrombie kid , Hollister , and Gilly hick. Each brand targets a different general style . The company has positioned itself as a one stop shopping place for the entire family. In the other hand , the company maintains the same styles and offerings on their e-commerce sites. As of January 28, 2012, the Company operated 946 stores in the United States and 99 stores outside of the U.S. The Company’s fiscal year ends on the Saturday closest to January 31, typically resulting in a fifty-two week year, but occasionally giving rise to an additional week, resulting in a fifty-three week year. (Fiscal years are designated in the consolidated financial statements and notes by the calendar year in which the fiscal year commences). The Company’s in-store marketing is designed to convey the principal elements and personality of each brand. The store design, furniture, fixtures and music are all carefully planned and coordinated to create a shopping experience that reflects the Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie kids...
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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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...Abercrombie & Fitch Sadarya McArthur Strayer University I. Identify and describe the greatest environmental threats that have immediate implications for A&F. A. Lack of Variety A&F was known for its lack of variety. They were known for hiring males and females with a certain kind of style. You had to look a certain way to be an employee and most of all you had to be attractive. Females had to wear makeup to enhance their features and males had to be clean shaven with no mustache or any facial hairs. They were sent to only white fraternities and sororities to recruit them for work. They only displayed posters of attractive white models. This was a threat to the companies reputation. B. Counterfeiting Asian factories made imitations of A&F products. Local authorities seized 300,000 pairs of fake Abercrombie jeans worth $20 million in a raid at a Chinese warehouse in 2006. The retailer had to hire a former FBI agent to conduct investigations of counterfeiting overseas. This clearly affected the sales of A&F. They could not compete with their merchandise being imitated and sold at a lower price. C. Legal Issues A&F had many legal problems. They were sued for failing to pay overtime wages to employees when they were required to work 50-60 hours a week. In another law suit nine plaintiffs sued the retailer for discriminating against minorities in its hiring practices and job placement. It had only ...
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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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...Chris Mercer Mrs. Asbury ENG 100 B-51 Research Essay Dressing our Daughters The only thing on the minds of corporate leaders is profit. As more and more people take to the “Occupy Wall Street” concept, it becomes apparent that there is a great disconnect between the different classes of people. What this calls to mind is a large group of people, or the “99%” as they are known, being taken advantage of by the rich “1%” of America that make up the upper levels of our nation's companies. “Considering the growing backlash over its business practices and marketing strategies, Abercrombie (& Fitch's) profits have risen steadily,” (Lamar, 1). The only way to affect any great change is to alter the perception of people so they don't buy a certain product anymore. If it becomes a well accepted notion that a product is harming young people, the odds that people will buy that product is diminished. Showing people that something is harmful is not a guaranteed way to stop them from buying it. For instance, everyone knows that smoking is detrimental to health yet people continue to buy and smoke cigarettes. This is not to say that if everyone knows fashion trends are making young women more vulnerable to sexual predators they will stop buying it, but rather if a concerted effort is made to get certain, dangerous items off the shelves, young people will consequently be safer. It is time that society understand how the “trendy” clothing worn by young women is making them more susceptible...
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...A Critical Report On Abercrombie and Fitch’s Expansion Strategy Into Europe Course Title: Marketing Word Count: 2700 Date: 23rd Feb. 2015 Name: Hajara Miss: Table of content Introduction BUSINESS BACKGROUND Question .1 Contention Situating STRATEGY Division STRATEGY: Focusing on STRATEGY: Question 2 Contention Institutionalization QUESTION 3 QUESTION 4 INTRODUCTION This report will investigate the extension of Abercrombie & Fitch in European nations with reference to its advertising methods, for example, focusing on and situating, division and adjustment to market and institutionalization of its item approach and other showcasing blend approaches. Cement examinations are completed on the diverse elements included for the situation study and Suitable suggestion given in accordance with the answers that take after the layout questions. BUSINESS BACKGROUND The Abercrombie and Fitch brand was established in 1892 by David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. Its portfolio comprises of four noteworthy brands; this includes A&F, the Abercrombie kids the Hollister Co and the Gilly Hicks These are all directed to children, adolescence and the more established shoppers. While it designs itself as a select brand from the custom of the East drift pattern of the USA, New York City specifically; the dress line unmistakably embodies the American way of life of the adolescent and preppy. It has its central command in New Albany, Ohio USA. Through...
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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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...Hollister’s distinctive appearance has also gained them a distinguishable type of customers. Their customers have a casual and beachy style which is why Hollister has clothing that is usually worn at the beach or for a casual day. Their look is meant to create an effortless look as shown by their posters all over the store. All their advertising usually displays a happy young adult who meets the society’s standards of beauty which conveys the message that if the customers buy their products then they will also be happy and look beautiful with an effortless look. Hollister also targets their intended audience by attracting them into the store by their anterior design which makes it appear as a beach shack which further creates their beachy...
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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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