What is Abercrombie & Fitch? In Trouble.

Posted by in Retail


 

I remember one trip to Abercrombie & Fitch when I was in high school. My dad recommended it when we were clothes shopping one afternoon. In his head, it was legendary for its outdoor gear—its tents, rugged clothing, and camping accessories. At that point, I had never heard of it, but we walked out of the store with a new navy sweater and a pair of brown pants that survived the rest of high school.

 

As it turned out, the Abercrombie of my dad’s recollection had gone out of business in the late 1970s, and the brand name had been twice revived in the years since. By the time my dad and I walked into the store in the late nineties, it was a public company with no connection to the original company, save its name.

 

In the next year or so, I came to recognize Abercrombie as a classier, pricier American Eagle or Aeropostale, and I think that was how most of my peers viewed it. The following summer, a hit song reached number one on the Billboard charts. In the years following, Abercrombie made habits of drubbing up headlines for its racy catalogs, dimming its lights, and blaring music in its retail locations. As often happens, the store became a different outlet, a different brand.

 

This week, Abercrombie & Fitch stock numbers that single out the company as a retail uh-oh of the quarter.

 

What happened?

 

It’s simple: the brand evolved but the business didn’t.

 

My dad remembered Abercrombie as an outdoor company from his childhood. To him, it was an L.L. Bean-type of classic brand, steeped in Americana and adventure lore. The store, by the time I was in high school, played into the heritage of its name: it offered classic American styles with a modern twist.

 

Let’s play a game: Close your eyes. Think about Abercrombie & Fitch. Can you picture the type of person who shops there now? How do its retail locations feel when you enter them? What type of clothing do they sell?

 

Branding is a tightrope walk—a complicated compromise of business strategy and public opinion. Brands are built on indefinable things; they have shape; they inspire emotion and nostalgia. That’s why Abercrombie can take shape in your mind, regardless of whether you’re a customer or whether you’ve never set foot in an Abercrombie outlet.

 

For me, Abercrombie’s brand evokes cologne-soaked teenagers in subwoofer shaking dance clubs. Remember when A&F offered “The Situation” money to stop wearing its clothing? That was the sound of the Abercrombie brand's tightrope snapping.

 

I don’t mean that Abercrombie & Fitch needs to go back in time, but maybe it could stand to look in a mirror. It seems like its self-perception is too removed from its audience and public opinion. Realistic and critical introspection is a lesson that retail outlets—and any business, or professional, for that matter—could benefit from.

 

Here’s another game, for retail employees reading this article: What is your company, and what does it do best? What does it mean to you? How do you think it reads its audience and provides value?

 

Let us know below.

 

Image by fito, courtesy and copyright www.freerangestock.com.

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  • loretta s
    loretta s
    Abercrombie should be ashamed of how they are perceived. They are only making things worse where the kids that will starve themselves to fit into clothes that are only meant for the twenty dollar shores on every corner. They are not meant for decent people to wear.  I would not be caught dead in their stores and I tell everyone of my friends of their despicable place and who they want wearing them. I will continue to spread the word to boycott them every chance I get.
  • Siddid S
    Siddid S
    Wonderful as normal, keep up the great work!
  • victoria e
    victoria e
         Self perception is too far removed from its audience and public opinion, hit the nail on the head!     My [then] teen age daughter had to have A&F! but when I stepped into the store with her their music blaring to the point of INSANITY (and I'm partially deaf) I wondered how the workers could handle a shift of shouting to each other and did they leave there with their heads buzzing? Plus the prices screamed "BUY MY LABEL AND YOU TOO CAN BE ONE OF THE MOST COOL AND POPULAR! I have no problem with clothes having style but do we need to have it urgently shoved down our throats as if we are nothing without it? Does our Identity and value come from a populai label? How sad! Shaking my head, I used that opportunity to teach her the value of a dollar bill and a much needed touch of reality. Today she understands.
  • Karen P
    Karen P
    To me A & F  are selling sex to young teenagers.  And a very elite set of teens at that.  The clothes are expensive and when you walk into a store, you can't hear yourself think.  I have 2 teenage daughters and I will not spend a dime of MY money in that store.  Selling sex not clothes
  • Faida S
    Faida S
    I like the clothes and the style that present.....but the clothes there are highly priced and since teenaged shoppers are trying to stretch a dollar these days....meaning they have learned the value of a dollar.....this store might in the end lose its business. On top of that, not to be funny, these clothes are made for super thin people, and as it stands our society has become aware of being on the healthier side is ok.....not being super skinny. They cater to what shows on their advertisements.
  • Paul D
    Paul D
    There is a movie from the 1960's called MAN'S FAVORITE SPORT? Rock Hudson plays an A&F salesperson who finds himself having to display knowledge of the outdoors (hunting, fishing, camping) he really didn't have.The point is the irony in A&F whose public image being the fantasies we (then) didn't know he had...hunky, shirtless young men (although usually in suggestive positions with females).Let me ask you--how often did you go out wearing nothing but those brown pants, or if you had a shirt, it wasn't buttoned?And this week I saw an Abercrombie Kids bag...the young man on it was a kid in his last vestiges. He looked like the testosterone had just started to flow, and the gleam in his eye said "Yes, my shirt is fully buttoned NOW, but in a few years...."I personally think the title of sex-fantasy clothing retailer has gone to...of all things, Carhartt, the manufacturer of work wear. They are setting up stores in shopping areas clearly not meant to attract their traditional clientele, but those who have or will do little if any physical labor (especially as employment), but who, thanks to numerous reality shows, want to be the working-man-as-sex-symbol.
  • Jerry L
    Jerry L
    Abercrombie seems to be a store with a highly sophisticated style of brand and ware ,a model for other outlets.

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