Abercrombie & Fitch History
Abercrombie & Fitch Co has been a global retailer company for over 125 years. Owning 3 other well known brands within the company, appealing to men, woman and kids. Holding on to 3 different branding within the company, which is containing different age demographic customers, the marking strategies are different. Currently the brand view themselves as a
The successes and changes of Abercrombie & Fitch have changed over the years, this could be due to the events that have been taking place. The following was the history of the company through the years:
1892- Abercrombie & Fitch were founded by David Abercrombie. The brand originally marketing for an outdoors retailers, as it was selling camping, fishing and hunting gear.
1904- Abercrombie Co had become Abercrombie & Fitch due to gaining a partnership, Eric Fitch. The store started to dress the high American notable Leaders and Visionaries.
1909- The first company catalogue had appeared, contains the main focus on innovation and product narrative. As well as, the store main experience for customers was to allow an escape from a busy city and focus on nature.
1928- Eric Fitch retires and the owner is now James s. Cobb.
1950’s/1960’s- A&F had started to expand more across the US, opening more stores.
1978- Texts retailer had started to support the purchases from A&F.
1988- There was a limited branding for A&F, causing a new version to appear to the public.
1996- A&F had gone public on the New York stock exchange.
1998- Due to the success of Abercrombie & Fitch the brand was able to launch a new addition to the company called Abercrombie and Fitch kids.
2000- As the company was becoming more successful with the public and has achieved well they had opted to open a completely different and new branding idea. Were Hollister Co was launched which was a laid back California lifestyle.
2005- A&F first flagship store opened in fifth avenue.
2007- The first ever store opened in Europe for Abercrombie and Fitch was in London, this is allowing the brand to expand internationally and trying to gain a different marketing aspect.
2010- the company had achieved a great expansion across multiple areas in America as it had achieved 1000 units across all 3 brands. (Mallory Schlossberg, 2016)
2009- The band started to expand more stores across the world, opening a store in Japan- Tokyo
2015- Hollister opens a new prototype and innovation idea as a method to gain more customer attraction.
2016- All the brand involved with the pervious launch for A&F was able to be involved in a new branding position.
2017- A new prototype was invented and the company celebrated the 125 anniversary.
(All of the links above on the history dates for Abercrombie and Fitch all came from the brand official website)
What is shown on branding, website would not show any of the problem and issues that had been caused. Which is important due to these issues had affected the company from major loss.
Years of controversy acts and downfalls of the brand
1992- Michael Jeffries brings in sexuality ad to the brand, by using “sexy teens”. The guy was known for the scandalous acts that have associated with the brand itself. His thoughts were to bring out the outdoors Preppy figure to the brand, but it appeared to be partially naked ‘teens’. (Mallory Schlossberg, 2016)
2002- A&F experience backlash for the products they were producing as it was being presented as offensive to the customers. For the racial T-shirts that featured to be ‘stereotyping’ to the Asian community. Which ending up with A&F been forced to apologise. The slogans which were featured included saying like “Wong Brothers Laundry Service. 555-Wong. Two Wongs Can Make It White. Abercrombie & Fitch or Wok-N-Bowl. Let The Good Times Roll. Abercrombie and Fitch. Chinese Food & Bowling. Abercrombie 's Pizza Dojo. Love You Long Time. Eat In Or Wok Out. Call Us 1-555-GOO-PEZA.” (Charlie Minato, 2012)
2003- company faces law suites and were sent to court due to discrimination. As the brand was against hiring any African American, Latino and Asian American applicants. This was by denying if they are fit to work in the store and use the excuse of “not fitting to the applicable standards”. Which caused brand to have to pay $40 million to
2003- Another major event that was caused is how a “luxury brand” like A&F was focusing on sexual advertising. As their Moto was sex sells, which caused the brand to use it for the campaigns. There were many complaints due to parents not wanting their children to buy from a ‘porno company’ from models that were featured look ‘half naked, and sex acts’ was viewed. (Charlie Minato, 2012)
2004- A competitor brand had launched called ‘Aéropostale’, which was an opposite to A&F marketing strategies ‘sex sells’ and was more friendly to teens and parents who allow their kids to buy the clothing. It was a more female based brand, which believed that it's better for those who wants to fit in and not stand out. Which is why the brand did not focus on creating fashion trends. This allowed the brand to grow more from 2002 to 2004 by 88% in sales growth and had reached a $1.3 billion in the market. Due to the strategies they used. (Charlie Minato, 2012)
2006- Micheal Jeffries becomes well known for the interview for Salon. Where he admitted in to
"It's almost everything. 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,”. (Mallory Schlossberg, 2016)
2009- The year where the brand was falling as the strategies were confusing and people didn't understand the brand anymore. Was also announced in Times magazine “Abercrombie & Fitch: worst recession brand”. This was dues to sales falling and profits have been declined by 134%, whereas the competitor Aéropostale had increased 83% more and was becoming more interesting to consumers. (Charlie Minato, 2012)
2013- Sizes of clothing. A&F was not offering any large size clothing and it was well known to the public. However, as a society we develop meaning the changes should be bought and the thought of not having larger size did not go well as the company was still using very slim models for the ad campaigns. (Mallory Schlossberg, 2016)
2015- The brand now began to abandon the “look policy” of where they got a shirtless model to stand out of the store and had taken pictures with customers. This was one of the most controversial issues, but was also a reason for people to attend. Once this happened, it lost more people due to the absence. (Mallory Schlossberg, 2016)
Finally form this as the years go on the brand was beginning to get more confused on marketing strategies and looking at target audience. Such as 2015 they started to look as more older age 25. But then they had to change what the brand stood for. This was where more complications occurred, and where the rebranding failed as it losses the overall identity of the brand to customers.
References
- Abercrombie & Fitch, company history. Retrieved from: http://corporate.abercrombie.com/our-company/about-us/company-history
- Mallory Schlossberg (2016, January 12) The bizarre History of Abercrombie & Fitch- and how the retailer is transforming yet again. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/abercrombie-fitch-crazy-history-2011-4?r=US&IR=T#the-company-hit-its-cultural-zenith-in-1999-6
- Charlie Minato (2012, June 23) How Abercrombie and Fitch, CEO Mike Jeffries is screwing up American’s most
sexist
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