The madness behind Abercrombie and Fitch Options

[Mireh]

So obviously people in this forum have drastically different views on the company Abercrombie and Fitch. We have ardent followers that shop religiously and exclusively at AF/HCO/AKids. And then we have people who are totally against it and despise it.

So. Why is abercrombie and fitch so controversial?

I read this article a while back (it's quite old actually, 2005) and stumbled across it again. It's quite interesting (well, at least I think soo..).

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/01/2...s/index_np.html

Some quotes, for all of you too lazy to read the article

Jeffries never lost sight of who his customer is, and he created a quality brand that caters to the cool clique and has a sense of exclusivity, yet it still has a mass appeal, because people want to be a part of it. It's genius."

For example, when I ask him how important sex and sexual attraction are in what he calls the "emotional experience" he creates for his customers, he says, "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."

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."

As for me? I think it's absolute genius how Jeffries was able to turn such a dusty outdated company back around. From a business/marketing perspective its brilliant, but does that give them the right to degrade and isolate others in attempts to maintain their "cool" image?


Discuss, debate, conglomerate

[michellerrific]

I don't see what is wrong with any part of his point. I think he's right, every store is targeted toward a more specific set of people. Yes, A&F is definitely become "overrated" and trendy.

But what I mean, to answer your question, is that I would tell him to just keep it going. Of course not everyone's going to wear Abercrombie, it depends if it looks good on you and you like the designs. They may be degrading others in the process, but really, with all this phenomenon now, do the other majority of the "non cool" kids feel discriminated against? Just take a look at other stores in the mall. Say..Hot Topic for example. That place is definitely not for everyone, mostly only for those into rock music or whatever else. Would you say they're discriminating?