Abercrombie And Fitch Case Analysis

- Power of Rivalry: The rivalry in this sector is intense and forces Abercrombie to continuously work on innovating and merger from the others, in order to maintain its status. The main competitors are:

Our textbook provides us with the definition of organizational culture “as the set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments” (Kinicki & Williams 227). The Publix Corporation formally states its commitment to its organizational culture in their published mission statement. One of the bullet points of the Publix mission dedication “to the dignity, value and employment security of our associates” ("Mission Statement & Guarantee").

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), an American retailer that concentrates on upscale casual wear for young consumers, which was founded in Manhattan, New York City in June 4, 1892 by two young minds of David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. Beginning with a rough journey of selling sporting outfits and excursion goods such as fishing and hunting equipment, A&F had to file bankruptcy in 1977. Soon thereafter, the company was revived after Jake Oshman, owner of Oshman Sporting Goods, bought A&F in 1978. A&F was relaunched as a mail-retailer company specializing in hunting wear and novelty items, but was bought by The Limited ten years after its revival. The gradual shift to focusing on apparels for young consumers began when A&F was a subsidiary of Limited Brands, and since then, A&F has grown to become one of the largest apparel firms in the United States. In 1998, A&F launched Abercrombie Kids, targeting consumers from age 7-14, which further increases its revenue. In 1999 to early 2000s, A&F’s sales skyrocketed as it hit its zenith, by portraying A&F clothing as the “coolest thing” through billboard-winning song that compliments A&F in the lyrics, as well as other advertisements. Furthermore, A&F launched a subsidiary called Hollister to tackle similar age group of target audience but with lower income. This expansion to dominate the market of teenagers through consideration of other demographic factor, namely income, was exceptional for A&F’s revenue. Presently, A&F focused on

The root cause in the Abercrombie and Fitch case was the company’s practice was to focus their recruiting and hiring of a sales persons around their image, which was around the mantra of “an all American Classic look” and they shied away from individuals that did not fit that mold. Due to this behavior, the company was hit with a lawsuit in 2003 that alleged they violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by placing a targeted focus on their recruiting and hiring that essentially excluded or limited its minority and female workforce population (Wikipedia, 2017).

In the case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v Abercrombie & Fitch, a teenager Samantha Elauf filed against Abercrombie and Fitch’s company after she was denied employment at a store for “failing to accommodate” because she wore a hijab for religious practice. The incident first began in 2008 after Samantha’s interview with an employer at a store in Oklahoma. After she was informed of the reason why she wasn't hired, she filed a court case against the company for religious discrimination. In the District Court of Oklahoma, the court decided that Abercrombie’s “look policy” stating that employees must abide by dress code rules was perfectly reasonable. They agreed with the employer that Samantha must take off her hijab for work regardless

Abercrombie & Fitch ANALYSIS REPORT Fundamentals Of Retail Design Group 03 Erik, Herr | I-Chu, Liao | Karan, Shah Kuan-Ling, Tseng | Chen-Hua, Wang ABSTRACT This report intends to analyze the unique brand values, the distinct marketing strategies and the compelling competitive dynamics of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), the noted American retailer of casual luxury wear. The purpose of this analysis being to understand the context and motives that drive brand A&F; to draw insights from it‘s past and current strategies and use these to launch a, new sneaker offer‘ within it‘s existing product ensemble. For doing this, we‘ve researched the story of the brand; it‘s original and potential target market, it‘s financial

A considerable problem in today society is discrimination. Whether it’s based upon race, age, sexuality, or even looks, discrimination is a serious dilemma. Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst with the NPD Group, believes that hiring people who are “walking billboards” is critical and essential to a company’s success. The companies who hire based on looks, fail to realize that there are shoppers who do not care about the appearance of the store employees, just as long as they are receiving good customer service. People cannot completely control their appearance and brands like Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, and American Apparel should take notice to that.

This past month I made my last visit to the popular teenage/college student retail store Abercrombie and Fitch. Finishing up some back to school shopping, I was on a quest for jeans, and I knew the place to get them. My last two favorite pairs were from Abercrombie and Fitch, and I was planning on buying the same kind once again. Happy and relieved that I would not spend the afternoon ransacking the mall for one pair of jeans, I entered the store to the pulsating beat of techno dance music. In front of me was the teenage Mecca of what is truly hip -- the first thing I noticed were the life-size pictured that covered the walls -- half-clad muscular and glistening young

JC Penney’s market share is currently at an all-time low. On December 8 of 2016, the company’s share’s market value was $10.56 and currently, the share’s market value is $2.66.

The "current ratio" of 1.93, meaning that there are almost twice as many assets as there are liabilities, indicates Abercrombie&Fitch 's ability to meet short-term debt obligations. This ratio is relatively high, meaning that the company is very liquid and considered as having good short-term financial strength. A "quick ratio" of 1.19 is also indicating strong short-term liquidity, meaning that the company can repay current liabilities without relying on the sale of inventory. "Number of days ' sales in inventory" of only 57 days means, that inventory changes frequently, especially since Abercrombie&Fitch is a clothing company. This high turnover rate can generally be viewed at positively.

EEOC vs Abercrombie and Fitch, a case where a practicing Muslim Samantha Elauf, sued the clothing store from discrimination. Although she passed her interview with the store, she was not hired due to head wear that she was wearing. Elauf wears as a part of her observation of her religious practice. Abercrombie policy prohibits head wear and the maintain more of a West Coast California image. Elauf’s claim was disparate treatment from Abercrombie. She was granted $20,000 in the District Court but the 10th Circuit Court reversed that decision. The Supreme Court the appealed and ruled in an 8-1 favor of EEOC. The majority stated that Abercrombie violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, whether they had knowledge or not of her religion, they were still held liable. They concluded that an applicant need not to prove the reason for accommodation based on religious reasons. Justice believed that Abercrombie was aware of Elauf’s religion and illustrated discrimination by failure to accommodate her.

Abercrombie and Fitch are a company that strongly targets a set group of people. With the goal of reaching this particular group of people they have implemented a “Look Policy,” in which an employee is supposed to look and dress like in order to work for the company. The purpose of performance management is to, “ensure that employees’ activities and outputs contribute to the organization’s goals” (Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2011, p.225). Abercrombie believes failure to comply with this policy “would disrupt its careful branding efforts, resulting in customer confusion, because of the critical role that the Look Policy plays in supporting its brand image. Dkt. No. 95 at 12. Second, Abercrombie argues that allowing exceptions to the Look Policy would hurt store performance” (Norlander, 2013, para. 2).

Despite Abercrombie & Fitch’s efforts to win back loyal consumers with their new rebranding initiative, the company continues to experience a decline in annual revenue and dismal growth coupled with a poor return on investment, making it a risky investment option for potential shareholders. According to the company’s annual report, Abercrombie & Fitch saw a decline in revenue from $4,116.90 billion in February 2014 to $3,744.03 billion in 2015 with fourth-quarter revenues falling nearly 14% to $1.12 billion (Abercrombie & Fitch 41). The company contributed its dismal report to a decrease in the number of operational stores at the end of Q4 fiscal 2014, weak consumer demand for both Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, slowing growth in

American Apparel (AA) is a well-known United States clothing brand that has gained recognition among the retail industry. American Apparel headquarters is located in Los Angles, California where it manufactures and distributes its clothing products. It is known in today’s society, to be sweatshop free and has a strong belief of workers’ rights. However, American Apparel has had a downfall in the retail industry losing revenue. This research of American Appeal will provide feasible reasons why the company should enter China international market to improve on sales revenue.

American Apparel, is an American multi-national clothing manufacturer, distributor and retailer since 1988based in Los Angeles, California. Dov Charney, a Canadian business man was a founder and former CEO of the company. He was involved in nearly every part of the business process from design and manufacturing to marketing. The Ernst & Young named Charney Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He was also termed "Man of the Year" by various fashion