Abercrombie & Fitch: an Upscale Sporting Goods Retailer Becomes a Leader in Trendy Apparel

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the leading clothing companies in the world. They manufacture

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

Abercrombie & Fitch stores designs it retail stores from a multi-sensory point of view to get consumer’s to buy there products. Abercrombie & Fitch stores typically is known for its dim lighting, loud background music, and it ambient scents to enable a more youthful clientele and a fresher image. In the store, there are mannequins for both genders that usually runs from the storefront through the middle of the store, which showcases key trends and ideas for the current season. Also, there collections are merchandised to inspire the customer and showcase how pieces can be mixed together.

“American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. is a chain of mall-based stores that sells casual, outdoor-inspired fashion apparel” (American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.). This company operates 846 stores in the United States and Canada (McDonnell). American Eagle Outfitters first began in 1977 and was a division of Silvermans Menswear, Inc. As a family owned and operated retail business, Silvermans Menswear, Inc., sold accessories and attire for young men. When the business was in the third generation, the Silverman brothers thought it was necessary to add a new element in order for the company to prosper. This business move would allow the

As alternatives to Hollister, customers likely consider brands located in the surrounding areas such as American Eagle, Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters. The choice to purchase Hollister, however, involves buying into the company philosophy and history. Hollister, similar to other Abercrombie subsidiaries, devised a fictional company history to aid in its credibility and marketing. Abercrombie designed a character, John Hollister, who founded the company in Southern California in 1922 after years of travelling the world. The brand also positioned itself as a sponsor of surfing contests and events in seaside California cities such as Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach. While these creative concepts remained fictitious, they became powerful assets in

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

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. The company targets males and females in the distinct fifteen to twenty-five age groups - tweens, teenagers, and young college adults - in order to sell their assorted line of affordable and trendy clothing products such as sweatshirts, t-shirts, and jeans. American Eagle Outfitters’ primary businesses operate under the brands – American Eagle Outfitters, Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters, AEO Direct, and a third-party retailer. The international company operates 944 American Eagle Outfitters stores and 122 Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, and China. Additionally, the AEO Direct delivers to 81 countries worldwide and the third-party retailer operates 66 stores in 12 countries under the American Eagle Outfitters brand. American Eagle is a global retailer with an excellent reputation built upon the priority of “delivering value, variety, and versatility to [their] customers” with “differentiated fashion in key categories” by continuing to “innovate [their] store experience to be more impactful” (SEC 10K).

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

Description of the Store: American Eagle Outfitters bases themselves as a clothing company for young

Founded in 1977, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) is a retailer that designs and develops fashionable girls’ and boys’ apparel and accessories. The company’s target audience is boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 25 years old. The target audience seeks trendy and fashionable apparel product that meets a high standard of quality at an affordable price point. As of the most recent fiscal year, ended January 30, 2010, American Eagle held 1,103 retail stores in total, operating under the “American Eagle”, “Aerie”, and “Martin+Osa” brand names respectively. In addition to the retail stores,

HollisterCo is a beach themed clothing company. It was founded in 1922 by Mike Jeffries where back then it was still not a well-known company until the founder of Abercrombie and Fitch takes over it. It offers a wide range of apparel and accessories for men and women which includes logo tees, graphic shirts, tanks, bottom wear and even sleepwear. It also provides colognes, perfume, gloss products, body care products as well as gift cards. (“Short Title”, 2014). Hollister has 51 outlets in 19 different counties. Hollister also enable buyers from other countries to purchase their products through their online store.

a. Number of stores: In 1992 the company had about 140 stores in the Northwest and Chicago areas. By 2002 the company had approximately 5,886

The retailer announced their decision to continue a plethora of store closings after suffering a $63 million loss for Q1 of 2015, worsened by the fact that their losses exceeded the expectations of market analysts (Investopedia). Following the absence of CEO Mike Jeffries as of June 2015, Abercrombie’s stock dipped to its nearly annual low of $19 per share. The company continues to increase promotional efforts while offering uncharacteristic discounts in an effort to lure consumers back into their stores despite weakening profit margins. Abercrombie & Fitch has also furthered its efforts to expand and improve its e-commerce site to develop a more user-friendly shopping experience in the wake of over 200 required store closings nationally. While Abercrombie’s Executive Chairman, Arthur Martinez, attributes the company’s losses to a transitional phase that will likely take several quarters to reflect results of their strategic efforts, analysts continue to suggest that its unlikely consumers will return to the brand despite its new incentives (Forbes Contributor). Currently, Abercrombie’s dismal annual report and small scale efforts to rebrand itself makes it a risky investment option, albeit has potential to improve in the future given their focus on improving their online presence and providing a better return for investors.

In this assignment, I have chosen to research Hollister to find out if they are discriminative to customers and in recruiting staff, and if they attract the target market. Hollister is an American brand found on July the 27th, 2000 by Abercrombie & Fitch. They welcomed their first store on July 27th in 2000, Columbus, Ohio.

Being an upscale industry, Abercrombie and Fitch would appear to be a successful corporation. Although the company was once successful for a number of years, it’s apparent that there has been a significant decline in its overall appeal and how much revenue the company acquires each year. With just over 1,000 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Abercrombie and Fitch has thrived to be one of the most avid corporate extensions.