Case Study : Abercrombie & Fitch

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

The primary objective of this paper is to address three key problem areas within JCPenney: age diversity, sexual harassment, and lack of organizational commitment. These specific problems have led to many challenges for not only management, but also for employees. Without motivated and satisfied employees, the JCPenney business has been trickling down. The dissatisfaction of employees has been represented through the decrease of productivity, morale, and enthusiasm towards the retailer. Due to the growing generational gap, there has been a notable increase in workplace deviance behavior. In addition to that, with all of the recent changes within the company, employees have felt neglected due to the lack of communication

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

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).

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.

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,

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, 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

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.

According to Keyton, organizational culture is "the set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members" (Keyton, 2014, p. 550). Over the past few years, past and potential employees of the clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) have taken to the media to explain the negative organizational culture that exists within the company. The management values and company policies that create this “image-obsessed culture” have led to multiple human rights lawsuits, which has damaged the reputation of Abercrombie & Fitch globally (Benson, 2013).