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The Myth Of Abercrombie And Fitch

Good Essays

In the following I explore how myth has been used to position Abercrombie and Fitch clothing in the market.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a popular teen brand. It uses the same brand experience in every store across the western world. Each store, no matter where has the same style, the same sound and the same smell. The myth about the lean, white, and rich ideal coming from the American society is distributed in the same way in every country. Hence, I am not only focusing on the myth that has been used to position the brand in Germany, but how myth has been used to position A&F in every market they sell their products in.

A&F has a clearly defined target customer: the good-looking, classic and cool teenagers. The image they produce with the brand …show more content…

Abercrombie & Fitch tries to appeal to a certain group of people for their products. The people in their advertisements present the type of person they want to buy and wear their clothing, and what they want their customers to try to look like. Playing on this stereotype, A&F create a cliché of what they think their customers want to look like. This kind of myth has an extreme influence on the way the consumers view society and themselves.

Transporting the message of “if you’re male and you buy Abercrombie and Fitch jeans, they’ll make you look like this” or “if you’re female and you shop at Abercrombie and Fitch, you’ll get men who look like this” spreads the myth of the attractive American type: tall, tan and physically fit. Deducing from there, A&F is not only selling a brand, but a complete lifestyle. A&F trades on the fact that objectified forms of cultural capital in the façade of clothes and accessories from ‘cool’ brands (such as Abercrombie & Fitch) are “significant for the reproduction of teens’ position” (Chittenden 2010, p. …show more content…

Beside the shirtless men at the entrance of every store, the faded black/white images of almost naked teens developed to a trademark for Abercrombie and Fitch. Although the text is nearly blocked and covered, consumers would undoubtedly be able to identify this image as one of A&Fs.
Even though it is difficult to see a relationship among the images, there is a clear relationship between the product and sexuality.
Abercrombie is a clothing brand and in its adverts and their brand communication the models are essentially naked but trying to sell clothes. However, A&F sells much more than clothes, it is trying to sell its image and a lifestyle. Using their brand communication they want a sexual image to be connected with their name.

A&Fs in-store experience is the crucial way of advertising for the company. Through the store layout and decoration A&F capitalized on their target market’s value of exclusivity and youthful spirit. Personifying the lifestyle of the company and reinforcing it through action and dress is the core driver of the in-store experience. Salespersons were employed based on their ability to embody the brand. Their selling ability is

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