Author: Ana Ingold
“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”, said Mike Jeffries CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch.
This is the business philosophy Abercrombie and Fitch has been building its apparel brand on during the last 17 years. And this lifestyle brand which is called “Casual Luxury” by insiders definitely sells. A&F have more than 5000 employees and bring in more than one billion revenue on a yearly basis.
Many of the A&F dark, disco-like and perfumed stores are incredibly crowded and you need to line-up and wait to get in. The promoted image is the one of a Caucasian young male: blond, college type, six-pack, sexy, desired and mostly semi-nude.
So yes, the sex sells. Always did, and probably always will.
And this could be another success story if there weren’t quite a few lawsuits that have been filed against the company due to discriminatory practices and ethical problems during the last 8 years. Here are some examples of how A&F brand management led to bad publicity and a highly controverted image: the company stores were employing only white, young and good looking sales people. The 50+ years old pilot of a private jet company hired by the A&F CEO was fired and a younger, more brand-alike, took (over) his place…pure coincidence? Their image magazine promoted ostensibly nude young people and drink recipes. And the brand sells push-up bathing suit for 7-years-old girls.
How do you feel about this? Is this a new exclusive way to increase sales by building up a brand on values that lead to discriminating behaviour? Or is this controversial image going to dilute the value of the brand and lead to consumer boycott and conflicts with ethic communities?
As long as we live in a throw-away society, as long as people buy cheap clothes and do not care about where or under what circumstances these clothes were produced, and as long as people are not questioning anything and only believe what they are being told by companies and/or friends nothing is going to happen.