A couple of weeks ago, Abercrombie & Fitch made headlines due to the resurfacing of a 2006 interview with its CEO, Mike Jeffries, in which he proclaimed that A&F is in fact exclusionary. Whilst everyone knows that A&F is meant for a certain type of person, this article will examine, purely from a marketing point of view, why being exclusionary rather than aspirational is a flaw in A&F’s branding model.
On the surface A&F may seem similar to many other aspirational brands: portraying an ideal person and lifestyle so that people buy the brand to associate themselves with it. The ideal in question is the young, athletic, good looking, all-american beauty and coolness that can be seen on their signage or through their staff. The problem is that, as well as only targeting people who meet their ideal, they also make anyone who does not meet it, feel inferior.
The marketing strategy behind aspirational brand is to present an ideal through their marketing and their product, and whilst a minority will identify directly with this ideal, most will only aspire to it. People see a professional athletes wearing Nike and think “I want to be like them”. This aspiration results in them buying Nike products, despite not being anywhere near as athletic as their heroes.
Similarly, lots of people aspire to luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton. But as they cannot afford the marquee products that are seen in their advertising, they will buy a second or third class product, like a small purse or a belt. Luxury companies make the bulk of their money by selling smaller items to people who aspire towards products and the lifestyle that are seemingly out of reach. In the case of luxury brands most people’s limitation is money, in the case of A&F it is compliance with their portrayal of beauty and coolness.
The problem with A&F is that whilst they have perfectly targeted the people who identify with their ideal, they have completely alienated their aspirational customers. They have, as Mike Jeffries said himself, become exclusionary. The problem with this is two-fold. On the one hand, they eliminated many future customers, but they also create disdain for the people who do wear the brand. These faithful customers are now associated with the sort of narcissistic arrogance presented by the company’s CEO.
One A&F scandal is their decision to not go beyond a size L for women or a size XXL for men. I personally think that this decision should not be an issue, if a brand does not want to accomodate certain people, that is their choice and it is up to the market to judge them. What I do find shocking, from a marketing point of view, is the their public justification for this:
They admit the obvious, that they do not want to attract larger people, but the reason they give for this is that they are not beautiful and not cool. This is the fundamental flaw of A&F. Rather than be positive and say that their brand preaches a lifestyle of athleticism and healthy living, which would positively reinforce their target market, they chose to be negative and put down anyone who does not fit their ideal.
Brands should encourage people to meet their ideal through positive reinforcement, (ie: showing the good side of being slim and athletic) , not make them feel inferior because they are not there yet. The result of this is that people who are not currently in A&F’s immediate target market will rarely enter it, as they are in no way encouraged to do so. A&F make it clear that if you do not fit their ideal of beauty and coolness then you are not worthy of their clothes.
To link back to the luxury industry analogy, whilst brands such as Louis Vuitton may seem exclusionary on the surface (the bouncers, the high prices tags, the elitist stores), ultimately they are positively reinforcing their customer experience through exclusivity. But this exclusivity is something people aspire to, they aspire to be rich enough to be that customers. Because, whilst they may not be directly targeted by luxury brands marketing, they are still affected by it, and do not feel like they are being put down. Most brands focus on the positives of being one of their customers, and whilst A&F does do this, they also go a step further by being negative about everybody else.
Most of what I have said so far is in regards to people outside the target market, and the quote above shows how much A&F cares about such people. But A&F goes further than not caring about people outside its target market. Through its images, staff choices, slogans, general marketing and even certain products they belittle and make fun of people outside their target market. It actually seems like they do care about people outside their target market, they care about making them feel bad.
What this has done is branded A&F a bully brand, and everything that goes along with it: narcissistic, arrogant, pretentious and insecure. The result is that anyone wearing A&F clothes, members of the Mike Jeffries “master race”, are now associated with these less than flattering attributes. With the appearance of many other lifestyle brands, which have the similar brand messages as A&F but are much less negative, it is no surprise that A&F’s sales have been dropping, as their valued target market flees the stigma of the brand’s judgemental image.
In conclusion, we can see that in being an exclusionary brand, A&F is in fact not an aspirational brand anymore. By definition, an aspirational brand must be something people outside the target market aspire to, both in order to provide futur sales and to create prestige for current customers. This is not presently the case with A&F.
One final note, I am in no way trying to judge people who wear the A&F brand. In the end, they are the real victims of Mike Jeffries comments because, in essence, they are now associated with his message, that in order to be beautiful and cool you need to put others down.
Sources:
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch, Salon, Jan 2006, BY BENOIT DENIZET-LEWIS
Abercrombie CEO Mark Jeffries still only wants ‘thin, beautiful’ customers
Abercrombie & Fitch Refuses To Make Clothes For Large Women, Business Insider, May 2013, by Ashley Lutz
Abercrombie & Fitch cuts profit forecast as sales crater, Reuters, May 2013, by Phil Wahba
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