4.2. Brand Positioning:
• Almost-luxury Casual cool brand,
• Unique added value promotions,
• Premium prices
4.3. Consumer promise:
• High-quality merchandise,
• Casual classic American style
4.4. Targeting:
• Cool & Attractive People
• Fashion Conscious Consumers (average age: elementary school to post college)
• Customers from the middle and upper-middle class
4.5. Past positioning strategy:
Abercrombie and Fitch was founded as a supplier of sporting and excursion goods. Traditionally, it targeted the outdoorsman. By 1939, A&F was considered as “The Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World”. With the most valuable collection of firearms and the widest fishing assortment, famous people like Amelia Earhart, Admiral Richard Byrd,
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Abercrombie and Fitch has remained the same since the repositioning strategy when Mike Jeffries took over as CEO. The style is the same, the logo is the same, the store environment is the same, and the lifestyle image of the brand is the same.
Unfortunately, the consumer is not the same. The consumer has moved on from Abercrombie and Fitch. They wear a different style now. Abercrombie and Fitch did not research their changing customer, nor did Jeffries care if they moved on. Jeffries had the California dream image stuck in his head, because that is what he wanted. He did not change the company when the customer changed. Abercrombie and Fitch continues to focus on the same image that they had over ten years ago. They have not changed to match 2014.
Everyone wants to know “where did the teenagers go?” There has been a recent decline in teenage shoppers. When teenagers think of Abercrombie and Fitch, they think of their parents shopping at Abercrombie, not of themselves. Sales are down across many traditional teenage apparel retailers like Abercrombie and Fitch. According to The New York Times, the lack of sales is not only from a tired fashion style, but also because of the teenage employment rate. Teens rely on their parents’ income and do not have money to waste on expensive clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch. Teenagers simply do not have the funds to shop at Abercrombie and Fitch for a $100 pair of jeans. Fast fashion, like Forever 21 and H&M, sell trendy clothes at low prices and have attracted the teen consumer