Urban Outfitters: The Effect Controversial Products Are Having on the Perception of our Brand 1 Introduction Urban Outfitters is known for being trendy, hip and fashion-forward. They are always trying to push the limits of pop culture in order to stay at the forefront of millennial shoppers minds - but can this be taken too far? In the case of the Kent State sweatshirt, we examined customer’s opinions on whether or not controversial products make the brand trendier or reflect their poor taste. 1.1 The client Urban Outfitters is a multinational clothing corporation that falls under the portfolio URBN, which also encompasses other popular retailers such as Anthropologie, Free People and Terrain. They are headquartered in Philadelphia, …show more content…
Their style is best described as hipster, retro or bohemian. The store sometimes carries odd merchandise such as graphic t-shirts with “different” sayings on them and "blast from the past” items such as Polaroid cameras and record players (www.urbn.com). Additionally, Urban Outfitters’ products have been the subjects of multiple controversies, especially amongst religious, ethical and ethnic groups (“The Week”). A few examples include: • 2003 - “Ghettopoly” - a monopoly parody resembling the ghetto. Railroad properties are replaced with liquor stores and the game pieces included a pimp, a marijuana leaf, a crack rock and a machine gun. • 2008 - discontinued a t-shirt of a Palestinian child holding an …show more content…
In the case of Target, when they introduced gender-neutral toys for children, as well as gender-neutral bathrooms in their stores, a large part of their regular customer base stopped shopping there. It was reported that over the fiscal year when these changes were made, Target’s net sales dropped 7.2% compared to the previous year. It was unreported whether Target’s sales have since gone back to their usual level, however, financial analysts agreed that a drop in sales like that would take a long time to recover from (MarketWatch, TGT