Abercrombie & Fitch: an Upscale Sporting Goods Retailer Becomes a Leader in Trendy Apparel

their definition of “All-American?” Do they still enforce the new diversity policies in their stores

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

Recognized for good-looking, all-American, and typically white male and female clothing models, Abercrombie & Fitch has develop into a special type of model of late-a model of asserted employment discrimination (Stephanie 2005). The clothing idol lately cleared up two private class actions and a civil action law suits by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") by consenting to compensate more than $40 million to African American, Hispanic, and Asian plaintiffs who claimed that Abercrombie discriminated against them (Stephanie 2005); Abercrombie in addition entered into a agreement with the EEOC recognized as a Consent Decree. In Gonzalez, et al. v. Abercrombie, et al., West v. Abercrombie, et al., and EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., the plaintiffs disputed that they were either restricted to low visibility, back-of-the-store kind jobs or laid off and fired on the basis of their race or ethnicity.

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), an American retailer that concentrates on upscale casual wear for young consumers, which was founded in Manhattan, New York City in June 4, 1892 by two young minds of David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. Beginning with a rough journey of selling sporting outfits and excursion goods such as fishing and hunting equipment, A&F had to file bankruptcy in 1977. Soon thereafter, the company was revived after Jake Oshman, owner of Oshman Sporting Goods, bought A&F in 1978. A&F was relaunched as a mail-retailer company specializing in hunting wear and novelty items, but was bought by The Limited ten years after its revival. The gradual shift to focusing on apparels for young consumers began when A&F was a subsidiary of Limited Brands, and since then, A&F has grown to become one of the largest apparel firms in the United States. In 1998, A&F launched Abercrombie Kids, targeting consumers from age 7-14, which further increases its revenue. In 1999 to early 2000s, A&F’s sales skyrocketed as it hit its zenith, by portraying A&F clothing as the “coolest thing” through billboard-winning song that compliments A&F in the lyrics, as well as other advertisements. Furthermore, A&F launched a subsidiary called Hollister to tackle similar age group of target audience but with lower income. This expansion to dominate the market of teenagers through consideration of other demographic factor, namely income, was exceptional for A&F’s revenue. Presently, A&F focused on

1.     Analyze Federal Express’s value creation frontier, and determine which of the four building   blocks of competitive advantage the company needs in order to continue to maintain    above-average profitability. Provide a rationale to support the response.

The settlement agreement actually outlined a solid plan the company should follow. A couple of those were ensuring the company marketing materials reflect diversity and the hiring of diversity monitor that can and will provide training to all managers regarding performance evaluations and implementation of diversity goals. In my opinion the company should focus heavily on diversity and ensure the practice is in every facet of the hiring process and that there is a drive to have each employee truly understand the impacts of discrimination and the effects not only on the business but the person being singled out. As outlined in the lectures and the reading, there should be diversity in every aspect of the recruiting, hiring, and evaluation process (Jaffer, 2016). I further agree with the settlement that outlined the company would institute policies and programs to promote diversity within its workforce and prevent discrimination (Wikipedia.com,

* The various products of the financial planning industry were targeted towards baby boomers or blue collar employees so strategies and products could be developed with the target market as the young people below the age of 25.Q2. Analyze Best Financial’s strengths and weaknesses. How will these corporate capabilities affect the growth strategy?Answer:The strengths and weaknesses of Best Financial are:Strengths: * In one of the biggest cities in Southwest Ontario, Sarnia had an average population of 70000 with the average age of 43.2 years which fell in their target customer segment, hence, their current focus on the clients in that age range was one of the strengths of Best Financial. * The domain expertise of Linda Best was one of the main strengths of the company as she had about eight years of experience in the financial services industry. She got her CFP certification very early on in her career and had been assisting clients in making important financial decisions since then. Another employee, Mary Thompson had been in the financial services industry and had a thorough knowledge of Canadian and US Income tax and of mutual funds. * Best Financial had formed good personal relationships with many clients and managed over 1000 financial plans. They had a sturdy client list with some of the clients, in the same household , taking more than one financial plan. * Their

Abercrombie & Fitch ANALYSIS REPORT Fundamentals Of Retail Design Group 03 Erik, Herr | I-Chu, Liao | Karan, Shah Kuan-Ling, Tseng | Chen-Hua, Wang ABSTRACT This report intends to analyze the unique brand values, the distinct marketing strategies and the compelling competitive dynamics of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), the noted American retailer of casual luxury wear. The purpose of this analysis being to understand the context and motives that drive brand A&F; to draw insights from it‘s past and current strategies and use these to launch a, new sneaker offer‘ within it‘s existing product ensemble. For doing this, we‘ve researched the story of the brand; it‘s original and potential target market, it‘s financial

What are your strengths (resources, employees, products & services). How will they help you take advantage of the above mentioned opportunities? What are your weaknesses and how will you overcome them using your strengths? What needs to be fixed?

EEOC vs Abercrombie and Fitch, a case where a practicing Muslim Samantha Elauf, sued the clothing store from discrimination. Although she passed her interview with the store, she was not hired due to head wear that she was wearing. Elauf wears as a part of her observation of her religious practice. Abercrombie policy prohibits head wear and the maintain more of a West Coast California image. Elauf’s claim was disparate treatment from Abercrombie. She was granted $20,000 in the District Court but the 10th Circuit Court reversed that decision. The Supreme Court the appealed and ruled in an 8-1 favor of EEOC. The majority stated that Abercrombie violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, whether they had knowledge or not of her religion, they were still held liable. They concluded that an applicant need not to prove the reason for accommodation based on religious reasons. Justice believed that Abercrombie was aware of Elauf’s religion and illustrated discrimination by failure to accommodate her.

The Canadian Apparel Federation is facing numerous challenges as the apparel industry is very competitive and consumer tastes and preferences are constantly changing. Our study will present some of the major trends developing in the apparel industry and what companies can do to capitalize on the market and distinguish themselves from the competitors.

Despite Abercrombie & Fitch’s efforts to win back loyal consumers with their new rebranding initiative, the company continues to experience a decline in annual revenue and dismal growth coupled with a poor return on investment, making it a risky investment option for potential shareholders. According to the company’s annual report, Abercrombie & Fitch saw a decline in revenue from $4,116.90 billion in February 2014 to $3,744.03 billion in 2015 with fourth-quarter revenues falling nearly 14% to $1.12 billion (Abercrombie & Fitch 41). The company contributed its dismal report to a decrease in the number of operational stores at the end of Q4 fiscal 2014, weak consumer demand for both Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, slowing growth in

Being an upscale industry, Abercrombie and Fitch would appear to be a successful corporation. Although the company was once successful for a number of years, it’s apparent that there has been a significant decline in its overall appeal and how much revenue the company acquires each year. With just over 1,000 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Abercrombie and Fitch has thrived to be one of the most avid corporate extensions.

According to Keyton, organizational culture is "the set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members" (Keyton, 2014, p. 550). Over the past few years, past and potential employees of the clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) have taken to the media to explain the negative organizational culture that exists within the company. The management values and company policies that create this “image-obsessed culture” have led to multiple human rights lawsuits, which has damaged the reputation of Abercrombie & Fitch globally (Benson, 2013).

To start with, both A&F and AE share the same target market and offer similar merchandise. However, there are some differences in their retailer strategies that make this fashion stores stay competitive. Both retailers target mostly teenagers, and offer casual wear for young men, women and kids accompanied with accessories, outerwear, footwear and sweaters... As a difference, AE offers dorm wear and intimate apparel. In addition, A&F goods are more expensive and tend to target higher class teenagers while AE prices are ¨a little cheaper.¨ For this reason, A&F also runs Hollister Co. Stores which can compete