A&F Discussion Questions

1. Companies like J. Crew (http://www.jcrew.com) and banana republic (http://www.bananarepublic.com) are targeting many of the same consumers as Abercrombie & Fitch. Visit their websites and discuss how their marketing strategies are different from those of A&F. Would you suggest any changes in these strategies that would allow these two companies to better position themselves in the minds of consumers?

Banana republic and J. Crew’s marketing plan is geared more towards the yuppie crowd. Viewing their websites you are drawn to the clothes, the patterns colors and styles. The back grounds of both sites are white giving no distraction to the viewer. The layout on both sites is clean and to the point not
A&B as you is aware blast their music and sales people don’t talk to you unless you approach them.

4. How can A&F guard against becoming too mainstream and experiencing a customer backlash? Do you believe it is possible for A&F to remain popular with young shoppers for a span of many years?

A&F has a very unique marketing strategy which works and will continue to work. They don’t force themselves on everyone, they draw their customers in the form of beauty, and how gorgeous one may look if they just buy their clothes. They use perception very methodically. I’m not sure if they could ever become to mainstream. They need to make sure they don’t go overboard with in your face advertising; they need to keep it at a perception level, stay on track with the sexy tactic, don’t go heavy into the kids market and make sure they stay on top of the trends.

I do believe that A&F will remain popular for many years to come. As long as there is a need and desire to look beautiful and sexy and to have a status of popularity A&B will remain in good standing.

5. Both A&F and The Gap are trying to use their brand names to market clothing to different age groups. For example, A&F has opened a chain of children’s stores called abercrombie (lowercase “a”), while Gap, Inc. has had success with GapKids and BabyGap. Discuss the advantages and