Why Did A&F Fail?

From A&F's little meat to the "beautiful body" of sexy, "sexy" really can't sell anymore?

The bad news of Abercrombie&Fitch (A&F) still seems to have stopped.

The company's third quarter earnings report released in mid November showed that group sales fell by 14% in the 3 months to October 29th, the largest decline in recent years.

It is no surprise that it has not been able to get rid of the curse of declining sales, which is the main theme of Abercrombie&Fitch's 15 consecutive quarters.

Worse still, if you look at "net profit", the number will be a bit more horrifying -- 41 million 900 thousand dollars from last year, and the net profit in the third quarter of this year was only 7 million 900 thousand dollars, down 81%.

Much of this is due to the failure of the main brand Abercrombie&Fitch, which is reported to be another decline in performance.

The symbol of brand remolding failure.

More recent news is that due to poor operation, A&F will shut down the brand's only exclusive store in Hongkong, even if it means paying HK $124 million.

Three years ago, A&F was very poor. It rented the storefront of the street in the central part of the city, which was twice the rental price of the former tenant and the high price of the lease, and HK $7 million.

At the beginning of the shop, it was also a great sensation in the city. I heard that people gathered outside the shop every day, and had been lined up from the street to the Queen's road. At rush hour, at least 2000 people were waiting to enter the shop.

Now, at the peak time, there are only 200 people in the shop, not to mention long queues.

Looking at this, I can not help asking why A&F is not going to work, and how many struggles are now dying?

As for the "secret of Vitoria", our first response is the sweet smile of the "Secret Angels", and the long, slender body of devil. In a long period of time, A&F is also closely tied to the two words of "sexy".

If we say "

"Selling" is a fantasy about women's "beautiful body". The big trick of A&F was the little meat of eight abdominal muscles.

All this is inseparable from the efforts of one person, that is, the former CEOMichael Jeffries of A&F.

Mike Jeffries was joined by A&F in 1992 and served CEO.

At that time, A&F, which had long been pformed from the outdoor sporting goods company in 1892 to high-end outdoor apparel retail companies, experienced a peak of sales and expansion, and gradually descended. In 1977, it was the Great Depression of the United States. It declared bankruptcy and then acquired several acquisitions. The 48 year old Jeffries took over such a mess from her predecessor, Sally Frame-Kasaks.

The first thing Michael Jeffries took up was to readjust the brand's market positioning.

He has shifted the focus of A&F market to young people with considerable foresight, and led this century old Abercrombie to become a young sport and leisure fan.

The group's three brands are A&F, Hollister (2009), AcrombieKids, respectively, college students, 12-18 year old teenagers and children under 12 years of age.

According to Wiki's Encyclopedia introduction, "in Jeffries's view, consumers want classic American clothing with high quality and young mentality.

Superior cotton fabric is comfortable, breathable and soft.

The positive text logo is embroidered, sweating is also better, not only full of fashionable new ideas, but also will greatly enhance the comfortable and natural feeling of wearing.

But it was not just the products themselves that made the American teenagers crazy at that time.

"Visiting Abercrombie is like going to a nightclub" - dim lights, loud music, strong perfume, huge naked male posters, and half naked male salesmen. By virtue of these, Jeffries will "rebel" and "sexy" together with logo seagull to sell to the puberty girls who are full of puberty, full of hormones and full of yearning for adult life.

If you go to Google to search for photos of Michael Jeffries, you will be stunned by his plastic face, and it is said that he is cosmetic to make himself more suitable for the cool and handsome men advertised by Abercrombie&Fitch.

His own fastidious fastidities of aesthetics and detail are displayed in the stores of A&F and his deputy cards.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, Jeffries has been recorded to be crazy, including asking the store manager to spend one day every week searching for good-looking children in local institutions as a salesperson, including strict demands on how clothes should be displayed -- hanging shirts to unbutton the first button, and two pieces to be folded on the counter.

It has to be said that Jeffries is really effective in chicken blood.

Four years after he took office, (1996), A&F, which had already been dusk, was split from The Limited Brands and listed on the NYSE independently.

It is reported that at that time, its number of stores in the United States increased from 36 stores in 1992 to 125, with sales of $335 million and profit of nearly 25 million, and A&F has become a "dreamone" for every teenager in the US.

Ilikegirlswhowear Abercrombie&Fitch/I "dtakeherifIhadonewish." in the streets and alleys, LFO's single tune "Summer Girls" is circulated, its heat can think general.

The US market is no longer enough to satisfy its appetite. The company began to test its overseas market by taking Canada as the leading station, and did not expand to Europe or Asia.

But, unlike most of the business stories you've heard, no one can always be lucky.

In 2005, a series of fashionable and cheap fast fashion brands began to rise, such as Forever21 and H&M. While on the other side, A&F's pride and superiority in family Michael Jeffries had not been killed by the increasingly fierce market environment.

In an interview with Salon magazine in 2006, he said that a very important "perceptual experience" in A&F store is sexual attraction.

He did not conceal his seemingly desperate "Yan control". He said: "this is why we hire good looking employees in our store, because attractive people will attract more beautiful people. We want to sell to beautiful people, not others."

These remarks naturally aroused people's dissatisfaction.

As a matter of fact, Jeffries has become the troublesome manufacturing machine of A&F. Under his guidance, the isolation of minority groups and the rejection of large size A&F have fallen into a pile of lawsuits, and word of mouth and sales have declined.

Michael Jeffries and his "pick things" remarks

But Jeffries doesn't think it's a big deal. In his view, maybe consumers need only one more dose of medicine.

As a result, the company became more and more interested in the "naked marketing". Since 2009, A&F has not only made the models of underwear only play the erotic Seduction in advertisements, but also opened up new stores, and even lined up with the best "fresh meat" to stand in front of the store to attract customers.

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It is said that when its flagship store opened in Tokyo, it was the first day of operation that created the highest sales record in A&F history stores.

Selling sexy products still seems to work well, but unfortunately, these measures can not keep consumers' enthusiasm for buying brands for a long time.

To make matters worse, in 2013, Michael Jeffries's rude and discriminatory remarks were put on the social media to stir fry, which is just like adding fuel to the flames in struggling A&F.

In fact, in addition to the practice of "sexy marketing" as always, Jeffries has also put forward a series of measures: conservative commodity plan, shortening the interval of commodity development, searching more available resources in the US and Chinese market, adopting a new commodity plan and distribution system, controlling inventory comprehensively, developing a team that knows the key international market consumer dynamics, and closing more stores that are expired in the US market.

However, these proposals are not optimistic about the market.

Finally, at the end of 2014, Jeffries, who was unable to do anything, declared a departure. The former hero became a trouble maker. On the day of departure, the company's share price soared by 8%.

However, A&F did not extricate itself from the predicament.

At the beginning, the curse of sales continued to fall.

A&F, AA and Wei Ming seem to be increasingly "sexy".

The rise and fall of A&F is very easy to remind people of another American clothing brand, which was once very popular. American Apparel (AA) was also born in 80 and 90s. It also went crazy in the youth market. The NYSE went on the market. At its peak, its market value exceeded US $500 million.

Of course, the two is more similar. There is a leader who does not take the unusual path and is keen on "doing things". Under the leadership of this brand, the brand has embarked on the sexy marketing route of large scale, which is "sexy" and ultimately "sexy".

If you pay more attention to the fashion industry and retail industry, you must have noticed that the "secret of Vitoria", which was founded in almost the same period, is not as sexy as before. But the first quarter of the parent company showed that the same store sales fell by 1%, which was lower than that of the analysts. In October, the same store sales were also down by 2%, which is even more backward than those of the previous 7, 8, 9 and three months of growth in 2016.

"Sexy" doesn't seem to sell well? Or, they think they are "sexy" - bare eight, lean body and deep groove of steel ring... Less popular.

The people who once pursued A&F and AA brands in 90s have already left their target youth market, and the new generation is not cold to such rude and tagged selling. This is probably the reason why the impact of Wei MI is smaller and lagged behind.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, a consumer observation report published by many authoritative organizations in 2014 is frequently mentioned: when the purchase decision is made, millennials are more concerned about sustainability and social responsibility than any generation before.

For the millennial generation, the idea that A&F only wants to sell to beautiful people is too much emphasis on the appearance of the body even to the point of discrimination. The "PerfectBody" advocated by Wei Mi also causes consumers to feel dissatisfied with their brands. "It hurts ordinary women, makes them unconfident and insecure, and promotes the concept of" perfect "to a certain extent.

According to the world clothing shoes and hat net, the brand only focuses its attention on the external and superficial visual effects in the marketing process. It never involves gender identity, diversity, environmentalism, feminism and other popular topics. "These problems have great impact on the consumers of the millennial generation. They want to support those real and valuable brands. For them, products are not just products, but brands should be a noun that symbolizes greater or more social significance.

This is part of the sexy, cool meaning, and this is a factor that can attract today's young consumers.

In addition to the three points of view, from the aesthetic point of view, the big muscle men in the A&F poster are no longer welcome. Now, what is the way to encourage fans to protect their male stars who are now popular among young people?

The skinny figure of the angels is also criticized for being "unhealthy" or "unnatural".

Of course, sooner or later, these brands have also observed new changes in consumers.

In 2015, A&F and AA announced that they would abandon the "sexy marketing". Meanwhile, they tried to make themselves more "tolerant". They began to exert their strength and comfort on underwear, instead of merely pursuing the visual impact. They launched the bralette series without steel ring and light material (a dress that can be worn as bra and outer clothing), and strengthened the lingerie business of lagging behind.

Although they are still not improving, at least they are not going to follow the old road of the first 20 years.

I do not know whether it is a coincidence or not. In the next two months, A&F and China will open new stores in mainland China. Maybe they will be able to earn a bonus through the lagging trend of the mainland market.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.