Chapter 7: Business Marketing

Typically Abercrombie & Fitch isn't a company that associates much with other companies. They don't believe in their items being resold buy distributors such as department stores, because they feel it ruins the unique shopping experience that the consumer receives when they purchase items in their store. In a way that works against the company, being as how they lose out on a ton of sales by not having their items be reachable through a reseller or a third party. It would also help to get the company name out there more and possibly broaden their target market. If someone entered a Bloomingdales not really looking for anything in particular and they happen to stumble across and Abercrombie & Fitch item that they like, it would definitely cause that consumer to continue to come back and purchase items from the company without having to purchase them solely from an Abercrombie & Fitch store.

But there's definitely an upside to Abercrombie & Fitch staying away from business to business selling and resellers. As a consumer you know that of you see an Abercrombie item for sale anywhere besides an actual store, that it's not authentic and you're not getting exactly what you think you are. Which is why Abercrombie is so big on loss prevention and brand protection, because they want to make sure, for the consumers sake that the only place they can purchase Abercrombie items is in an Abercrombie & Fitch store.

Chapter 8: Segmenting and Target Markets

Over the years Abercrombie & Fitch had one consistent target and generally catered to them. but over time as due to the change of many variables, Abercrombie has not only broadened their target market, but have segmented it as well. A good example would be Abercrombie's usage of geographic segmentation. For example here in New York City, Abercrombie & Fitch only has 2 stores, one of which is a flagship store the other a tier 1 store. Both those stores are very limited when it comes to the items they have on sale and the in store promotions that they have. Where as the stores located in New Jersey and Long Island fall lower on the companies totem poll. Not only do they carry a ton of sale items, but almost every week they have an inshore promotion offering at least 20% off all items Thats an example of geographic segmentation because the outer city target market widely varies from the inter city. A city as popular as New York brings in a lot of tourist, which definitely falls into Abercrombie's target market. Not only that, but over time the company has seen that the inner city target market is willing to spend more money which is why constant in store sales promotions and clearance sections aren't necessary.

With this holiday season Abercrombie has also shown examples of concentrated targeting strategy. For instance, since the company knows that the outer city target is the target looking for sale items and sales promotions, for black friday this year Abercrombie & Fitch are heavily promoting their stores in New Jersey and Long Island, even going as far as to open those store at midnight for the first time in company history. Although they would rather have people go to their stores to purchase full price items, they know that this is the time to largely promote to those who will purchase a lot of sale items an get them in the stores.

Chapter 11: Developing and Managing Products

A new product that Abercrombie & Fitch has released recently is their new outerwear introducing their new faux fur. Although this product may not seem new to Abercrombie's loyal consumers, it's a completely new design and new type of faux fur that they are using for their products. Outerwear featuring fax fur isn't exactly something new to the world, but Abercrombie's redesign of their original product is something thats new to the seller as well as their target market. When first marketing a new product, based on the textbook definition it's "a limited introduction of the product", which is almost the exact opposite of what Abercrombie & Fitch chose to do. Not only are they releasing their faux fur in their classic mens and women's outerwear, but also including it in some of their vests, hoodies as well as winter wear items such as hats and scarves. They have decided to go all out in their release of their new product. Usually the winter season brings out one or two faux fur lined/trimmed hoodies, but this season the company has released 16 different hoodies containing the brand's new faux fur in some way.

The massive release of the all of their new faux fur products, may actually do good for the company in a lot of ways. Their target market is traditionally men and women between 16 and 24, so if for example someone purchases a faux fur lined hoodie from Abercrombie, more than likely the word of how soft and comfortable the product is will pass on to more people in that target market causing them to ow also purchase something faux fur related from Abercrombie, whether it be a coat or a scarf. By changing up their original low quality faux fur design the company was being innovative and introducing something new, at least to their target market. By featuring the new product within so many of other products it makes it easy for the product to be diffused widely amongst their target market.

Holiday Season Plans

For the holiday season this year, Abercrombie & Fitch is doing something they've never before done. They have created gift box sets of some of their popular winter items, such as a hat and scarf set, pajamas for men and women as well their signature fragrances for each gender.

You can also tell when the holidays have arrived at Abercrombie & Fitch stores because their marketing and store packaging changes. A splash of red is added to their typical grayscale shopping bags and marketing. They also add festive red bows to their in store presentations and change up the music played in the store. For one month out of 12 they ditch their loud techno beats in favor of more festive holiday music. Along with that, right before Christmas, Christmas Eve to be exact Abercrombie has its biggest sale of the year, just in time for the holidays.

Chapter 16: Integrated Marketing Communications

In terms of product promotion there is one product that Abercrombie & Fitch heavily promotes, and that would be their fragrances, especially their number one fragrance Fierce. Their promotional strategy for promoting Fierce consist of a variety of techniques that they use to get the scent out there. For starters fierce is used as Abercrombie & Fitch's signature scent. At one point, sales associates would be designated to only spritz and pass blotter cards out to the customers in the store, but also spritz each item of clothing every have hour to 45 min every day. Now Abercrombie & Fitch uses a different technique to get the consumer to smell Fierce. In most of their stores worldwide, they now have automatic spritzers. Machines attached to the ceiling solely for the purpose of spraying the store with Fierce heavily enough that you can actually smell it from quite a distance.

They have also incorporated the product in their "tag lines", things the sales associates say to costumers as they enter and leave the store as well as check out. whether its "Get Fierce" or "Have you checked out our fragrance Fierce yet?" it's a way to get the product or at least the idea of the product into the consumers head at all times and that has really helped it become one of the rated fragrances worldwide. The company even created publicity for themselves by challenging the one and only Beyoncé. When the superstar was determine to release a fragrance names after her equally as famous alter ego "Sasha Fierce" Abercrombie & Fitch went to great lengths to make sure that she wouldn't be able to use the name fierce in relation to any fragrance, and they actually one, which definitely created more hype for the the already popular fragrance.

I believe a lot of the stuff that i mentioned before fits into Abercrombie & Fitch's AIDA concept. The attraction would be the smell in the air that draws in a lot of consumers, who once in the store usually do purchase the Fierce fragrance among other things. The interest would be all of the associates in the store talking about it with the consumer and sparking interest in them about what exactly the fragrance is. The desire would be when they get home and smell this great fragrance thats all over their clothes and actually being able to smell it in a setting that isn't an Abercrombie & Fitch store, is enough to cause a consumer to take action, by returning to the store and purchasing it or purchasing it online.