A Proposal to Make Bigger Sizes for Abercrombie & Fitch Customers.

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Photo by Joschi Herczeg

Abercrombie & Fitch

www.abercrombie.com

TO:                 Mike Jeffries Abercrombie & Fitch CEO
FROM:         Echo Liu, Andrea Panuncio

DATE:         December 10,2013

RE:                A proposal to make bigger sizes for Abercrombie & Fitch Customers.

PURPOSE

We propose a customer focused and cost-effective proposal to a major issue that has caused a lot of controversy between Abercrombie & Fitch and its customers. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”-Mike Jeffries Abercrombie & Fitch CEO. We believe Abercrombie and Fitch is a unique and very successful company, and it has the capacity to expand even more by giving everyone the opportunity to wear their stylish clothes. To resolve this problem, we recommend that you approve a proposal that will attract a wider audience of customers: to include bigger sizes for both man and women. Having bigger sizes will result in more customers, which will increase profits and sales.

THE PROBLEM

In past years, Abercrombie & Fitch has created high quality clothing with size 10 being the largest size. This is limiting the population that has access to this brand. According to the CDC website, the percent of adolescents aged 12-19 years who are obese: 18.4% (2009-2010). Percent of adults aged 20 years and over who are overweight, including obesity: 69.2% (2009-2010). These data imply that Abercrombie & Fitch is losing around 19% of the young population and 70% of the older population as potential customers. This limits its amount of sales and customers.  

Recent trends are suggesting that customers are requesting bigger sizes. According to Change.org Benjamin O’Keeffe, 18, met with Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, to persuade him to change the company’s marketing strategies and targeted population. Benjamin O’Keeffe is the author of a change petition where he tells his own personal story, and elaborated how the company’s “beliefs” have affected him as a customer and individual.  He said: ”As a young adult who suffered from an eating disorder, through much of middle and high school, I remember looking at the ads for Abercrombie & Fitch or combing the racks and not seeing anything that fit me. As silly as it seems, as a kid, it made me feel worthless to not be able to wear the "it" styling that everyone else was wearing. For the 30.54 percent of teens that struggle through weight problems they know my sentiment”. We believe Benjamin O’Keeffe is not the only one feeling that emptiness and low self-esteem caused by Abercrombie’s marketing campaigns, employee selection, and size charts. Over 75,000 people have signed Benjamin’s petition. “That petition represents over 75,000 names, 75,000 faces, 75,000 VOICES that have demanded to be heard”, said Benjamin.

Important Social Organizations are getting involved because they believe this is having a big effect on teenagers’ self-worth. The NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association) and teen activists – who traveled to Columbus in May to meet with A&F executives to discuss their displeasure over its CEO Mike Jeffries’ “hurtful and discriminatory” comments. During the two-hour meeting, the advocacy committee made a number of suggestions, including for A&F to reconsider its position on size limitations (including elimination of size zero, which is meaningless and offer sizes larger than 10); expand its clothing line to be more inclusive of teen body types; reduce the blatant sexualization of its ads and expand its choice of models; consider diversity training for employees; and support educational programs for teens in ways to ultimately be a corporate leader on anti-bullying and diversity. “