Formative Feedback - Introduction

Original Introduction:

This brand marketing report will demonstrate the current position of the brand Abercrombie and Fitch, whilst advising them on what they could change to improve and re-establish their brand in their or a new market.

Abercrombie and Fitch is an American clothing retailer that focuses on high quality casual wear. They were extremely popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s, known for their logo apparel and unique store experience of topless male models greeting customers at the door, and was often described as an overload for the senses with strong fragrances and loud dance music a staple for the stores. However, this once successful store dynamic became unpopular with customers and so was left behind along with Abercrombie and Fitch’s former controversial CEO Mike Jeffries who installed the very sexualised theme to the brand and stores. These were replaced with new CEO Fran Horowitz, the removal of the intimidating models, and the music turned down showing that Abercrombie and Fitch are on their way to improvement but still aren’t fully there yet.

Through primary and secondary research, it became clear that a popular opinion of Abercrombie and Fitch is that it is now outdated and is a brand people used to wear but wouldn’t anymore. This was due to the fact that other competitors have become more popular, for example through an online survey the majority of people answered that they would prefer to shop at brands such as Topshop as they prefer the price and the styles on offer.

Therefore, Abercrombie and Fitch’s biggest problem is relevancy in the fashion world and the status of their reputation and so they need to continue their rebrand and changes in marketing strategy to improve and regain their popularity and change people’s views to be more positive.

Feedback:

Introduction is good and provides a good level of detail. It would be good to move paragraph 3 to your abstract. Remember that introductions should: state what the report it about; what question are you trying to answer; describe your starting point and the background to the subject. Paragraph 4 should go into your recommendations or conclusion. Please also reference your findings.

Introduction after Feedback:

This brand marketing report will demonstrate the current position of the brand Abercrombie and Fitch, whilst advising them on what they could change to improve and re-establish their brand in their or a new market.

Abercrombie and Fitch is an American clothing retailer that focuses on high quality casual wear. They were extremely popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s, known for their logo apparel and unique store experience of topless male models greeting customers at the door, and was often described as an overload for the senses with strong fragrances and loud dance music a staple for the stores. However, this once successful store dynamic became unpopular with customers and so was left behind along with Abercrombie and Fitch’s former controversial CEO Mike Jeffries who installed the very sexualised theme to the brand and stores. These were replaced with new CEO Fran Horowitz, the removal of the intimidating models, and the music turned down shows that Abercrombie and Fitch are on their way to improvement but still aren’t fully there yet.

Through secondary research of online articles, blog posts and videos and primary research of an online questionnaire, an Instagram survey and a store visit it quickly became clear that a popular opinion of Abercrombie and Fitch is that they used to be popular but they are now outdated and are not consumer’s first choice when it comes to shopping. Therefore, through this report options of rebranding and improvements will be explored to suggest how Abercrombie and Fitch can overcome their problem of irrelevancy and decline within the fashion world.

Comments:

I took the advise of my feedback and moved the information about the questionnaire and Instagram Survey I carried out to my appendix section and addressed the problem I am wanting to overcome more.