Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch was always a very popular clothing brand for teenagers, but that all changed in 2013 when the company's CEO Mike Jefferies had an interview from 2006 resurface. He said: “We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people. A lot of people don’t belong and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” Not only did he hire 'pretty people' but he refused to sell clothing above the size 10. This sparked a lot of anger and hurt the company sales a lot. His comments went viral and other celebrities had even commented on it. It had even won the title for the 'most hated brand in America.' If people already thought Abercrombie & Fitch was exclusive, then this incident pushed it so much more and really hurt their customer service ratings as well. During that year when his statement resurfaced, profits plummeted by 77%. Several stores had to close down as well because of the drastic decrease in sales. The company had also said they would rather burn their clothes than donate them to the homeless which is why a youtube video was made with the hashtag #FitchtheHomeless and became extremely popular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95DBxnXiSo

Mike Jefferies then came out with an apology statement that Abercrombie and Fitch posted to Facebook.

A couple of months after his apology several thousand people signed a petition to boycott Abercrombie & Fitch. About a month after this happened, Mike Jefferies was fired and the company has had to do some damage control to try and get their brand back on track. Abercrombie & Fitch in my opinion did a poor job of damage control. His response should have come out the same day and should have been more sincere. The actual company should have been posting and trying to change their ways a lot more and trying to connect with their consumer and change their 'exclusive' image.

Today, the company isn't in as much heat as it used to but they are still not nearly as popular as they used to be.

They regularly post on their social media accounts and now use new hashtags and promotions. Their big new narrative is #FACEYOURFIERCE. They are trying to push to be more inclusive and for their consumers to feel confident.