What is Abercrombie & Fitch? In Trouble.

I remember one trip to Abercrombie & Fitch when I was in high school. My dad recommended it when we were clothes shopping one afternoon. In his head, it was legendary for its outdoor gear—its tents, rugged clothing, and camping accessories. At that point, I had never heard of it, but we walked out of the store with a new navy sweater and a pair of brown pants that survived the rest of high school.

As it turned out, the Abercrombie of my dad’s recollection had gone out of business in the late 1970s, and the brand name had been twice revived in the years since. By the time my dad and I walked into the store in the late nineties, it was a public company with no connection to the original company, save its name.

In the next year or so, I came to recognize Abercrombie as a classier, pricier American Eagle or Aeropostale, and I think that was how most of my peers viewed it. The following summer, a hit song reached number one on the Billboard charts. In the years following, Abercrombie made habits of drubbing up headlines for its racy catalogs, dimming its lights, and blaring music in its retail locations. As often happens, the store became a different outlet, a different brand.

This week, Abercrombie & Fitch stock numbers that single out the company as a retail uh-oh of the quarter.

What happened?

It’s simple: the brand evolved but the business didn’t.

My dad remembered Abercrombie as an outdoor company from his childhood. To him, it was an L.L. Bean-type of classic brand, steeped in Americana and adventure lore. The store, by the time I was in high school, played into the heritage of its name: it offered classic American styles with a modern twist.

Let’s play a game: Close your eyes. Think about Abercrombie & Fitch. Can you picture the type of person who shops there now? How do its retail locations feel when you enter them? What type of clothing do they sell?

Branding is a tightrope walk—a complicated compromise of business strategy and public opinion. Brands are built on indefinable things; they have shape; they inspire emotion and nostalgia. That’s why Abercrombie can take shape in your mind, regardless of whether you’re a customer or whether you’ve never set foot in an Abercrombie outlet.

For me, Abercrombie’s brand evokes cologne-soaked teenagers in subwoofer shaking dance clubs. Remember when A&F offered “The Situation” money to stop wearing its clothing? That was the sound of the Abercrombie brand's tightrope snapping.

I don’t mean that Abercrombie & Fitch needs to go back in time, but maybe it could stand to look in a mirror. It seems like its self-perception is too removed from its audience and public opinion. Realistic and critical introspection is a lesson that retail outlets—and any business, or professional, for that matter—could benefit from.

Here’s another game, for retail employees reading this article: What is your company, and what does it do best? What does it mean to you? How do you think it reads its audience and provides value?

Let us know below.

Image by fito, courtesy and copyright www.freerangestock.com.