Fierce Rivalry of A&F vs. AE

While our group project was still on my mind I figured that I would put my thoughts in a blog. Both Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle have been nose to nose competing largely against the same target market for some time now. However, I feel that Abercrombie & Fitch is in a more competitive position over American Eagle. A&F has been around for over 100 years, so that gives them more of a history than American Eagle has. I did some quick internet searches and it seems that from surveys taken, teens more often recognize Abercrombie & Fitch as their first choice over American Eagle stores.

There are over 500 A & F stores, 150 abercrombie children stores, and a new chain of 32 Hollister stores targeted at high school students. On the other hand, American Eagle has over 600 stores in the U.S. and Canada. They acquired two Canadian specialty stores and changed Braemar locations to American Eagle, while Thriftys were changed to Bluenotes stores.

Abercrombie & Fitch is on the right track with their stores, but they should be careful with their line of children’s clothing. They ultimately wanted to appeal to teenagers and college-age girls and guys, but their children’s stores obviously don’t do that. All of their sexually suggestive advertising that is targeted at the youth may very likely offend the upper 20s to 40s that would actually buy the children’s clothes for their kids. A&F needs to make a decision whether to keep the abercrombie children’s stores and change their advertising scheme, or to concentrate on the A&F and Hollister stores with their current advertising.

A&F is already a well-known brand name that will essentially sell itself right now. As long as Hollister becomes well-known that it is an Abercrombie store, it will also be successful. Abercrombie should focus on these new Hollister stores and get them on their feet. They are significantly cheaper than Abercrombie & Fitch, which is very attractive to their 14-18 target market.

American Eagle is also in this market, but it is viewed as a less expensive imitator to A&F. Many people shop at American Eagle who like A & F’s clothes, but can’t afford their high prices. If A&F really promotes their Hollister brand to compete directly with American Eagle, then I expect that they would be successful. I suspect that many American Eagle shoppers will make their way into Hollister. If they do this, then they can still maintain the A&F name as an upper-end clothing line for that target market—thus getting the best of both worlds.