Fashion Marketing encourages
desire and aspiration through the construction of images of perfection. Is this acceptable?
The fashion industry relies on the use of images of
perfection to influence consumer behaviour. The most successful brands have
taken the generic approach to new heights; the ‘must have look’ strategy preys upon audience desire to belong and
look great. One of the most influential brands that market this way is
Abercrombie and Fitch. This essay will evaluate and discuss the different
marketing techniques and strategies that many super brands rely on to attract
consumers and take advantage of their insecurities and emotions.
Abercrombie and Fitch was opened in Manhattan in 1892
by David
T. Abercrombie and Ezra H. Fitch. It was a store that sold sporting and
excursion goods and now currently a retailer for exclusive casual wear.
Abercrombie
and Fitch are all about encouraging their audience to buy into an expensive yet
desirable lifestyle brand. In their words they are ‘aspirational’ they cater
for only the preppy, Ivy League lifestyle with no real variation in style,
these are all qualities that make this brand extremely recognisable. They live
and breathe the look through every aspect of their brand, their in store staff
are employed as ‘models who serve’ meaning A&F have planned right down to
very person who serves you at the counter, keeping the brand in your mind even
after you’ve purchased. The black and white advertisements/photos of young
people living the lifestyle they want you to buy into. The shopping theatre
experience, dark lighting, and iconic scent, all create that image and
atmosphere, one in which only people who are worthy and can afford it can
obtain it.
A&F
is targeted at 18 to 22 year olds of both genders, who aspire to be like what
they see on Abercrombie and Fitch’s advertisements; the preppy, Ivy League
beautiful people look.
Although
A&F is targeted at young adults it actually attracts a huge following of
young teenagers who want the look. Lucky for them it is now more affordable as
A&F are one of three brands; Gilly Hicks and Hollister who sell identical
products and ‘lifestyle’ but for a lesser price. In theory people with more
money will pay far more for an A&F logo on a piece of clothing they can
find identical in Hollister, no difference in quality but to them a huge
difference in Brand. This all comes down to the marketing of A&F, they are
constantly pushing these images of perfection on you, their ‘look’ is a little
more sophisticated than Hollister therefore those who desire it will cash out
for it. Consumers associate something expensive with a certain luxury.
They’re
clever in choosing such an insecure generation to target, as this age group are
just dying to fit in. Then by providing them with such an ‘impossible to achieve’
image to aspire to, which has been massively photo shopped, just to sell
clothes, is this right? Young people
want to feel accepted so desire what others their age have and what they are
shown through the media, the consequences are resulting in low self-esteem and
eating disorders even from being so heavily influenced by what they see.
The
CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch and most controversial man in retail Mike Jeffries
says “We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people
attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking
people. We don't market to anyone other than that." (Mike Jeffries, 2008)
And it’s this kind of attitude that gives
young people such a complex about their body image when they’re surrounded by
images of something they’re not.
Abercrombie and Fitchs best but unethical marketing tool is
the way in which they use ‘classical conditioning’ a form of behaviorism
pioneered by Ivan Pavlov, this is done by tapping into your emotions giving you
a direct link between two things. This is a successful way of marketing in most
cases but how A&F use it is definitely pushing the ethical boundary. They
make the consumer associate their products with physical beauty and sexual
desire by promoting very consistent images of beautiful flawless men and women
and never really changing the look of their images so it’s extremely
recognizable and easy to make the link between the brand and flawless beauty. In
their eyes they are doing this to achieve a ‘harmless response’ from the
audience when see their brand, but are gradually making young people think with
their hormones and not their heads harmless?
A certain case in late 2011 stirred up more controversy
within the US when A&F put up a huge billboard covering the stretch of
their soon to open shop. The image was that of a half-naked extremely muscly
man with most attention being drawn to the area where his hand was pushing down
his low-slung jeans. Now perhaps in their quarterly magazine this would have
been acceptable but to a mass audience on such a large scale, apparently not.
The advertising standards authority did not agree with A&F marketing strategy’s
so went to other major authorities in a bid to have it taken down but due to
outdoor advertising being a self-regulated industry nothing could be done about
the controversial ad.
It could be suggested that the half nude
man was trying to send an erotic message to A&F consumers. This outdoor ad
was tapping into one of our most raw emotions, sex. Black and white effect
makes it more mysterious and dark. All these things help trigger an emotion and
all of them make you want to buy the brand, because if you’re not buff already,
you think you can be with the clothes, if you’re a girl and single, you think
buying the clothes will get you a man like in the ad. On the other hand, if you
don’t look like that and don’t have the money or confidence, you don’t buy into
it, you don’t feel worthy.
It’s not only Abercrombie and Fitch who portray this idea of
sexual desire through their brand, there are so many like it, Diesel and
American Apparel for example. Although American Apparel don’t use any Photoshop
on their images which is a good thing because it’s real and not impossible but
the way in which they communicate them to their audience is a highly sexual
nature, which makes it dirty almost. These brands don’t make good sales on the
look of their clothes or quality because in fact A&F and American Apparel
clothing is very simple. They sell their clothes because of the images they use
in society, the men and women that model the products sell the clothes, they
make massive sales based on erotic feelings, not clothes.
An example of American Apparels controversial
advertising is the ad with model Lauren Phoenix wearing nothing but a pair of
their tube socks and then small headshots of her making highly provocative
faces. The fact that they don’t tamper with the photographs, such as the ones
of Phoenix makes the images even more realistic looking, especially when they
are posing in such ways.
Not forgetting that these brands also
sell to young children making the suggestive images even more outrageous and
controversial. Growing up surrounded by all these photo shopped images of good
looking people is going to have a huge impact on their self-esteem, and how
they should look. A child who sees an image of a skinny girl, skinnier than her
will automatically make them feel as if they don’t look right and they will do
something about it, possibly causing an eating disorder. All the images of men
wearing nothing but a pair of jeans or boxers, playing around in the grass
together can give a child a very different outlook on sexuality, making it look
the norm for men to be with men and women to be with women.
References
1.
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/frontlinemanagement/a/AbercrombieFitchMikeJeffriesquotes.htm (last accessed, 20/03/2012)
2.
http://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/jeffries/
(last accessed, 19/03/2012)
