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 prey 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 bring in the consumers and take advantage of there 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 buying 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. In their stores the staff are really models. 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 can have.

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 its 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.   

They’re clever in choosing such an insecure generation to target as their main consumer because this age group is 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?  

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’ 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 you associate their products with physical beauty and sexual desire by giving you 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 seeing 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 they 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.

The image of the man half nude was definitely trying to send an erotic message, no doubt about it. This is clear due to the abs that has most probably been photos shopped, giving the image of strength and attractiveness. 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 how they come across is in 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 make massive sales based on erotic feelings, not clothes.

An example of American Apparels controversial advertising is the add 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)