Right or wrong?

[MKR&*42]

Abercrombie and Fitch released a statement some time ago about who they market to:

Co-author Robin Lewis told Business Insider that Jeffries doesn’t want “larger people” shopping in Abercrombie and Fitch; instead, “he wants thin and beautiful people.”

“He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing,” Lewis said. “People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.’”

Abercrombie doesn’t have XL or XXL women’s clothing; it does have XL and XXL men’s sizes, but only for football players and wrestlers, said Lewis.

“It’s almost everything,” he said. “That’s why 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.”

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he continued. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”

I've seen this debated over on another forum and whether they're right to say only beautiful and thin people should go to their stores and I'm kinda interested as to what everyone else on here thinks.

[Cerys]

Yeah, sure whatever, you're doing what you think is best for your company.

But it's discriminating against the larger people, surely?

[Adam]

... and 'big man' stores discriminate against people who aren't disgustingly obese. If you don't like their practices, don't shop there - nobody is forcing you to do so.

End of thread.

[Zelda]

agree with adam suprisingly again.

It's their choice who they stock for anyway and they will obv make the most money from fashion obsessed fit people so it does make sence, and no-one is forcing them to shop there in any respect at all.

this is totes cause of our discussion though earlier eh @Hayden; LMAO

[FlyingJesus]

They are absolutely within their rights to have whatever target market they want - the idea that they or anyone in the industry should be forced into providing for people they don't want to is horrific. It's a private business and they can do as they please within the law.

[MKR&*42]

Oh good, I'm glad most of you have taken that view. The other forum were very against this and I was a bit confused as to why

[FlyingJesus]

Probably because they were fat

[AgnesIO]

I find it ironic, baring in mind the CEO is hardly the king of good looking people lol

However, on the basis I have no problem getting their clothing on, it doesn't bother me (not that I'd waste my money on it anyway, but there we go).

[Adam]

agree with adam suprisingly again.

It's their choice who they stock for anyway and they will obv make the most money from fashion obsessed fit people so it does make sence, and no-one is forcing them to shop there in any respect at all.

this is totes cause of our discussion though earlier eh @Hayden; LMAO

Don't sound so surprised, I'm an intelligent bloke when I want to be.

[GommeInc]

They did the business faux pas - never state who your target audience isn't, because you will only set up a counter-marketing campaign. Unless you market to the masses (which they do not), the masses will only counter-market against you.

What they did wasn't necessarily bad, because it's common knowledge who buys their products (douchebags, trendy ********s etc), but to offend the people who do not buy your products or shouldn't buy your products is a very stupid thing to do, especially when the CEO (or main designer, whoever he is) looks like a plastic Ken doll that's been placed near a flame, subsequently melting their face.