Initiating a new blog was a natural reaction to this need to write more frequently. The start of a new blog does not mean an end to "The Issues," my politically motivated blog. It simply means there are countless other things worth writing about, and I have a lot to contribute to those discussions as well. So this blog is my "commentary" on anything and everything, and thus the birth of something different and new (for me.)
While relaxing on the couch during a much treasured River nap (River being our 14 month old son), my wife asked if I had heard about what the "Abercrombie & Fitch" CEO had said. Being a man of zero fashion sense, I advised her that I hadn't. She then sent a link from an "Elite Daily" article to me about why Abercrombie doesn't carry XL or XXL clothing for women (source.) CEO Mike Jeffries states, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “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."
Let's get the negatives out of the way here. Thinking like this makes you arrogant, selfish, and to most people, despicable. However, what is Jeffries actually saying? He's saying, we have a target market, and we're not afraid to admit it. Most companies will target, advertise to, and attempt to saturate a segment without ever overtly admitting it. In this regard, Jeffries is doing what everyone else is, but he's overtly admitting to it.
Does this make him better or worse than the competitors? Foolish for segmenting, or smart for targeting a niche market. Try and put your instinctive disgust aside and be objective when answering these questions. What do you think?
Let's get the negatives out of the way here. Thinking like this makes you arrogant, selfish, and to most people, despicable. However, what is Jeffries actually saying? He's saying, we have a target market, and we're not afraid to admit it. Most companies will target, advertise to, and attempt to saturate a segment without ever overtly admitting it. In this regard, Jeffries is doing what everyone else is, but he's overtly admitting to it.
Does this make him better or worse than the competitors? Foolish for segmenting, or smart for targeting a niche market. Try and put your instinctive disgust aside and be objective when answering these questions. What do you think?
People react violently to it because for the reactor, it is a charged issue. I would submit two examples that show that he is not doing anything any different other than saying, candidly, why. Example 1. Big and Tall doesn't offer sizes to accomodate shorter and/or heavier men. Or Women, for that matter! Go into the store, Josh. See if they have anything in your size. Then, tell me if you're upset by it. It's not that they are exclusionary (or maybe just not so open about it). It's that they saw a market that was looking to be satisfied and have fairly consistently tried to accomodate clothing and fashion to men who needed bigger sizes. A&F is only different in that they have a little more "exclusivity" built into their language, their brand and their customer base.
ReplyDeleteExample 2. Airlines. Airlines have 1 seat size (if we exclude non-economy classes). If you do not fit into the seat provided, no additional accommodations are provided for your comfort nor for the comfort of your fellow passengers. They don't explicitly spell out that they are only trying to market to people under a certain size, but they don't apologize for not making concessions, either. They don't use this in their marketing, but I think it still shows that other companies "exclude" larger people, whether they intend to or not.
Point is, we want to attach some dispicability to Jeffries because he is honest about who he is marketing to and specifically who he is NOT marketing to. I think we all knew it. Why are we suddenly disgusted because he said it? If you want in, find a way in. If you don't, don't worry about it. My thoughts, objectively.
I agree entirely. I can think of countless lines of business that do something very similar but simply aren't as overt about it. However, one notable difference is that Jeffries states wanting to keep "not cool" or "fat" people out of their stores. Although an airline may not like the idea of having someone large occupying more than their spacial share, they aren't actively trying to keep these people out. However, I think as cruel as it sounds, welcome to a free market people. Variety is the spice of life, and our market provides you exactly that, variety. Larger women best shop elsewhere.
DeleteYou are truly passionate about baseball. I am suddenly more thankful for all those games I sat and watched. Great blog!
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