Competitive Market: J Crew and Banana Republic Target Similar Consumer Base

Companies like J. Crew (http://www. jcrew. com) and banana republic (http://www. bananarepublic. com) are targeting many of the same consumers as Abercrombie & Fitch. Visit their websites and discuss how their marketing strategies are different from those of A&F. Would you suggest any changes in these strategies that would allow these two companies to better position themselves in the minds of consumers? Banana republic and J. Crew’s marketing plan is geared more towards the yuppie crowd.

Viewing their websites you are drawn to the clothes, the patterns colors and styles.

The back grounds of both sites are white giving no distraction to the viewer. The layout on both sites is clean and to the point not giving incentives to search and stay on the site longer than necessary. For both banana republic and J. Crew, it’s about the product they are selling not the models who are wearing the clothes. A&F’s site however is the total opposite.

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It’s all about the models and how the models look in their clothes. Their website back ground is charcoal grey which enhances the features of the models.

The models have next to nothing on posing in very alluring positions. They even have a models club on the site where you can view former models. I have learned something interesting, I had no idea Channing Tatum was a former A&B model! They should follow a little bit of the A&F design, add color to the back ground of the site, and have a club page not for the models but perhaps for contests, special events or community service.

Something that will allow viewers to stay on their site longer, engage them perhaps gets involved in something they are offering.

They should enhance their follow us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram; making the icons much larger so you want to just click and add.

The success of specialty clothing stores has come at the expense of large department stores like Sears and J. C. Penney. What can department stores do to make themselves more relevant to the youth subculture? The department stores should do a marketing study on the youth marketing segment and how they shop, what they shop for and what inspires them.

Today its technology, social networks, clubs trendy clothes etc…. department stores need to gear toward this segment and develop a marketing plan that incorporates in store runway shows, contests to win the newest cell phone or tablet, higher younger people, dazzle the store windows with the younger elements to name a few. They can use up and coming stars to endorse their stores.

Check out the Hot Topic website (http://www. hottopic. com). Compare the sub- markets (subcultures) Hot Topic is aiming for with those of Abercrombie & Fitch. Identify the behaviors, affective responses, and cognitions most important in shopping at each store. Hot Topic is aiming for the subculture of grunge youth.

The radical kids with the piercing, tattoos who ride skateboards love raves and dare to wear the outrageous styles. This culture doesn’t care about image, prestige and designer hand bags. They are not competing for coolness; they are a group that their skate boards, music dance and parties are the important factors. Their clothes mostly depict how they feel, and the hard core statements they are trying to make. A&F kids want to be cool; they are over the top aware of keeping up with their friends to stay in the cool status. Their looks are put together very carefully, they want status and prestige.

They are looking to be noticed. This youth has a uniqueness of wanting to be beautiful, be a part of something perhaps a charity, perhaps fashion, perhaps an athlete. The interesting thing is at Hot Topics stores the music isn’t loud and the sales people say hello and ask if you need help. A&B as you is aware blast their music and sales people don’t talk to you unless you approach them.

How can A&F guard against becoming too mainstream and experiencing a customer backlash? Do you believe it is possible for A&F to remain popular with young shoppers for a span of many years?

A&F has a very unique marketing strategy which works and will continue to work. They don’t force themselves on everyone, they draw their customers in the form of beauty, and how gorgeous one may look if they just buy their clothes. They use perception very methodically. I’m not sure if they could ever become to mainstream. They need to make sure they don’t go overboard with in your face advertising; they need to keep it at a perception level, stay on track with the sexy tactic, don’t go heavy into the kids market and make sure they stay on top of the trends. I do believe that A&F will remain popular for many years to come.As long as there is a need and desire to look beautiful and sexy and to have a status of popularity A&B will remain in good standing.

Both A&F and The Gap are trying to use their brand names to market clothing to different age groups. For example, A&F has opened a chain of children’s stores called abercrombie (lowercase “a”), while Gap, Inc. has had success with GapKids and BabyGap. Discuss the advantages and potential disadvantages of such a diversification strategy. There is a great advantage to this as a concentrated targeting strategy . They found a niche where children and baby clothes have grown in popularity by leaps and bounds.

All parents want their babies in the cute little jeans with the polo shirts or the leggings with the belted dress shirts they are too cute! As the children become older parents want them to stay fashionable and this may move into maintaining a status, and style. These mini adult clothes appeal to the parents who wear the brands and to the grandparents who know how adorable these kids will look in them. The kids themselves who now are extremely into their own fashion mindset and have money to spend are drawn to these stores because they are replicating the adult styles and since kids want to grow up fast the looks are perfect.

IF they have a marketing team concentrating on just this segment they can put all their thoughts into understanding the needs, motives and satisfactions of this segment and on developing this specific marketing mix. The disadvantage to this strategy could be “If the segment becomes too small or shrinks because of environmental change”. This could happen if there is a decline in pregnancies or if people decide that it’s just not interesting anymore and it no longer becomes a necessity.