Being a great brand manager isn’t about understanding what will make everyone love your store. Being a great brand manager is about understanding what will make your best customers love your store.
These two things are very different, and we’re seeing this illustrated by the recent flurry of headlines surrounding Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries’ 2006 comments about why the apparel chain doesn’t carry women’s apparel in large and extra-large sizes.
Here’s what Jeffries said, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. 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.”
It’s not a warm and fuzzy sentiment, particularly in an environment where nearly 7 out of every 10 shoppers are plus-sized. But is it bad brand management? That’s a conversation we should be having.
Be Your Customers’ Advocate
Abercrombie & Fitch’s critics have been quick to point out what the retail chain doesn’t sell, and the impact those omissions have made on the brand’s overall profitability. But let’s take a step back, and look at what the brand does sell, and how those choices have served Abercrombie & Fitch over the course of time.
The larger sizes Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t carry are readily available in other stores. But try finding the extremely petite sizes—0 or 00—that Abercrombie & Fitch’s loyal customers snatch up by the armful. You’re going to have a really tough time. The Ambercrombie & Fitch team has a clear vision of who their customer is. This vision has helped them understand what those customers need.
Customer needs are complex and multi-dimensional, but let’s stick to one simple need—specifically, clothes that actually fit. Abercrombie & Fitch provides clothing in sizes that their customers can’t easily get elsewhere. Customer advocacy, in terms of identifying this need, aggressively searching out solutions to the need, and making those solutions central to the brand identity, are all traits we see embodied by people universally considered to be exceptional brand managers.
The fact that Abercrombie & Fitch’s customers are members of a thin minority rather than a plus-sized majority doesn’t mean they don’t still have their own unique set of needs and psychological motivations. By recognizing this, Abercrombie & Fitch has carved out a sustainably profitable niche in the crowded retail apparel marketplace.
Jeffries’ business choices are being scrutinized now, as Abercrombie & Fitch is shuffling through a slow period, but if we take a longer perspective, looking at the chain’s performance over the course of a decade or more, Jeffries’ approach does seem to work. If anything, the chain seems to be positioning itself to be even more exclusive: stores in less-afluent demographics are being closed as part of a consolidation process.
It may seem counter-intuitive as a brand manager to consider what customers you don’t want in your store. But it is a valuable exercise. Knowing who your customers aren’t can help you refine your definition of who your customers are.