Social Media Strategy

Social Media Overview

Abercrombie and Fitch Inc. is in a lot of ways a conservative retail company. Many people could disagree. The 115-year old company has had its share of public disputes about its advertising. In 2003, The Wall Street Journal reported that the A&F Quarterly was discontinued to “make room at the counter for a brand-new cologne,” according to a statement from Abercrombie. The magazine was under constant ridicule for its use of blatant nudity. Protesters of the magazine were happy to see that Abercrombie chose to go another route. The risqué use of nudity then leapt from the pages of the A&F Quarterly to the poster marketing on the walls of company stores.


Abercrombie and Fitch and its sister stores, Hollister Co. and Ruehl 925, also display suggestive marketing depicting half-naked men and women. Complaints are made on a daily basis. The complaints given in the stores are referred to Abercrombie and Fitch Customer Services, where customers can file a formal complaint.


On Feb. 4, 2008, a manager of an Abercrombie and Fitch retail location in Virginia Beach was cited for refusing to remove the focal pictures at the entrance to the store. The citation was for displaying obscene material in a business that is open to juveniles. If convicted, the manager faces a fine of $2,000 and up to a year in jail.


Currently, Abercrombie and Fitch and its sister stores are not participating in the realm of social media. I have checked the company Web site and have not come across any formal Abercrombie and Fitch blogs or links in any form of social media. It doesn’t have an extensive online store for all of its brands.


“Abercrombie and Fitch Careers” website gives the average consumer perspective as to what the Abercrombie and Fitch brands are about. They are about the all-American lifestyle. The site gives perspective into the Abercrombie and Fitch culture. It gives a detailed explanation of the brand and its place in the retail industry.


Abercrombie and Fitch is more than a clothing brand; it is casual luxury. Abercrombie and Fitch has created a culture that should be defended and built upon using social media. Creating a blog could reveal the answer to why Abercrombie and Fitch markets itself inside of its stores. Engaging in social media would allow customers to feel connected with the company and would allow the company to hear what people were saying about it.


Target Audience


The main consumer audience ranges from 18 to 22, according to the Abercrombie and Fitch website. The store targets both men and women, but I see more women shopping in the store. The clothes are relatively expensive for the age group that Abercrombie and Fitch is targeting. This audience has a middle- to upper-class household income of at least $60,000 a year. This audience is fashion-conscious and tends to buy only brand name clothing. The typical Abercrombie and Fitch shopper is loyal and shops at Abercrombie and Fitch often. This audience is an active audience that has low constraints and high problem recognition. They would be aware of the current issues surrounding the poster marketing in the stores, but it does not affect their choice to shop there.


Objective


The objective is to clarify use of partial nudity in the in-store marketing of Abercrombie and Fitch and its purpose through the use of social media.


Strategy


Active listening

To understand the purpose of a social media strategy, you have to know what the tools of a social media are and what they do. One is a social networking site. A social networking site focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities and who are interested in exploring those interests on the Internet. An example of a social networking site is a blog.


A blog, short for web log, is a website that is created to provide news or commentary on a particular subject. Entries are in almost a journal format. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs and websites. This is where a lot of information is disseminated on the Internet. It is a growing source of credible news, and it is important for Abercrombie and Fitch to recognize this trend and adapt itself. I suggest that Abercrombie and Fitch create a company blog that discusses simply what is going on with Abercrombie and Fitch.


Another form of social media that could be of use is a del.icio.us. page. A social book marking site, del.icio.us offers web service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. Abercrombie and Fitch executives could all access the same bookmarks from any computer with Internet access. The site offers a “purpose built del.icio.us page” that could be used to store articles mentioning Abercrombie and Fitch. These important articles could be added so that executives could analyze them and keep them stored for quick reference in the future.


Abercrombie and Fitch should also use an aggregator like Google Reader. An aggregator is a piece of software, available online which records summaries of selected blogs for easy browsing. This would allow Abercrombie and Fitch to monitor blogs that commonly mention about the company. Google Reader would allow Abercrombie to keep track of its blog and save the addresses of the blogs that it would want follow. Google Reader also has a feature where you can create alerts for every time something is published involving the company. I would suggest creating vanity alerts on Google Reader for Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister Co., Ruehl 925 and Mike Jefferies.


Outreach

For Abercrombie and Fitch to be successful in the bogging community, it should reach out and participate. The company could comment on blogs as a starting point. Before commenting on a blog, the whole blog should be read first.


Engagement

To engage and entice the community, Mike Jefferies should write the blog. More realistically, I suggest hiring someone to manage all of these social media for Abercrombie and Fitch.


Tactics


I propose that a blog be implemented to gauge the publicity that Abercrombie and Fitch is receiving. The blog could have a number of themes. The blog could be about trends that Abercrombie and Fitch is implementing into its current season of clothing and could include a section about “Abercrombie and Fitch in the News.” Here, Abercrombie will be able to be the first to release information to the public, not the media. It is also a great place to publish press release or statements that combat negative publicity or to get the word out about positive publicity. Implementing a blog like this would help Abercrombie break into the blogging community by allowing it to make its presence known.


The blog could use widgets, which are applications and features that can be formatted to be placed onto a blog.


Possible widgets could include









After Abercrombie and Fitch has set up its blog, the next step is to sign the blog up with Technorati and FeedBurner.


Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. Here, Abercrombie and Fitch could “claim” its official company blog. This would allow people to search for Abercrombie’s company blog and make it easily accessible. Technorati allows you to see how many people have linked to the company blog from their blog.


FeedBurner is a news-feed management site. This website would allow Abercrombie to allow people to subscribe to the company blog. FeedBurner also provides a traffic analysis of the blog.


Evaluation


Abercrombie and Fitch should be able to easily monitor the effectiveness of the social media that the company chooses to implement. With Google Reader, Abercrombie would be able to monitor what is being said about them in blogs that commonly discuss the company. Google Reader would also allow Abercrombie to receive vanity alerts about when the company is mentioned in print or online. FeedBurner and Technorati are also great resources for viewing social media success.


FeedBurner and Technorati give you concrete numbers to gauge the popularity of a blog and exactly how many people are following your blog and subscribe to it. It is a great way to see who your publics are and what they are saying about you.


With social media, Abercrombie and Fitch would be able to voice their views and concerns quickly and effectively. The Internet is the quickest way to disseminate information, especially in a crisis situation. In light of recent events, I suggest that Abercrombie and Fitch implement or consider the strategies and tactics to quickly adapt to a form of media that is quickly growing.


Blogs to Monitor


Below are a list of blogs that I would suggest that Abercrombie and Fitch monitor to understand what customers are saying about the company.


Abercrombie and Fitch Models

http://abercrombieandfitchmodels.blogspot.com/

This blog showcases current and past Abercrombie and Fitch Models and what they are currently working on.


Ohlala Mag by John Browning

http://www.ohlalaparis.com/ohlalaparis/abercrombie_fitch/index.html

This is a gay fashion blog that is based on the magazine Ohlala Mag. This gives insight from a consumer perspective.



The Volokh Conspiracy by Eugene Volokh

http://volokh.com/posts/1202413526.shtml

This blog talks about the recent incident involving the “obscene” marketing posters.


Beneath the Brand by Kay B. Day

http://www.beneaththebrand.com/2008/02/06/abercrombie-fitch-gets-busted-by-the-cops/

This blog talks about marketing. It talks about the issues surrounding Abercrombie’s marketing.


Words for my Enjoyment by Paul Davidson

http://www.pauldavidson.net/2006/02/16/your-words-about-abercrombie-fitch/

This blogger has written a series of blogs about “If I Was an Abercrombie Model.”


Abercrombie Fans

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1889500347

This is a fan blog dedicated to the lifestyle of Abercrombie and Fitch.


Yahoo! Finance Blogs by Stephen Frankola

http://seekingalpha.com/article/62875-abercrombie-trading-a-range-bound-stock?source=yahoo

This is a financial blog that talks about the future of Abercrombie’s stock.


Cross-Cultural Blog by Kavi Thakoor

http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2007/11/abercrombie_fitch_1.html

This blog is a project by students at Stanford discussing marketing issues surrounding Abercrombie and Fitch.


College Analysists by CA Editors

http://collegeanalysts.com/?p=219

This blog discusses that Abercrombie and Fitch is a store retailer and should see a long period of financial success.


The Scholarship Blog by Jenna

http://blogs.enotes.com/scholarships-blog/2007-11/the-abercrombie-and-fitch-scholarship-program/

This blog discusses Abercrombie’s partnership with the United Negro College Fund.


Code of Ethics


This brief code of ethics is based on Tim O’Reily’s Code of Conduct for Blogs.


  1. We need to accept responsibility for every comment we post and posts that we allow on our own blogs.


  1. We will not post a comment that is something that we would not say to that person face to face.


  1. We should read the whole blog post and reflect before we comment on the blog.

  2. We will speak up when we read a blog or post that is unfair or a personal attack.


  1. We will not allow comments to be posted on our blogs by anonymous writers.