1. Was built on the appeal of very inyour-face youthful sexuality that was used to sell mostly T-shirts, denim and other basics.
2. Got into trouble when the CEO made undiplomatic comments about certain consumer sectors in a 2006 interview with Salon
(Here's the quote: "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.")
3. Is, like American Apparel, experiencing slowing revenues after having explosive growth.
Its shares were down 30 per cent last year, DealBook has reported; According to The New York Times, AA's stock price has fallen 80 per cent in the last five years.
Beyond the Charney issue, we may actually be at a flexion point with a certain kind of marketing and identity, which was built on using exuberant, stereotypically American sexuality to sell basics to teens and tweens and twenty-somethings, but is perhaps no longer so relevant.
It's clear that both American Apparel and Abercrombie & Fitch have to take a good, hard look at their image to change their profit trajectory. The long-term American Apparel story may, ironically, actually be both a more conventional business story about adapting to changing mores.
Recent CEO bad boy behaviour
Dov Charney The former American Apparel CEO has had a spate of sexual harassment claims against him. After the company fired him on June 19, a video that was leaked online, showed him cavorting naked in front of two female employees.
Gurbaksh Chahal The founder of tech start-up RadiumOne Gurbaksh Chahal was removed from the company in April this year after it was discovered that he kicked and hit his former girlfriend 117 times in August 2013.
Evan Spiegel Snapchat's CEO had to apologise this May after an online website got hold of emails from his college years, where Spiegel makes lewd remarks about female students.
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