Abercrombie & Fitch Marketing: The 2016 Brand Reset and What a Retailer Can Copy From It

Abercrombie & Fitch's marketing is best known for a deliberate reset. In autumn 2016 the retailer launched a campaign called "This is Abercrombie & Fitch", moved away from a sexualised, "cool kids" image, used more diverse and more fully clothed models, and shifted its clothes toward more denim and less logo. It then used social platforms and partnerships to reach younger shoppers on their own terms. The sequence is a clear case study in how a brand changes what it stands for in public, in the order it did it.

This page sticks to what trade press reported at the time. Where a figure comes from a named article, the article is named.

The starting point

For years the brand was built on exclusivity. Its stores and imagery leaned on shirtless men and attractive models, and a former chief executive, Mike Jeffries, made comments that the brand was only for the young and attractive, which drove away many shoppers, according to a RetailDetail report from 17 October 2016. By 2016 the retailer was reporting declining sales. Retail Dive, on 13 October 2016, put second quarter net sales down 4 percent year over year at 783.2 million USD, with same-store sales also down 4 percent.

A brand in that position has two choices: defend the old image or change it. Abercrombie chose to change it, and to say so loudly.

What changed in 2016

Retail Dive's report of 13 October 2016 lists the changes together.

• A new brand line. The campaign was titled "This is Abercrombie & Fitch".
• Different models. More diverse and more fully clothed.
• Different product. More denim and less logo-centric clothing.
• The largest ad campaign in the company's history, as the article described it, timed ahead of the holidays, with a redesigned website.
• Digital ads on video streaming sites, music platforms and social media.
• Outdoor advertising, including billboards and transit ads in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The company's president and chief merchandising officer, Fran Horowitz, was quoted saying that "today's consumer celebrates individuality and uniqueness", and the company statement said the new brand "reflects that confidence and independence of spirit." The article also noted that Ashley Sargent Price, who had joined from J. Crew, led merchandising changes.

The Instagram clean-up

RetailDetail reported on 17 October 2016 that the company deleted all of its older photographs on Instagram and replaced them with a single image, with the caption: "People have a lot to say about us. They think they've got us figured out." A series of images promoting the new campaign followed.

The move did something a press release cannot. It removed the old public record from the place where younger shoppers look first, and it did so on the day the new message launched. Brands that change direction often leave old content in place, so searchers and shoppers still find the former image next to the new one.

A platform partnership: Snapchat and E!

A later example is documented in a Marketing Dive report of 16 May 2018, also carried by Retail Dive. In fall 2017, Abercrombie integrated its products into E!'s Snapchat show "Face Forward" as an exclusive launch partner, and ran ads across E!'s Snapchat properties, including 90 second branded content pods. The article reported, from the campaign's results:

• About 40,000 people driven to stores over the roughly two month campaign, based on Snapchat's Snap to Store estimates, which the article called conservative.
• A 4.5 percent rise in purchase consideration.
• A rise of roughly 10 percent in brand favorability.
• A 15.4 percent rise in ad awareness.

The numbers are the platform's and the brand's own reporting, as relayed by the article. They are still useful as a pattern: a brand that wants younger shoppers goes to the place those shoppers already spend time, and measures store visits, not only views.

Lessons a retailer can use

1. Change the product and the picture together. The campaign moved models, clothes and logos at the same time. A new ad over unchanged clothes does not rebuild a brand.
2. Say what changed, in plain words. "This is Abercrombie & Fitch" is a statement of identity, not a slogan about a sale.
3. Clean the old record. Review your social profiles, search results and listings for the old message and decide what stays.
4. Meet the audience on its platforms. Choose the places your target buyers use, and partner with the format they prefer.
5. Measure what leads to a sale. Store visits and purchase consideration say more than impressions. See our guide to marketing attribution for building a measurement plan.
6. Give it time. A brand reset is a multi-year job. Judge it on trends across quarters.

How to run a smaller version of this

You do not need a national campaign. A small apparel brand can run the same sequence in a month.

1. Write down what people say about your brand today, using reviews, comments and search suggestions.
2. Write the one sentence you want them to say instead.
3. List every public place that still shows the old message: website pages, profiles, directory entries.
4. Update or remove the old items, starting with the ones that rank highest for your brand name.
5. Launch the new message across the website, social profiles and one paid or partnership channel in the same week.
6. Check the same list monthly. Our guide to search engine reputation management shows how to track what searchers see.

Questions about Abercrombie & Fitch marketing

What was Abercrombie & Fitch's 2016 campaign?

"This is Abercrombie & Fitch", a rebrand campaign with more diverse and more fully clothed models, less logo-centric clothing and a redesigned website, backed by digital and outdoor advertising, according to Retail Dive.

Why did Abercrombie delete its Instagram photos?

RetailDetail reported it as part of the effort to remove the company's past image and replace it with the new brand message.

Did Abercrombie use social media advertising?

Yes. The 2016 plan included ads on social media, and in fall 2017 the brand partnered with E! on a Snapchat show.

What can a small clothing brand learn from it?

Change the product and the picture together, clear the old public record, and measure visits and purchase consideration.

Is this page affiliated with the company?

No. It summarises public trade press reports for readers studying retail marketing.

What an assistant says when a shopper asks about the brand

A reset like this lives or dies on whether the new story reaches the places people ask. A shopper who types "is Abercrombie still worth buying" into an assistant gets a paragraph assembled from reviews, press and retailer pages, and it may still carry the older reputation if those sources do. AI Knows Us runs that sort of question about your own clothing brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows the sources behind each answer, which tells you whether your own reset has reached them.