No. 007: Abercrombie is your HS bully that's now a gajillionaire

plus Bridgerton meets Skims, facial fitness gum, and I think we're over Scooter Braun?

🧲 OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

I’ve been seeing more and more brands “break the fourth wall” with brand launches via fake leaked internal emails.

Charlotte Tilbury is the latest brand to do this. For their latest launch for “Unreal Skin”, they sent a fake leaked email to their entire list.

It’s been all over my LinkedIn, and it’s definitely a divisive move — some people love the fact that it breaks through the noise and others feel like it’s a violation of consumer trust.

Deuxmoi x Violet Grey did this yesterday too to announce their launch of a new signature scent.

Personally, I think it’s genius. Fans of the brand will feel like they’re being let in on a little secret (especially because they’re actually getting a new product to be excited about). Plus, the campaign went super viral so joke’s on the haters.

It’s a fun tactic, but I can definitely see it being overdone and being the most annoying thing ever. Dear Marketers, let’s please not kill this trend.

🍿 BRAND NEWS

Nicola Coughlan for Skims

• Nicola Coughlan, the Bridgerton star, is the new face of Skims in an otherworldly campaign. Say what you will about Kim, but she’s always getting celebs to be the face of her brand right at their peak

• Hate sponsored content? Your TikTok ads are going get even weirder, with AI versions of your favorite creators on the way

• Speaking of… McDonald’s is getting rid of its AI cashiers as part of their 1000 store test, saying that they made way too many mistakes. McDonald’s is still bullish on AI, just with someone that’s not IBM. Ouch.

• Scooter Braun is no longer managing talent, so you can’t convince me that Taylor Swift has more power than god

• Tyler the Creator and Parachute Home collab on a home collection that feels whimsical, colorful and perfect for both brands

• Actress Kerry Washington joins as an advisor to Vaginal wellness company Stix, now called Winx Health

• In similar news, CPG candy company Behave announced that Busy Philipps is their new Investor & Advisor. We’ve seen moves like this before with brands like Kin and Loops… may be due for a deep dive on this trend.

• Glossier launched a fun summer capsule collection in bright orange and green, inspired by the French Riviera.

• I learned that facial fitness gum is a big hit with teen boys who want snatched jawlines, per The Cut. May have to test and report back.

• TikTok star Corporate Natalie is the star of Dunkin’ Donut’s latest summer campaign with Will Arnett. It’s kind of meta as they’re training a group of actual pop culture experts from music, art, food, and gaming who will release real products for Dunkin’ through the summer

Corporate Natalie x Will Arnett is a duo I for one never saw coming

🎯 DEEP DIVE: HOW ABERCROMBIE WROTE THE PLAYBOOK ON A BRAND COMEBACK

source: Teen Vogue

Context

Abercrombie & Fitch was most definitely the quintessential millennial bully of the 2000s. Everything they made was “destroyed,” looked best on a size 0 body, and prohibitively expensive for the average high schooler. The smell of the stores gave you a headache, and the store workers were paid to ignore you while they dutifully fixed the “jean wall” (I worked at evil twin Hollister, so I am intimately familiar).

But the Abercrombie of 2024 looks, feels, and smells nothing like this. The brand has undergone a huge transition since its change in leadership in 2017 and has made a comeback that Wall Street is super excited about. In fact, according to Business Insider, their stock is beating Nvidia’s.

The Details

• In 2014, Mike Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014 after the company’s performance declined for 11 straight quarters

• In 2017, retail vet Fran Horowitz joined as CEO and set things straight, with a plan to listen to customers and adapt for the times

• In 2023, Abercrombie & Fitch stock was trading at about $32. Now it's above $180; shares are up nearly 100% this year alone.

• Morning Consult says that Abercrombie's favorability among millennials reached a record high in the first quarter of 2024

Hot Take 🌶️

It’s a tale as old as time. When a business is working, CEOs love to take credit. When a business isn’t, they blame the market. (There’s a psych term for this as it relates to human behavior and it’s called Fundamental Attribution Error).

Fran Horowitz and her team didn’t do this; she took accountability and realized the business itself had to change if it wanted to survive.

This ability to get honest with yourself is the mark of a good leader.

Here’s Abercrombie’s playbook for success; it’s one that I think many struggling brands would be smart to adopt.

(Also I think they should write a book).

🗓 Adapted to the times — campaigns and imagery no longer feature the “sexually-charged imagery of the 90’s”, but rather models with diverse skin tones and body types. It feels like consumers can actually see themselves wearing the clothes they’re being sold.

🎓 Grew with the core audience — they knew high-schoolers had historically been their core demo, but instead of staying there, they grew with their audience, now in their mid to late 20’s. They’re creating clothes that work with their audience’s current lifestyle (dating, starting new jobs, getting promoted and getting married). Their clothes really reflect these lifestyle changes — their Wedding Shop drives a ton of volume and they have a Pride Collection that doesn’t feel cringe or try hard.

“We watch the reviews and hauls of our products. We take notes of how people describe the quality and fit. There’s an authenticity innate to TikTok and its entire community that has allowed us to humanize Abercrombie,” Carey Collins Krug, Abercrombie Brands' senior vice president and head of marketing, tells Teen Vogue

👖 Improved product quality — they aren’t just talking the talk. They’ve invested a TON in making their jeans the best they can be (and they are all over TikTok). Curve Love, designed to be inclusive with stretch and flattering silouhettes, makes up 50% of their denim sales. It feels a bit like a trojan horse strategy, where they focused on making one thing really well and, over time, expanded into new categories.

I love to see an iconic brand win on actually improving their products, offerings, and brand identity — not on gimmicks — so I’m here for it.

P.S. I’ll reveal the results in next week’s issue. Last week, 50% of you thought the Chipotle CEO’s response was “awful” while 50% of you were “somewhere in between.”

✨ MUSINGS

• The Hermes episode of the Acquired podcast is so good and also absolutely nuts. Yes, it’s 4 hours (listen on 1.5x), but it really explains the allure of the brand. The TLDR; they are growing like crazy (they tripled from 2010-2023); it’s a family-run business, the craftsmanship is what you’re paying for, they don’t care that demand > supply (but they’re not creating that scarcity, the bags are truly a work of art).

• The Cut did an interesting piece on Remembers vs Forgetters and the pros and cons of each. As someone who is a chronic Forgetter, I loved the idea that I experience things in the moment but it won’t stick around for very long. I always say it’s a blessing and a curse and this article definitely confirms it

• Surgeon General Vivek Murthy just wrote an Oped for the NYT and wants to require a warning label on social media platforms, saying they’re as addictive & potentially harmful as cigarettes (which has been confirmed). It sounds extreme, but I kind of agree with him; social media should be a choice, not something kids stumble into without knowing

🎲 ONE LAST THING

10/10 packaging!!!!! also I love that little bag sm.

I’m such a Merit Beauty fan and this article about them was so interesting. At a time when Glossier was owning “millennial pink” (IYKYK) and Kardashian “maximal beauty” was all the rage Merit went against the grain and targeted a more sophisticated consumer who wanted to keep things simple. Their focus was on fast, easy and wearable everyday makeup — a “pragmatic approach to beauty.”

But luxury didn’t automatically mean expensive — Merit kept their prices 30% lower than similar labels in the luxury beauty market, like Westman Atelier and others.

Now they’re focused on growth in global markets like Paris and it sounds like they’ll go into skincare next. It kind of feels like Rhode is following a similar path, but for a younger (Gen Z) consumer. What do you guys think?

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have a great week.

- Sabena