Competitive Environment:
American Eagle
Sales:
According to Zacks Investment Research, American Eagle Outfitters( AEO) has a revenue of $3.28 Billion and has a net profit of $80.3 Million. AEO’s expected to Q3 posts are expected to be great. 247wallst.com says that AEO has out preformed that market with stock being up almost 15%. Many financial sites say it is a good time to buy stock thinking it will go up to around $20 dollars. Currently it is at around $15. In the past few years AEO had suffered from lack of foot traffic due to online shopping and fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and H&M
Products:
AEO offers many products and brands. Under the AEO umbrella is a underwear brand called Aerie which is also a partner with a brand called Yellowberry. There is also a pet brand called American Beagle. Recently AEO bought a brand called Tailgate. One thing that is not part of AEO is the Payless shoe brand called American Eagle which AEO has been in a lawsuit over this for trademark infringement.
Positioning:
AEO has done a great job to maintain themselves as a quality brand. They have in the past few years have been able to move away from discounts, which has caused increase in profits. With the addition of Tailgate I think AEO will move to the best quality casual clothing line. Think of gap in early 2000s.
Branding of competition:
Movst of the competition are brands that cannot offer the same quality as provided by AEO. Brands like H&M and Forever 21 may have caused some damage to AEO for a few years but I think people are sick of always rebuying clothing because it was cheaply made or is now out of style. Other competitors have been slow to move like AEO when it comes to moving away from logos and playing with clothing more.
Advertising:
AEO does some TV ads usually during teen shows. They also have a heavy presence on social media like facebook. They also tend to advertise in some magazines like Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen.
Press:
AEO was in press recently when they bought the brand Tailgate. Besides that they have also had some media coverage with their Aerie brand because they said they will no longer touch photos to embrace young girl’s self-esteem issues. Also in April of last year they did an April fool’s joke saying they would create a pet line. They had such a positive feedback that this was something people wanted that they actually make a real pet brand which is American Beagle.
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