American Apparel is a clothing brand that has been founded by Dov Charney in 1989. He began to make waves as he challenged labour standards by paying higher wages and providing his employees with benefits (Zerbo, 2015). Soon after, Dov had expanded into direct consumer retails and underwent expansion, states Zerbo (2015).
American Apparel is known for its audacious ads since the start, and to this day had helped built the company’s identity. “Campaigns that featured girls wearing next-to-nothing were the new norm – for American Apparel, at least, and once merely suggestive ads eventually became much more blatant and attention grabbing” (Zerbo, 2015).
In 2014, however, the company had to fire Dov Charney – founder and CEO at that …show more content…
He had been terminated due to sexual and financial misconduct. CNBC writes that “American Apparel 's board of directors suspended Charney as CEO a year ago, citing his misuse of company funds, violation of company policy and misuse of corporate assets, and in December the board terminated him” (“American Apparel details allegations of sexual misconduct by ousted CEO,” 2015). Charney has been known for his odd sexual behaviours since 2004 states Peterson & Lutz, “when a writer for Jane magazine published a now-infamous story in which Charney allegedly masturbated in front of her and engaged in oral sex with another employee.” (2014). Following soon after, in 2005, his former employees claimed he had exposed himself to them and held meetings in his underwear which led to another three sexual harassment cases. (Peterson & Lutz, 2014). This is the behaviour and marketing strategies that have been used for years to reach out to their prime consumers – …show more content…
The company has managed its advertisement campaigns efficiently without overtly sexualizing female models. However, the company still has a long way to go if it wishes to keep competing with other clothing companies like the GAP, and Abercrombie and Fitch. In 2014, American Apparel experienced a bankruptcy and obtained a new CEO – Paula Schneider.
Prior to the new management, American Apparel demonstrated strong objectification of women through advertisements that were rendered ineffective. Among those who were surveyed, about 85% felt that the ads were selling sex or objectifying women despite being a clothing brand.
Supported by the findings and conclusions of this study, the following recommendations are offered in the form on an action plan to increase sales revenue and produce effective advertisements.
Financial Actions
1. Close stores that are under-performing. This will provide money to invest elsewhere within the business where its benefited appropriately.
2. Lower the number of labour workers to save costs of overtime. American Apparel have spent millions of dollars for overtime on labour workers. Lowering the number of labour workers will save money can be utilized in paying off the debt from the company’s 2014