AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS

'American Eagle Outfitters' is an retailer based in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The brand dates back to 1904, but took its current form in 1977 when it was reorganized in Pittsburgh's north suburbs. At one time, it sold brands such as Oshkosh in the early 1980s, similar to Gap selling Levi's.

Contents

Background

Other Brands

aerie

AE All-Access pass

Competition

Celebrity endorsements

Company growth

Notes

External links

Background

American Eagle Outfitters is now commonly referred to by the abbreviation "American Eagle" or simply "AE" rather than its full title. American Eagle sells a full collection of apparel that includes basics such as jeans, cargo pants, and graphic tees, as well as accessories, outerwear, and footwear targeting the 15 to 25-year old demographic, primarily under the American Eagle Outfitters® and AE® brand names. The brand is ranked #2 in sales to its target demographic behind Old Navy, according to the NPD Group. People from about 12 to 34 shop at the company's stores.
The majority of American Eagle Outfitters stores can be found in shopping centers, and lifestyle centers. On January 29, 2006, American Eagle Outfitters operated 869 stores in the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.^[1] In Canada, there are 71 stores. The company also operates a website on which it offers the same clothing, often with additional sizes and styles not found in the physical stores.
Chairman of the Board Jay L. Schottenstein (who also has interests in Retail Ventures, which owns Value City stores and DSW) and related members of the Schottenstein, Deshe, and Diamond families own 14% of American Eagle, including shares owned beneficially through SEI, Inc.
American Eagle Outfitters' designs can be described as a mix of preppy, athletic and casual, commonly referred to in the industry as a "retro" style. It offers a full collection of products ranging from basic t-shirts, polos, wovens, cargos, corduroys, denims and shoes to more trendy and vintage-inspired graphics and logo-driven tops and distressed or hand-finished denims.

Other Brands

In addition to its namesake brand, American Eagle, the company has developed and announced plans for several new brand and concept initiatives poised to drive new growth as the American Eagle brand nears saturation in current markets. One already launched brand being aerie.
The company's second stand-alone lifestyle concept, Martin + Osa, launched in the fall of 2006, targets men and women 25 to 40 years of age.
The company has also indicated that a third lifestyle concept is in development that analysts speculate could be aimed at Baby Boomers (Born during 1945–65 period), and may offer homewares.
In the year 2001, the company acquired a Canada-based retail concept called Bluenotes, which has approximately 100 stores averaging 3,300 square feet. The concept targeted a slightly younger demographic, ages 12-22, and was positioned as a denim-driven urban/suburban lifestyle brand. Due largely to poor performance, the Bluenotes business was sold to YM Inc. in 2004.

aerie

aerie was announced in February 2006 as an intimate apparel sub-brand offering bras, panties, and dormwear targeting American Eagle's core 15- to 25-year-old demographic segment. The sub brand's name, aerie, means eagle's nest and well reflects the sub-brand.
The side-by-side aerie/American Eagle stores will no longer be built as the aerie brand has been so successful that only stand-alone stores will be constructed to separate the lingerie line from its parent American Eagle. New stand-alone aerie shops are almost twice the size of previously constructed side-by-side locations, and aerie is rapidly expanding throughout malls in the US.

AE All-Access pass

In September 2005, American Eagle Outfitters announced the All-Access Pass program. Customers are given a physical “All-Access Pass”, which is about the size of a credit card. If you register online for the AE All-Access Pass, you will be prompted to print off a temporary pass, while the actual card will be mailed to you in 2-3 weeks. Customers receiving the pass are also given two cards for their key rings and multiple stickers for MP3 players as well as Cell phones. Customers earn points when they present the card to the cashier at the store or enter the card number while checking out at AE.com. Each type of product earns a different amount of points – for example, jeans are worth 20 points. If you collect 50 points, you'll receive 10% your next purchase, 100 points earns you 20% off next purchase, and so on and so forth. Customers can earn coupons up to 40% off and 15% off around birthdays. The rewards are mailed out 4 times a year: in December, March, June, and September.

Competition

American Eagle Outfitters is often compared to the clothing companies Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister, due to their similar styles, marketing techniques, and targeted consumer demographic, as well as the department store private label brands Arizona Jean Company (JC Penney) and American Rag (Macy's).
American Eagle Outfitters brands much of their clothing with an embroidered landing eagle, similar to Abercrombie and Fitch's standing moose, Hollister Co.'s seagull, and Aeropostale's butterfly for females and bulldog for males. Additionally, American Eagle emphasizes on their date of establishment, 1977, in their marketing and design, branding the majority of their products with the date.
In 2007, textile and apparel workers union UNITE HERE launched the "American Vulture" back-to-school boycott of American Eagle [1] in protest of alleged workers' rights violations at the company's Canadian distribution contractor National Logistics Services (NLS).

Celebrity endorsements

Justin Timberlake, Eric West, Drew Barrymore, Ashton Kutcher, Scott Baio, Nat Wolff, Eric Roberts, KC Ewald, Tyler "the Legend" and Eva Longoria are all known to wear American Eagle Outfitters. ^[2] Currently the Australian musician Ben Lee is involved with AE and has been wearing shirts proclaiming their slogan "Live Your Life" to his concerts. The All-American Rejects also did a free acoustic concert in the American Eagle store on the Third Street Promenade in July 2006 as promotion. The characters in various new episodes of CTV's ''Degrassi'' also wear the clothing. For example the character of Jackson on the Disney show ''Hannah Montana'' and people on the Nickelodeon show ''Unfabulous'' have sported various shirts showing the AE logo of the eagle. American Eagle also provided the wardrobe for a few seasons of the WB series ''Dawson's Creek''. American Eagle is also the official sponsor of MTV's ''Spring Break'', and has outfitted numerous casts of both ''The Real World'' and ''Road Rules''. American Eagle has also partnered with MTV for the latest season of ''The Real World''. During the new season there will be mini episodes previewed of a new comedy called "It's a Mall World" and full episodes available online after the show. The show focuses on an employee from an AE store along with other retail stores in a Middle America mall. The show is directed by ''Heroes'' star Milo Ventimiglia. Wanda from the Canadian show ''Corner Gas'' almost always wears AE clothing and are easily identifiable on screen as such. Billy Bob Thornton wore an American Eagle polo in the movie Bad News Bears. American Eagle was also featured in an episode of NBC's ''The Apprentice''. American Eagle has also occasionally provided the wardrobe for ''Uranium''. On the television show Drake and Josh, Josh Peck wears a orange and blue American Eagle polo during the episode The Drake and Josh Inn.

Company growth

AE expanded internationally by entering into Canada after acquiring some Dylex divisions in 2000 (Thrifty's, Braemar & National Logistics).
In January 2007, the company announced that it will accelerate the expansion of aerie by American Eagle with the opening of at least 15 stand-alone locations in 2007. Launched in September, the new intimates sub-brand, featuring a full line of undies, bras and dorm-wear, is designed to be sweetly-sexy. The brand has been met with strong customer acceptance. The company's expansion plans are based on the positive results of three aerie stand-alone test stores. If new stores continue to perform as well as the test stores, aerie could be a 350+ store chain by 2012. In the fourth quarter, American Eagle opened eight new AE stores and remodeled 20 locations
In 2006, 42 new AE stores opened and 65 remodels were completed. Together with five new MARTIN + OSA stores, and three new aerie stand-alone test stores, total gross square footage increased 8% for the year. In 2007, the company plans to open 45 to 50 AE stores, at least 15 aerie stand-alone stores and approximately 12 new MARTIN + OSA stores. Additionally, approximately 45 AE store remodels are planned, which combined with new store openings will generate total 2007 square footage growth of approximately 10%.

Notes

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External links

★ Official site