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Abercrombie and Flinch

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That may be the perverse genius of Abercrombie & Fitch's guerrilla marketing, many of its admirers say. The strategy works like this: Create a controversy that stirs up a buzz around the brand name. Apologize, or not, for any offense caused. Then watch as curious shoppers swarm the stores.

The theory is that increased foot traffic will almost always lead to extra sales. Which is why market watchers hip to the "buzz effect" rush to buy the stock. The company won't confirm any added foot traffic following the Asian T-shirts affair, but shares hit $33.30, a 52-week high, on April 18 -- the day A&F pulled the shirts from its stores.

The retailer with the college-age clientele has consistently denied using such tactics to sell what are mostly ordinary chinos, cutoffs, polo shirts and the like.

"We don't seek that kind of publicity," said Hampton Carney, spokesman for the New Albany, Ohio-based company.

But some brand consultants doubt the claim, given A&F's track record.

Consider A&F's risque quarterly maga-logues, magazine-style catalogues the chain sells for $6 a pop. They were launched in 1997 to glamorize the hedonistic collegiate lifestyle on which the company built its irreverent brand image.

One issue featured a "Drinking 101" section with recipes for hard-liquor concoctions such as a "Foreplay." It infuriated Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which prodded A&F to send mea culpa postcards to 700,000 customers.

In all the quarterlies, hard-body models, many recruited from college campuses, frolic naked or lounge nude in suggestive poses. In the most recent "XXX Wet Hot Summer Fun" issue, they tug each other's clothes off underwater.

Bob Jones University banned A&F gear, or at least its logo, from its South Carolina campus two years ago. Michigan's attorney general pushed A&F to shrink-wrap the quarterlies and slap adults-only labels on them. And the Illinois General Assembly adopted a resolution last month urging shoppers to boycott the chain.

After so many incidents, it's tough to believe these contentious public relations battles are anything but intentional, said Doug McIntyre, a partner at Ten United, an advertising firm in Columbus, Ohio.

"It's too well managed a company for these kinds of mistakes," said McIntyre, who added that he did not think the Asian T-shirts were intended to be offensive. Nonetheless, "if they're not aiming for controversy, then they sure do screw up a lot."

Racy catalogues are one thing, but apparel that caricatures an entire race is something else, the company's critics say. What is it about the Abercrombie culture that looks to ethnic groups to find humor to sell clothing?

"We're trying to be irreverent and make people laugh," said Carney, who added that previous seasons' T-shirt collections have featured gags about skiers, Irish Americans and college coaches.

"It's meant to be fun," he said.

Abercrombie's high-wire act could backfire, though, said Laura Moran, a director at strategic-consulting firm Prophet in San Francisco.

"The catalogues pushed right up to the line, but the T-shirts crossed over that line," Moran said. "A crisis like this one can taint a brand over the long term."

Jason Park, a junior at Georgetown University, used to work on and off at the Abercrombie store in Georgetown Park. But when he heard about the shirts, he decided to sever his ties with the company.

"Having them take the shirts off the shelves is not enough," said Park, a Korean American. "The fact that people at top levels of Abercrombie approved it and sold it without a clue it might offend Asian Americans is the most troubling part."

Park might consider returning to the store if Abercrombie meets certain demands drawn up by a collection of Asian American student groups across the country. The groups want the company to increase diversity in its catalogues and ads. They want a full-page apology from the company in all major national newspapers. And they want the retailer to engage in more philanthropic work.

A&F's popularity and all the flare-ups, including this one, have taken place on the watch of chief executive Michael Jeffries. Jeffries declined an interview request, but those who know him say the 57-year-old executive is a grown-up version of his customer, down to the flip-flops he wears to the office.

Abercrombie has been a moneymaker since 1994, two years after Jeffries took over and revamped the brand for affluent college kids.

The idea was radical for a company founded in 1892 as a supplier of outdoor gear to upper-crust sportsmen such as Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway.

But the brand was a money loser by the time Limited Inc. purchased it in 1988. The retail giant tried to position A&F as a men's clothing chain and then branching into preppy women's wear, without much success.

That was until Jeffries came along -- after a stint at then-bankrupt retailer Paul Harris Inc., a shot at running his own chain, Alcott & Andrews, and a long run at Federated Department Stores Inc.

Jeffries hired his own team of fashion designers. He tapped superstar fashion photographer Bruce Weber for the playful co-ed shots on the walls of stores (and now for its maga-logues).

In 1998, Limited spun off A&F, which posteda $168.7 million profit last year,up from $158 million the previous year. Its sales totaled $1.36 billion last year, a 10 percent increase over the year before.

The "fake controversies" that A&F has mastered usually upset the kinds of people their customer does not want to be, said Lee Peterson, a retail consultant formerly with the Limited. The company "conveys an anti-adult sentiment in its purest form," he added.

That's how it hopes to distinguish itself in an increasingly crowded, notoriously fickle and extremely fragmented teen retail market, said Richard Leonard, vice president of Zandl Group, a market research firm in New York.

Even when A&F's popularity peaked in 1999, it captured only 7 percent of shoppers aged 13 to 24, said Leonard, citing Zandl's annual survey of young shoppers. The number dropped to 5 percent last year as rivals -- other specialty retailers, discount stores, department stores among them -- gained ground. No retailer had more than 3 percent.

All are vying for attention from the nation's 32 million teens (ages 12 to 19), who spent $172 billion of their own money and their parents', according to Teenage Research Unlimited in North Brook, Ill.

The store may have lost Linda Jong, a Georgetown University student. She said she plans never to visit Abercrombie again, even if the company gives in to the student groups' demands.

Nonetheless, "we really hope they will respond," said Jong, 21, who helped organize a protest in front of one Abercrombie Georgetown store last month.

Carney, A&F's spokesman, said anyone who calls the company to protest will receive a call back apologizing.

Carney pointed out that the company pulled the Asian shirts without hesitation and profusely apologized for the lapse in judgment. A&F is getting calls protesting the shirts, he said, but it still gets hundreds of calls a day, if not more, asking to buy the shirts. A Korean American was part of the team that come up with the concept.

The company, he adds, embraces all ethnicities and lifestyles, Carney added. As proof, he points to the2000 holiday maga-logue. It features a fictional lesbian wedding.

Researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.