The finance chief insisted the fashion firm does not seek to drive customer traffic through price, instead relying on a “battle-tested playbook”.
Abercrombie & Fitch has reaffirmed its commitment to marketing, as the retailer looks to build brands “for the long-term” and steer clear of driving sales through pricing.
CFO Robert Ball said he was “thrilled” with how the company’s marketing function has been delivering in recent times.
“We are funding full-funnel marketing strategies across all three regions to build these brands for the long-term. That’s been our approach,” said Ball, speaking during the brand’s second quarter results today (27 August).
Abercrombie & Fitch has reaffirmed its commitment to marketing, as the retailer looks to build brands “for the long-term” and steer clear of driving sales through pricing.
CFO Robert Ball said he was “thrilled” with how the company’s marketing function has been delivering in recent times.
“We are funding full-funnel marketing strategies across all three regions to build these brands for the long-term. That’s been our approach,” said Ball, speaking during the brand’s second quarter results today (27 August).
He explained this approach would continue as the business moved into the second half of its financial year. During the second quarter, which ended 3 August 2025, Abercrombie & Fitch kept its marketing investment consistent with the same period in the prior year, at around 5% of revenue.
Looking to the rest of the year, the business intends to increase marketing spend by over 100 basis points to drive success for the autumn/winter season and power its partnerships.
Partnerships are a cornerstone of the strategy. Earlier this week Abercrombie & Fitch announced a partnership with American football league, the NFL.
During the second quarter the group saw sales grow 7% to $1.2bn (£891m). The Hollister business delivered its “best ever” second quarter, growing sales by 19%, as the brand successfully tapped into key trends and moments to engage customers.
On the other hand, Abercrombie second quarter sales fell 5%, as the brand lapped sales growth of 26% the previous year. Despite this decline, the brand remains in extremely good shape and is backed by “strong positioning”, according to the leadership team.
The additional investment in marketing and partnerships is designed to drive increased momentum behind both brands.
“We’re on the offence,” said Ball. “We’re going to keep our foot on the gas to continue to drive that traffic and gather those customers.”
No growth through price
While driving customer traffic is a key objective for Abercrombie & Fitch’s marketing team, the business will not resort to low prices or discounting to attract customers. Instead, the focus is on offering wider “value”, said Ball.
“Our customer doesn’t come to us for price,” he said. “We’re not necessarily going to chase traffic and conversion through price. We’re going to try and protect that value proposition.”
The finance chief was answering an analyst question about any potential impact of tariffs and any price increases it might need to make in reaction. Speaking on the impact of tariffs generally, Ball expressed confidence the business is well-equipped to deal with macro challenges, citing the pandemic, inflation and raw goods cost increases as some examples.
“We’ve got a battle-tested playbook and we’ve dealt with a lot of these moments in the past, and we’ve done that while growing the business and improving the financial strength of this company,” he said.
The business also spoke about its strategy for European markets, with CEO Fran Horowitz stating Abercrombie & Fitch had invested “heavily” in the UK in particular.
“We continue to see success in that particular market,” she said. “You know, opening new stores, investing in marketing, very focused on the product. That playbook is getting exported throughout Europe.”
