In 1976, Urban Outfitters a soon to be worldwide apparel company was founded by two Philadelphians, Scott Hayne and Scott Belair - the company, originated as ''The Free Peoples Store' offers a variety of compelling and distinct household and clothing merchandise to a niche market and aims to establish, understand and connect with customers on an emotional level. The store, which operate is the US, UK, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden primarily consists of clothing, footwear and houseware which largely draw from bohemian, hipster, ironically humorous, kitschy, retro and vintage styles. Much of their products have a very counter-culture, hip, earthy and unconventional style which is what makes it so unique and popular.
UO's mission statement: "Lifestyle merchandising is our business and our passion, The goal for our brands is to build a strong emotional bond with the customer. To do this we must build lifestyle environment that appeal emotionally, and offer correct products on a timely basis. Our customers are the reason and the inspiration for everything we do"
UO's philosophy is: "Our established ability to understand out customers and connect with them on a emotional level is the reason for our success . The reason for this success is that out brands are both compelling and distinct...Our goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy"
In addition to this they say each brand they have, whether this being UO, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN choose a particular customer segment and once chosen sets out to create sustainable points of distinction.
The company design retail brands with innovative stores that resonate with the target audience: offering an eclectic mix of merchandise in which hard and soft goods are cross merchandised; and construct unique product displays that incorporate found objects into creative selling vignettes. There emphasis is on creativity. And there goal is to offer a product assortment and an environment so compelling and distinctive that the customer feels an empathetic connection to the brand and is persuaded to buy.Urban Outfitters is a publicly traded company owned and chaired by Robert Hayne. He hold the greatest amount of shares in the company at 27.85 million shares. The company is also held by several large investors such as Fidelity Management & Research Company, Maverick Capital Ltd, Vanguard Group and Capital Guardian Trust Company.
Consumer Base:
- Urban Outfitters aims to serve a 18 to 30 year old target market (though appeal to those of a younger age)
- Products for both men and women
- Market generally includes single, affluent people who live in cities with a funky and unique sense of style.
- Defined as "metropolitan hipsters"
- Creative, independent, and tech-savvy
Product Controversies
Urban Outfitters products have been the subject of multiple controversies, particularly concerning religious, ethical and ethnic issues. Over the years, UO, the store aimed at young hipsters has also managed to offend different races, jews, Native Americans, Liberals, conservatives and eating-disorder awareness groups, among others. Many of the offensive designs have been sold through apparell but misc/household items have also had there fair share of controversy for example:
It began in 2003 when the company released a Monopoly parody called Ghettopoly. The game was criticized as racist and quite rightly so - the board game labeled people living in a disadvantaged neighborhoods as 'whores' 'drug addicts' or who would steal properties and cars. 'you got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $5' was just one of the many slogans of the game that caused such uproar. Despite this David Chang, the creator of the game maintained that the games are "a medium to bring together in laughter" adding "if we cant laugh at ourselves...we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness''
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In 2010, Urban Outfitters released a t-shirt with the words “Eat Less” written across it. The store was heavily attacked for promoting anorexia and encouraging young girls to satisfy a specific body image. Back in 2010, this t-shirt created a controversial uproar. Actress Sophia Bush started a world- wide boycott against the store. Since then, the t-shirt has made history all over the internet. As well as this, in 2010, Urban Outfitters designed a t-shirt which came in an “Obama/ Black” color option. Using Obama’s name to describe the color of a black t-shirt offended many. In response to several complaints, Urban Outfitters said they "screwed up, and are sincerely sorry," explaining that they had internally developed a color called "Obama Blue" that accidentally appeared on the website.
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Urban Outfitters issued a statement: "It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such … There is no blood on this shirt nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray."
Kent State issued the following statement: "May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever. We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit. This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today.
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Urban Outfitters have also had a lot of backlash from designers and jewelerry makers outside of Urban Outfitters. In May 2011, Stephanie "Stevie" Koerner, a designer who owns an online store on Etsy, claimed that Urban Outfitters' "I Heart Destination" necklaces were stolen from her "United World Of Love", which both featured metal chain necklaces of various states with heart shaped holes punched in. Blogger April Winchell investigated and discovered that the necklaces featured a common design which a number of other artists, both on and outside of Etsy, had been selling for at least a year prior to Koerner's first sale. Additionally, Winchell drew attention to a commenter's discovery of another instance in which Koerner had claimed credit for a design that was not originally hers. Nevertheless, Urban Outfitters removed the product from their online store.
After similar shirts came out branding anorexia, depression the media started to catch on, in January of 2014 The Guardian published the online article 'Don't shop at Urban Outfitters. their 'Depression' shirt is latest controversy.' The article written by Jessica Wakeman heavily discusses the matter at hand saying that 'once a year or more, a fresh outrage erupts on the internet after one of their (urban outfitters) products is deemed offensive'. The article then goes onto discuss the fact that Urban Outfitters only sold the piece of clothing with depression on it with the brand name emblazoned all over it. The article pushes across that Urban Outfitter could make a 'week argument' about how they were trying to raise awareness about mental health when really they just wanted the publicity.
Urban Outfitters has now been faced with a 15% down fall is shares. The retailer revealed that sales at its namesake brand are continuing to plunge. The companies third-quarter earnings could be negatively affected by disappointing sales, UO said in a news release that sales fell 10% in the last quarter alone. The brand is facing big issues but PRc companies have looked out their issues and how UO can begin to improve for example -
Urban Outfitters need to sell hip, trendy apparel in order to bring in customers. But Urban Outfitters latest offering have been more obscure than hip - bizarre apparell has been sold from time to time for prices beyond reasonable. It has also been said that Urbans fitness brand created in the response to the popularity of existing brand was criticized for being overpriced and skimpy.
In addition to this, Urban Outfitters markets to teen customers. Unfortunately, those customers are price-conscious and would rather shop at fast-fashion brands like River Island and H&M.In order to turn business around, Urban Outfitters will have to resonate with older customers who are in college and beyond. Urban Outfitters CEO Richard Hayne said that the brand plans to improve store displays and advertisements.
After the controversial tshirts sold in the past decade, Hayne said that the brand is working to fix fashion assortment and get customers back in stores.
