Abercrombie and Fitch was first established as an outdoor gear shop in 1892 and has gone on to become one of the most dominant casual luxury clothing stores. It has  a lot of loyal customers and a strong brand image because it produces consumer centric products. A&F works towards providing the customers with value by producing high quality products that are very sustainable. The company uses higher quality inputs to produce and makes sure to provide customers a benefit that exceeds the cost. In other words, A&F wants the value perceived by customers to be higher than the value the customers perceive from competitors’.

Another key element that Abercrombie and Fitch uses to further strengthen brand image and create a strong point of difference is by providing the customers with one of the most unique in-store experiences in comparison to its competitors American Eagle, Aeropostale, The Gap, etc. The company uses dim lighting, loud abstract music, and a distinct smell to capture the consumers’ senses and provide them with a very distinct experience that further helps strengthen the brand image and establish a very strong point of difference.  This establishes a wall around A&F in the market and it helps establish a long term strategy that keeps the competitors from mimicing them and creating a similar in-store experience.

After releasing the long-awaited iPhone 5S and 5C, Apple ups its supply chain technology to get a leg up on the competition.

The following blog post references a Bloomberg article which outlines the new methods used by Apple:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-13/apple-s-10-5b-on-robots-to-lasers-shores-up-supply-chain.html

The $10.5 billion dollar investment proves that Apple is serious about improving its supply chain management. The new equipment will polish iPhones, and use laser technology to carve the aluminum body of the MacBook line. In addition, it will also test the camera lens on iPhones.

From a marketing perspective, this makes sense for Apple. The company’s iPhone product line is known to consistently have better build quality than its peers. This is a point of emphasis for consumers like myself when purchasing a phone. Adding new technology to improve the manufacturing process further separates Apple from its closest smartphone competitor, Samsung. Ironically, Samsung has been questioned for putting out smartphones with poor build quality. The new supply chain investment by Apple with further add value to their products since it is more efficient than their previous method and also provides increasingly rigorous testing. This will add to customer satisfaction because there will a lower chance that customers receive a defective product. In turn, this could potentially increase brand loyalty among consumers because they receive well-built phones.