Last week, controversial comments made a while ago by Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, resurfaced. He said:

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

And then came this little gem about the company’s hiring practices:

“… we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”

Here’s why I love what he said. It’s very simple:

• He let me know his values and the values of the company.
• The values are not in line with mine.
• I get to teach my kids why we won’t shop there.

And here’s what became even more engrained in my mind last week: How a person operates in the world dictates their brand. It’s important to take a stand, but there is a difference between that and being hateful. There is a difference between creating a brand that is aspirational versus exclusionary.

So thank you Mike Jeffries, for being absolutely clear on where you stand, because now I get to vote with my money.

© 2013 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing