What the Gap Logo Fiasco Really Means - When Brands Lose the Customer Relationship

In 2008 I wrote about the Gap losing its direction. Two years later, it seems that not much has changed.

If you haven’t taken notice, Gap released its new logo last week—a move that resulted in disbelief from thousands of Gap fans. The logo, reportedly designed by Larid & Partners, a branding agency, looks like “powerpoint 97” according to one commenter on the brand’s facebook page.

Gap, unprepared for the backlash, reacted in a perfect gap-like manner, and immediately announced the new logo was a joke designed to get some buzz.   “We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding!” Said Gap on its Facebook page on October 6th.

A day later, Gap recanted and pointed followers to a blogpost by Marka Hansen, the company’s North America President, in which she acknowledges that perhaps the Gap didn’t do a good job at creating a logo fit for the company’s fans and customers. Hansen announced an upcoming crowd-sourcing design competition to get the logo right.

The Gap, it seems, is trying to make lemonade out of lemons. “This is probably the best thing ever” someone in Marketing must have been saying this past week.

But is it?

For a company in the business of dressing people for over 20 years, Gap has shown remarkable disconnect from the very people it says it serves. A once staple in young people’s closets, Gap has been relying on the well-performing Old Navy and on-again-off-again Banana Republic brand. With high prices, lower quality, and poor selection—fans have become cautious shoppers.

Logo design for a company the caliber of The Gap can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the identity of the company, its essence, and its tradition. For the Gap to release a logo so far from anything Gap stands for in the eyes of its fans can only indicate that the company has still not been able to put in place the right processes and right people to help it figure out how to connect with its fans today.

With over 700,000 fans on Facebook, 35,000 fans on Twitter, and many thousands more email addresses, Gap has had an incredible opportunity to reconnect with its customers and infuse the company with strategy and products that both fit today’s needs and innovate for tomorrow. Instead, Gap has been using these channels as PR and reactive crisis management tools.

The fact that Gap is doing well on its margins and has Old Navy as its cash cow, has most likely slowed down its ability (and incentive) to evolve but it may not be for much longer. Today, Gap needs to let go of its current executives for doing miserably at recapturing the brand’s spirit and bring in people who excel at strategy in a socio-digital world. It should turn the company feet-up and shake it until the old, non-customer centric thinking, leaves for good. Then, it should go back to the business of dressing people and integrate customer-infused design thinking into all of its processes, decision making, and product, until it is back to being the brand of choice for casual Americana.

Comments

[Ignaciosanchez]

Very good comment Ravit, I really think this is a problem that happens with lots of leading brands in the last years, brands with a high presence in the market like Benetton, Avis, some newspapers, etc...that continues saying they care about the client but they don´t really know how to manage expectations and only take care about the new product lines they want to launch, the targets they want to reach...

[Ursula]

there is a disconnect between the executive management team and who the buyers/customers are today. the old way of customer experience, and customer communication doesn't work in this new world. Fundamentally executives don't get this new way of marketing and departments are not geared to take this new way on.

[Ravit Lichtenberg]

@ Ignacio- Thanks! I agree--we're seeing the disconnect between what brands *think* they do and what they do in practice. It will be interesting to see how social media channels and customers' ability to connect with brands more closely will impact change.

@Ursula- Good point! Brings about the need to become more of a "Social Organization" and adjust the corporate structure to meet today's changing ways people expect to interact with brands.

[michael]

all I know is, I couldn't have cared less about the Gap before. I wasn't following them on Twitter or Facebook before the logo fiasco, and I am now. Well done, Gap.

[patrickdh]

Does being the label representing Iconic American style stick today? Obviously not, if you're whole identity is based on that and you visibly ignore its meaning while logo designing.
The disconnect is with identity, and not with customers.

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