For starters, having a logo as iconic as Gap should always be considered a good thing. The blue was warming, inviting earthy even. The font in the middle was just right and whenever I saw it, it reminded me of something that I had gotten from Gap. I remember an old military green jacket I had from there, and when I saw the logo, I would think to myself, “hmm, wish I could get another jacket just like it”. I’m not a marketing major, or anything involving sales, but I know that brand identity, and having a good one is extremely important. Some people only shop at certain places, I am sure Gap is one of them. Changing the logo from the instant probably made some consumers feel alienated, and out of touch with their favorite brand. I’ll give a personal example, I LOVE Jeep’s, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! When my fiance and I bought our first home together, I looked in our driveway and saw her Honda Civic. One day when she was in Kansas City shopping with her parents, I took that silly Honda, and turned it into a Jeep. Now, what if Jeep started making fancy cars, or economy vehicles and mini-vans? I may actually feel cheated, the rugged, boxy looks, the “Trail Rated”, full time 4 wheel drive, solid steel undercarriages. If all of these were gone, I might actually have a massive coronary there on the spot. I do not identify with Gap much besides that old green jacket that I wish I had back, but as I’ve shown, certain brands do appeal to me, and whether it’s a logo change, or a product overhaul, consumers are fickle, creature of comfort beasts.
As for the new/now gone logo, I personally did not like it. It looked to me like it would be a logo for someplace I would buy a computer or a cell phone. It did look trendy and techie but nothing about it made me feel like my green jacket, or comfy jeans. Someone else should ask for the rights to that logo and slap their name on it and sell a million high end tech gadgets, cell phones, or computers a day. They said they were trying to reach the 20-30’s generation and give it a more, savvy, techie feel. They did succeed in that, in fact they hit the nail right on the head. Unfortunately it had nothing to do with their clothing line. If they want to bring in new customers, why not a partial line overhaul? I’ll give another example that involves my beloved Jeep’s. Around a decade ago, they started to give all Jeep’s a rounded, bubble look to them. Sales increased for a short time, then they fell off. It seems Jeep, just like Gap is something that people can relate to and they are part of their personal identity.
The financial implications of this logo swap are absurd. Every single thing, billboards, signage outside, inside, every single tag on their clothing would have to be changed.
Financial highlights
Despite a challenging economic environment, Gap Inc.
delivered its third consecutive year of double-digit earnings
per share growth in fiscal year 2009. The earnings results
were driven by improved sales in the fourth quarter and
continued margin improvement. We ended the year with
$2.3 billion in cash and no debt..
I pulled this directly from Gap’s site. Since all earnings and debt are public record I thought it would be pretty neat to see just how “bad” things had gotten for them. Look at this next part from their sales records carefully, they are doing just fine. Gap Inc. is all encompassing, it includes sales figures from all of their brands.
Comparable store sales for September 2010 were as follows:
| • | Gap North America: negative 1 percent versus negative 8 percent last year |
| • | Banana Republic North America: flat versus negative 12 percent last year |
| • | Old Navy North America: negative 5 percent versus positive 13 percent last year |
| • | International: positive 3 percent versus negative 4 percent last year |
| | |
| | |
| | Year-to-date net sales were $9.12 billion for the thirty-five weeks ended October 2, 2010, an increase of 3 percent compared with net sales of $8.82 billion for the thirty-five weeks ended October 3, 2009. The company’s year-to-date comparable store sales increased 2 percent compared with a 6 percent decrease last year. |
This does not seem like a brand in trouble to me. An overall 2% increase year-to-date, versus a 6% decrease? That’s an 8% swing in the positive direction and they were willing to scrap a logo for one of their brands over 6 months in sales declines. A lot of times in these business deals, there is some underlying factor effecting the situation, such as, before sales figures dropped they paid someone a gagillion dollars to update their branding and were just biting at the right time to launch it. I’m no numbers genius but an 8% positive swing and 2.3 billion in cash with no debt is amazing in this terrible economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment