Summary: Advertising Age asked
experts how they would try and save the ailing Gap brand.
How Would You Fix the
Gap?
'Ad Age' Asks the
Experts and Its Readers
By Mya Frazier
Published: January 10, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio
(AdAge.com) -- Can the ailing Gap brand be saved? Published reports that $16
billion Gap Inc. might be on the block -- and may consider a private-equity play
or a break-up of its brand trio, Gap Stores, Banana Republic and Old Navy --
prompted Advertising Age to ask the experts what they would do to repair the
sales gulf at Gap.
Paco Underhill, author of "Why We Buy" and founder and CEO of behavioral
research firm Envirosell, New York: "They have to stick with Monday through
Friday, which is where America works and plays, and not be distracted by
Saturday night. They have to be in the uniform business rather than the costume
business. They have to follow their customers. I wouldn't compete with
Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle. I would focus on Gen Xers and boomers."
Lee Peterson, VP-brand and creative services at WD Partners, a retail design and
development firm in Columbus, Ohio: "I'd hire better merchants and close some
stores and spin off Banana Republic. There is too much similarity to the Gap and
Old Navy, which goes back to the merchant problem. If you made a hard-core
effort to hire some merchants, you could start to turn things around. They just
have too many stores, and their fashion sense is just awful. If their target
customer is really baby boomers and just below that cusp -- something like 80
million people -- they are just clueless to what those people like."
Joseph Beaulieu, retail analyst at Morningstar, Chicago: "They need to be less
low-end at Old Navy. The store is starting to look like a cheap discount store.
If you freed the Gap brand from having to avoid competing with Banana Republic
at the high end and Old Navy at the low end, that could improve their target
focus. They have these three segmented brands and don't want them to step on
each other. It's more of positioning and merchandise issue."
Kerry Feuerman, creative director at Fallon, Minneapolis: "I'd live in the
practical, and create campaigns for the next fashion season, but that's
defensive. Offensively, I would have a team creating an image for them that is
above and beyond clothing. If you can penetrate deeper, beyond 'Do I look cool?'
and stand for something deeper, there's a long-term benefit to that. They are
missing some form of reason to believe in the brand beyond the faded jeans and
the new hoodie of the month."
Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of "Small Is the New Big and 183 Other
Riffs, Rants and Remarkable Business Ideas," via e-mail: "I don't think it can
be done. The Gap represented a movement. It nationalized something regional at
the same time they profited from the death of business dress. Both are over,
quirkiness is back, and that's that."
Love Goel, a former Federated executive who heads Growth Ventures Group, a
Minnesota-based investment firm: "I would work to really understand what
customers want. You need people who understand the product, but the Gap has
gotten so reliant on analytics and data, I would bring a balance to fashion
merchandising and analytics. You can't let just data and analytics drive the
business. You can't just have computer programming figuring out what the right
assortment is for the season. I would also move into direct marketing and
internet advertising and shift away from mass advertising on TV, which is too
expensive."
