Viva’s Blog: Learn from Gap’s mistake

Last week, Gap, one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, introduced a new logo. Within a short week, the jean machine pulled the new logo (bottom logo) and replaced it with its traditional, iconic blue box (top logo).

What went wrong?

Not everything. Gap attracted the attention of some of the big names in news from the New York Times to Ad Age to influential marketing blogs. Free PR isn’t a bad thing. However, had Gap not made this blunder, the press would have been far more positive and their audience would have felt much more connected.

Gap focused on the logo instead of the conversation.

Gap’s customers hang out on social media sites. Social media has shifted marketing from a one-way experience, a la traditional media, to a two-way dialogue. Today’s consumer has an unprecedented level of influence over brands. When Gap introduced the new logo online without an explanation, people saw it and immediately started to voice their disapproval. Gap could have pre-empted the avalanche of negative comments by sharing the back story with the debut of the logo. Why did they feel a need to change their logo? What were they hoping to achieve? Why this one? Consumers are savvy. They want to know the ‘whys’ behind marketing decisions and then have a conversation. Imagine how connected to the brand they’d feel if they could voice their opinions and hear Gap’s point-of-view. Gap could’ve shared the “runner-up” and explained what it lacked. There are so many ways the company could’ve created an emotional connection with their audience for virtually no cost. Instead, Gap dropped its new logo and ran.

Learn from their mistake.