Mind The Gap
There was an astonishing reaction to Gap’s new logo this week, that caused Gap to issue a statement saying “We love our new look but if you have any suggestions, send them in”, which in itself then caused even more reaction (most of it extremely negative) with people understandably questioning whether Gap is in control of its brand. The perception that the new logo ‘cheapened’ the clothes was clearly a worry to Gap’s management and the new logo was hastily replaced by the old logo on its Facebook page.
What went wrong? The new logo is undoubtedly more modern and uses colour in a more sophisticated way, but at a stroke the brand clearly lost some of its essence. Gap has never been the most exciting retailer in the world but has built an enviable reputation for reliability and dependability. The old logo symbolised this – a classic dependable design. Did the brief ask for something more up to date, that was more in tune with today’s customer? Probably. And did the new design deliver on this? Yes. But take away the classic dependability of Gap and you are left with not a lot.
There is a very clear lesson for any brand out there thinking of doing something revolutionary… Consider dropping the r, and instead opt for something evolutionary. Keeping your brand up to date is a lot easier if you do it in stages and then you can avoid the following:
“Hi Bruce- we’ve got a great new logo that’s a huge improvement from the one done 20 years ago under the previous management”
“Isn’t that going to cost a fortune to roll out all at once?”
“It will but it’ll be worth it – think of all the PR we’ll get”
“Do consumers like it?”
“My wife thought it would appeal to the younger generation and we’ll launch it on all that social media stuff like Facebook and Twitter, so they’ll get a sneaky peak before we put it on all our stores. Kids love it when they are involved”
“What’s wrong with the old logo?”
“What’s right with it you mean? It’s old-fashioned – as the agency said – it’s out of touch with the way people live their lives today”
“I’m not sure Frank”
“Trust me on this”
A few days later….
“Hi Bruce. Thanks for your emails. We have had some negative reaction to the new logo, so we’ve taken it off the Facebook page. I’ve run out of budget to get another logo designed so we’re going down the crowdsourcing route. If consumers think that they are suddenly design geniuses, we’ll let them design it for us for free.”
“Frank – you’re fired”