Butwhat does it say about the GAP brand itself?
A quick survey of posts and discussion threads across Google will probably give you a good assessment of the current state of the GAP brand over the past five years. It’s trading on a legacy and is directionless and in decline. Sure, it’s still a billion dollar clothing house, booking $2.11b in sales in June but that’s down from $3.71 for the same time in 2019. A fall of near half is not unusual in these Covid times, when retail activity around the world has
either paused or gone into reverse, but it does also expose GAP to its fundamental problem.
What is its brand now and what is its strategy?
Much like JCrew, who recently fell into bankruptcy and administration after years of direction seeking, GAP continues along a well trod middle market path without much strategic and creative direction — neither fashion-leading like European rivals H&M and Zara, both of whom have managed to weather the vagaries of Covid or even price-led like the department stores Sears and Macy’s. The latter more likely than ever now to be suffering even more because of their market spread and reliance on hard real estate.
Put simply, Gap is behaving eponymously. It doesn’t serve a gap in the market, it doesn’t really know anymore what part of the market its appealing to, it’s continually discounting to maintain same store sales and its product isn’t particularly differentiated and not really that interesting — whether it’s the Gap itself or the brands it owns — Banana Republic, Old Navy or even Athleta — they’re all much the same and not very different without their fascias.
So while the Yeezy partnership seems a smart proposition and hopefully will rub off some valuable brand visibility alongside of cheap Yeezy sales volume, it’s only a patch and still doesn’t solve the issue — what is the Gap brand about and what strategy should it be pursuing to more fully differentiate itself in a crowded and a now declining market.
And should, dare I say it — it become GapYeezy and fulfill the dreams of its erstwhile design partner Kanye, who was once the only black employee of a Gap store in his hometown Chicago and may even be more likely than West’s recently announced Presidential bid.
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