The Gap Inc. was founded in 1969 in San Francisco, California. It is an American clothing and accessories brand that is now available worldwide. The company started off with the brand only introducing Gap jeans first and when that gained recognition and certain position in the market, there was no stopping with the expansion of Gap. The company kept on growing by bringing innovation in fashion and today it is a global fashion brand that has almost 5 other brands under its banner.
Gap has gained very high brand equity in the world of fashion retail outlets around the world and that can be identified through following factors:
Brand Awareness
The brand awareness for Gap has increased with each passing year as the brand has been in the market for many years now. It has gained a very good place in certain world ranking in terms of fashion. However, it can be noted that there were some years in this journey that Gap started losing its identity and fame but through its innovation and effective marketing strategies, it was able to regain their brand awareness by catering to even wider audience than before.
Brand Loyalty
Gap has always been very eager in gaining its customer’s loyalty and it has had that for many years, until in the past few years, it was a comparatively down time for the company. But, just recently, by introducing their loyalty cards and programs, Gap was able to sustain their customers and even increase their customer base. Through these programs, customers feel connected to the brand and they have a reason to shop again and maintain long-term relationships with the brand.
Brand Image
Gap was always depicted as a ‘cool’ brand in terms of fashion, because of which it was without any effort popular among the teenagers and the young generation. It has been able to successfully maintain that image for a very long time because of its products as well as advertising. There has been debated recently that Gap has lost that image because it has started to cater all the age groups and income groups. This made them lose their focus on target market. But, recently they have worked immensely on their image as they wanted to revamp their image in the consumer’s minds. And they were successful in doing that through the kind of advertising efforts that they put in as well as the shopping experience that they provide now.
Brand Elements
The famous ‘Gap’ logo has been the style icon for many years, specifically in the 90s as among the young generation that felt that wearing clothing with that logo made them part of the cool slot. Moreover, that logo became a classic Gap style and remained like that for many years. This helped them build a reputation among their consumers of being the cool brand. Even today, a lot of people recognize the brand through that logo, even if they have never worn Gap. This says a lot about their brand equity around the world.
References
Be the world’s favorite for American style. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from http://www.gapinc.com/content/gapinc/html/aboutus.html
GAP Ranking. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.rankingthebrands.com/Brand-detail.aspx?brandID=364
KristinaMonllos. (2015, June 17). The Gaps Biggest Problem Is That It Lost Its Brand Identity. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/gaps-biggest-problem-it-lost-its-brand-identity-165367/
New Gap Inc. Loyalty Program Beta Goes Live in Two Markets. Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://adressed.gapinc.com/blog/new-gap-inc-loyalty-program-beta-test-bright-rewards