A poll of RetailWire readers last week found that 54 percent thought Gap Inc. made a mistake when it decided to dump its old logo in favor of a new one. As it turns out, Gap management came to the same conclusion and is going back to the original.
The retailer came under intense criticism after the new logo was unveiled last week and announced that it might make changes after going the crowdsourcing route. That too, the chain decided, was a mistake.
"We've learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn't the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing," said Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, in a statement. "There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we'll handle it in a different way."
Gap's management has come under criticism for how it handled the new logo launch and its subsequent decision to go back to the original.
"Management, in my humble opinion, should not have tapped instantly into the world of social networking to gather feedback on the logo alteration before it was out there for a few months. I think management should have been management, meaning launch the new logo, put it on the shopping bags, in store, online signage, and on the airwaves," wrote Brian Sozzi, an analyst with Wall Street Strategies, in a research note. "By the end of the holiday season I fancy many consumers would have reacted positively to the new Gap, maybe perhaps forgetting what the old logo was altogether. It's nice to have social media to accumulate intelligence, but if management would have put the revised logo out there, executed upon the delivery to consumers, I think the outcome would have been much different."
Discussion Question: What lessons are there to be learned about managing brands in the era of social media based on the Gap experience?