“Some of the greatest things we’ve done are mistakes. It’s just trial and error,’’ said denim wash specialist, Rob Crews, in one video. Nicole King-Burroughs, a women’s designer who started as an intern at the Gap, proclaims in another video: “My life is just driven around denim.’’
Gap’s campaign comes just as the retail industry is bracing for a back-to-school season in which consumers are expected to cut back spending because of economic woes and rising prices for everything from clothing to food. The is critical for Gap, which used to be a retail darling but is struggling to regain its cache after merchandising misfires, slumping sales and shrinking profits that began well before the recession.
The company’s Gap division hasn’t posted a sales gain on an annual basis since 2005. And In Gap’s most recent quarter, revenue in stores open at least one year — considered a key measure of a company’s financial health — fell 3 percent at Gap brand stores, 1 percent at Banana Republic and 2 percent at Old Navy North America.
Seth Farbman, the chain’s new CMO since February, says the campaign is not a quick fix, but an effort to drive sales and revive Gap’s image, which he says has “lost a bit of relevance.’’ Farbman says the focus of the campaign –- jeans –- is appropriate because they have been one of Gap’s strengths, accounting for about a quarter of the Gap brands revenue.
“This is the start; one step. This campaign begins to put us on the right course,’’ Farbman said. “Longer term, it starts a conversation about the brand.’’
But one analyst said it will take much more than a marketing blitz to turn things around at the chain.
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