The plan with the GAPing hole

Not long ago, GAP attempted to rebrand itself with a completely new logo (read more about it on Storefront Backtalk Blog). As you can see from the image below, they decided to shun their old, very familiar tall white seriffed lettering in a solid blue box, a time-tested imagine with 20 years’ worth of vastly reaching recognizability… And don this new, plain, black font on empty backdrop, with a puny, pathetic icon of its former blue-squared greatness. Honestly, it reminds me of an old Microsoft product (Microsoft Suite perhaps?) from 1998.

Needless to say, loyal customers responded with a bona fide firestorm, and the overwhelming backlash from their fanbase caused the company to immediately retract their damning blueprint. Good call.

But to echo what Evan Schuman wrote, the interesting bit is not that they decided to push forward with this risky image-altering proposition. Rather, Gap had the foresight to launch the logo on its website long before its scheduled debut in stores. Thus, they were able to “test the waters” before any serious irreparable damage could be done to tarnish the name, the brand, the image. Whether this was an ingenious clairvoyance or a serendipitous coincidence, they were able to test the consumer reaction on a relatively maleable pallette.

As we can see from how the story unfolded, it is more than evident that this strategem yields a valuable advantage and serves a critical purpose: it reduces the risk that the corporation must assume in any rebranding or any major changes they wish to implement. Much like how when new products are introduced, they are sold within the confines of a local market where they carefully check consumer reactions, before coming out with a full scale launch.