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Marketing Strategy Failure: Gap Inc.

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Marketing Management Project
PROJECT OUTLINE:
Choose one company which has a turnaround in the past and one company which failed in the past. Discuss each company’s marketing strategy and reasons for their success or failure. Marketing Strategy Failure: Gap Inc.
How Gap turned into Crap! What went wrong?
1. INTRODUCTION TO GAP INC.
Gap Inc is a 45 year old retail giant based in the USA and was founded in 1965 by Donald and Doris
Fisher. Glenn K Murphy is the current CEO of the company.
Gap Inc came across as a store for comfortable casuals, that didn’t make you look like a slob and added a touch of class. Over the years celebrities like Gene Kelly promoted comfort and class through Gap Inc, by wearing Khakis in the Gap Inc’S “Who wore Khakis” …show more content…

You might see an echo of Tata Nano’s mistakes here.
2. GAP INC’S BUSINESS MODEL
Nothing very different from any other international clothing brand, GAP Inc has stores operating in malls, residential neighborhoods with a high footfall and high purchasing power. In 2006, Gap launched the concept of franchise stores which are 375 in number.3 Gap Inc also has its online store and currently focuses on building revenue through it.
a. Strategic focus:
GAP Inc and its sub brand Banana Republic have a global presence. Strategically, Old Navy is marketed mainly in Asia as the brand caters to the continent’s tastes, especially China. Old Navy recently debuted in mainland China which is the world’s second largest apparel market. It’s the largest growth initiative taken so far and Gap expects to reach sales of USD 1 billion in three years.4 Athleta basically focuses on the US Market is considered as a long term investment for the company as it is fast growing in the USA.
b. Omni Channel Strategy:
Omni Channel a strategy implemented to reduce the gap between planning and execution of inventory to and from stores. Gap Inc is extremely focused on this to strengthen its inventory control through …show more content…

Instead of working on a better product line, Gap Inc tried a stop gap fixing arrangement instead of understanding who they should target.
c. FREQUENTLY NEW COLLECTIONS:
More colors, an extreme range of options for teenagers, Gap Inc totally alienated it young adults market
– which was its core segment since 1965. Displaying edgy teen products was not exactly Gap’s forte. It deflected from its traditional style and catered to a market that didn’t value the brand. Teenagers are a segment which is very brand transitional and loyalty isn’t a criteria that can be found within it. For this particular segment, what’s in and what’s out is a matter of what fashion magazines dictate the next day.
Gap should have instead done a thorough market research to identify if its customers would want such a new product line.
d. DISCOUNT PRICING:
Another quick fix method that Gap used only ended up increasing gaps within sales. Gap Inc failed to identify its customers as this issue was not addressed from the very beginning. Soon profits spiraled downwards and the last attempt to salvage the bottom-line was Discount pricing. Gap Inc did not start this way. Gap Inc positioned itself as a company that sold casual comfortable classy clothes for

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