Many of you heard the news in the last few weeks that Gap, the clothing store, had changed their logo. Many people were up in arms about this. After 20+ years of using the same logo, they changed to something that looks like it was made in Microsoft Word. Take a look:
That logo debuted last week, and Gap has already decided to change back to the previous logo.
So what has this taught us? That the consumers are in charge of the marketplace and not the corporations. If we don’t like something, we’re definitely going to let you know until it is changed, either by directly saying it or by shopping elsewhere. I for one was very upset when I heard of the initial change. I live by the philosophy of, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” I understand that Gap was trying to capture a new audience with a modern logo, but that logo was a symbol of everything that you stood for. I wonder what the past week’s activities has had on the future of the company.
Have companies not learned from the “New Coke” fiasco of 1985? New Coke: It seemed like a good idea at the time
3 Responses
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Vunley Long Says:
The new Gap logo tries too hard to be trendy with Helvetica and an oddly placed blue box. The box really does throw it off because it seams like someone took 2 seconds to type out GAP and then they threw in the square as an after thought. Amateur IMHO. You make subtle changes to established logos, especially for how well known the gap logo is. Anything too dramatic throws people off and is unpleasant to it’s target; the consumer.
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Stephen Kelly Says:
Thanks for writing about this Mr. Kise! It certainly has been a hot item in the marketing world the past few weeks.
Real hecklers might be interested in making their own really bad GAP logo at http://www.craplogo.me.
I almost wonder if part of this could be a ploy. If GAP wanted to crowdsource a new logo one way to do it would be to muster up a little controversy and then say to everyone “well, alright then, let’s see you do better”!
Crowds are often up to a good challenge.
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Lynn Says:
We discussed this in class today. It was great to check into the blog and actually see this posted! I agree with Steven, throw it out as a contest and have people then vote.
