Gap Inc. recently rolled out a new logo that was planned to be used as part of the company’s holiday advertising campaign. However, the change away from the distinctive blue box logo got a response of over 2,000 posts on their Facebook page, most of which were negative.
“Since we rolled out an updated version of our logo last week on our website, we’ve seen an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo,” said Marka Hansen, president of Gap Brand North America. “Last week, we moved to address the feedback and began exploring how we could tap into all of the passion. Ultimately, we’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand. All roads were leading us back to the blue box, so we’ve made the decision not to use the new logo on gap.com any further.”
This event demonstrates the power of social media, and the danger of ignoring your fan base during this networked age. Gap seems to realize the mistake that they made, and Hansen indicates that the apparel company has learned its lesson.
“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 Hansen. “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”
