More developments from GAP and their new logo… And it is all over the news today!! The huffington post, Forbes, AdAge, and the Time all are covering the extravaganza that is going down. So exciting!
And there are so many new developments too! The PR peeps from GAP said that they shared that they have been working with Laird and Partners on the rebranding strategies, and the new logo was designed by the external company. Louise Callagy, a Gap spokeswoman, explained that the brand is changing and the logo should reflect it in front of AgAge. So indeed rebranding was a valid prediction.
However the developments for the last few days have been far from positive for the GAP. On Tuesday a mock twitter account was created, and @GapLogo has more than 3200 followers and 300 tweets. Most of the tweets are in response to attacks towards the logo, and are epically hilarious!
Dear @ianmckayuk, thank you for being the 138,219 person to turn the word „Gap“ into „Crap“. Clever. We want to hire you as our new CEO.
Norma, brand manager for our Facebook page just ate 4 boxes of Milano cookies. She’s not even reading comments now, just watching YouTube.
The square fades like our jeans! I kid, I kid. Cold water! Tumble dry!
These „create your own crappy Gap logo“ websites are keeping legal and one Mr. Lars Ulrich REAL busy. We need more scotch.
Oh happy day! The @mashable hacks have finally chimed in. Took you long enough, Cashmore. http://bit.ly/9gdsKs
To continue mocking the new creation there was even a website that allows you to „crap logo yourself“ – try it out: http://craplogo.me/
The response on the side of GAP has not been amazingly fast or effective. They have changed their facebook fanpage with the old classic blue box logo. And shared that they will take into consideration designs from fans. Of course in 24 hours more than 540 people have expressed their opinion about that and overall it is predominantly negative.
Just now there was an explanation by the President of Gap – Marka Hansen on the Huffington Post. In her words, they are trying to evolve indeed:
„The natural step for us on this journey is to see how our logo – one that we’ve had for more than 20 years – should evolve. Our brand and our clothes are changing and rethinking our logo is part of aligning with that.“
She also explains that they will be looking for input from the wider public:
„Now, given the passionate outpouring from customers that followed, we’ve decided to engage in the dialogue, take their feedback on board and work together as we move ahead and evolve to the next phase of Gap.“
However I personally do not believe that are doing enough damage control or crisis management, as the issue is unfolding very fast, and people are unhappy. The main opinion is „if it is not broken. don’t fix it.“ Overwhelmingly everyone loves the old logo, so it will be a tough decision of whether to go back, stick to their guns and move forward with the new one, or rework it and use something else.
Unfortunately the whole situation was not handled properly from the GAP PR people. No engagement with the audience, no official explanation before the crisis, and quite inadequate response in the end. I can’t wait to see how the whole situation resolves…
There is one main thing that can be learned from all the past consumer social media disasters listen to your consumers! So dear GAP, make your consumers feel engaged and respond adequately!
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