The power of brand

Change / 03 November 2010

Your brand and logo are powerful things - a lesson that clothing company Gap recently learnt the hard way, says Helen Mayson

Earlier this year Gap unveiled a brand new logo on their US website, replacing the iconic blue box with a simpler, stripped back design. You'd be forgiven for missing the news, though, as the new logo lasted little more than a week before Gap backtracked and reinstated the old style logo.

After the high street retailer exchanged the solid blue box and capitalised serif font for a cleaner, black and white lower case version, fans of the brand started protests against the new logo on Facebook and Twitter in their thousands, prompting Gap to switch back to the traditional logo within seven days.

“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. “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.”

A rebrand is a huge commitment, and one that no company, especially one as influential as Gap, would take on lightly.

Phil Dean, Managing Director of Creative Services, Communisis

So where did Gap go wrong? “I think the key with redesigning any logo that’s as well known as GAPs is that you don’t redesign it,” said Tony Phillips, head of client services at JJ Communications. “The recognition a logo enjoys is massive, so the key is to bring the logo up to date without losing the original essence.”

Completely redesigning a logo can be effective for companies going through periods of extensive change, as a way to reposition and rebrand a company. “This usually reflects a big shift in brand values and an associated big investment in communicating these,” said Phillips.

Some organisations have used rebranding to great effect. The Conservative party, who changed their logo from a hand brandishing a torch to a scribbled oak tree, received some initial criticism for their new design, but it is now widely believed to have helped distance the party from the old style of leadership under Lady Thatcher.

Critics say that the Gap logo blunder has echoes of Coca-Cola’s ill-fated 'new coke' campaign, which caused outrage among coke lovers and led to the old recipe being re-released as ‘classic coke’ – with an accompanying rise in sales.

Marketing stunt?

“My initial thought on seeing the recent press furore over Gap’s new logo was – did they do this whole thing on purpose?” said Phil Dean, managing director of creative services at marketing services provider Communisis. “While it is important to demonstrate a willingness to listen to your customers, typical ‘big brand behaviour’ involves a certain confidence and strength of image, not making a complete u-turn in a matter of days over something as crucial as a brand logo just because of some negative comments online. A closer look at the proposed new logo does nothing to negate this initial reaction. It looks a little half-hearted, as if Gap isn’t actually committed to making any major changes.”

Dean suggests that releasing the new logo could be little more than a marketing ploy. “I find it hard to believe that Gap could make all these fundamental mistakes without good reason. Over the last few days the company has been in every industry publication and had national exposure, as well as generating considerable word-of-mouth as the public campaigns to bring back the old logo.

“A rebrand is a huge commitment, and one that no company, especially one as influential as Gap, would take on lightly. We’re talking months and months of planning, creative input and production, culminating in a dramatic change that suggests the company is committed to moving forward and changing the way it is perceived. Holiday Inn’s recent rebrand is a good example of this,” said Dean.

Whatever the truth, Gap isn’t ruling out any future logo changes, even suggesting they’ll use crowd-sourcing to design a new identity. “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way,” said Hansen.