Bridging the gap
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
CREDIT:
The interior of an unnamed GAP store that shows the new-look design facelift that many GAP stores will be undergoing.
Mr. Glenn Murphy
CEO Gap Inc.
Dear Mr. Murphy:
First, congrats on landing the top job at Gap Inc.
Pretty sweet that the big U.S. clothing retailer has chosen you, a 45-year-old Canadian and Shoppers Drug Mart wunderkind as the new uber-boss tapped to save its sagging butt.
It makes us kind of proud, the same way we feel about Torontonian Bonnie Fuller's ascendency to the top of the tabloid magazine editor pile.
But let's not get too squishy. You've got a big job ahead of you, because on the business end of things, the news isn't good.
Gap, clearly, isn't the top dog it once was in the retail clothing game, although your company still operates about 3,100 stores worldwide, including the high-end Banana Republic and the low-end Old Navy.
And we don't have to tell you there's a lot at stake -- Gap fiscal 2006 sales were $15.9 billion, but the stock price has been on the decline, with analysts tagging shares as "underperforming."
We know there are plans to close some stores -- locally, the Gap in Langley's Willowbrook Mall closed earlier this year, and the one at Lougheed Mall was shuttered Aug. 26.
Regrouping plans also include reducing inventory and "narrowing product lines," as well as making the most of your newly conscripted designer Patrick Robinson, who previously paid his dues at Perry Ellis, Anne Klein and Giorgio Armani, a not-too-shabby CV for the task ahead.
Frankly, Mr. Murphy, we don't think you should worry too much that you don't have a lot of experience peddling jeans and tees.
After all, your corporate track record is solid -- Shoppers sales doubled during your reign -- and you seem to understand the needs of customers, like who they are, and what they want when they walk through your doors.
But take it from me, as a big Gap fan, and as someone who first started shopping at the Gap decades ago, in Seattle, long before the chain's move to Canada.
You've got your work cut out for you.
Because the Gap doesn't know what it is any more.
It might be the fault of the corporate complacency that often follows success, so often the case with arrogant franchises that don't pay attention to social and economic demographics, or their clients.
Where the Gap once ruled the roost in fashionable affordable classic clothing -- smart jackets, lean jeans, office-worthy khakis, sharp shirts and an overall look that was always dressy and just this side of edgy, but never fussy or too trendy -- your inventory these past few years has became a confusing, unidentifiable mess, at once too young and too old, your designers clearly struggling with whether they should be pumping out sloppy T-shirts, hoodies and baby-doll dresses or crisp tailored shirts and cable-knit sweaters.
For instance, what were you thinking with those weird white women's blouses a few months back?
They were fantastically stylistic, with weird flaps and ruffles and off-kilter sleeves, like something out of a Japanese anime collection. Funky, yes. Wearable, no.
Truth is, while you were busy selling soap at Shoppers, the Gap has been doing a lousy job trying to reinvent itself in an increasingly saturated marketplace, where others have captured the eye of the under-25 crowd Gap once owned.
Sure, you sell a terrific blue jean, but if you're wondering where all your customers went, look no farther down the mall than Jacob and Aritizia and Bootlegger and Le Chateau and American Eagle and Zara and Off The Wall and American Apparel and, now, H&M.
Those stores know what they are, and who they're for.
That said, my advice is that you forget about them, because you don't need the teens and the under-25 crowd. You already have Old Navy for them (and on the other end, Banana for the moneyed boomers).
Simply put, there's a gap in the marketplace, Mr. Murphy, if you'll pardon the expression. Your new Gap customer, if I may be so bold, is the careerist, the young man or woman who is looking for stylish, wallet-friendly clothing that can be worn to the office but won't look dorkish at the martini bar.
It's a demographic desperately seeking a store of its own (and, no, not department stores, which are stuck in a time warp, apparently busy targeting seniors, if the Bay's breezy new baby boomer campaign is any indication).
As you probably know, Gap is a mall staple here in B.C., with 15 locations from Victoria to Whistler to Abbotsford.
We like that you're renovating the old joints, putting in dark-stained wood floors, armoires and lounge areas, and track lighting, though that's not always the most flattering.
We get it that you're trying to make the shopping experience less clinical, and a little more intimate, but the truth is, it really doesn't matter. Just get the product right and I guarantee you the 35-and-up crowd will be beating a path to your door.
For what it's worth, Mr. Murphy, I think you're on the right track with your new fall campaign: Classics Redefined.
It's like you were reading my mind, what with The Little Black Sweater Dress, The Tailored White Shirt, The Short-Sleeved Turtleneck, The Soft Tailored Blazer, The Haberdashery Shirt.
And those fall campaign photos. Fabulous.
A sublime age-less Twyla Tharp, in an impossible dance move, resplendent in The French Cuff Shirt.
John Mayer, deliciously scruffy, wearing his tats and The Sweater Vest.
Intriguing Forest Whitaker, formidable in The Macintosh.
These people have class, and so do your new clothes, so my advice -- not that you asked for it but thanks for listening -- is to stick with this back-to-the-future thing.
Who knows. You may just be the guy who puts the class back in Gap.
Yours, Shelley
sfralic@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...f5a26c&k=54236
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