In an effort to revitalize their waning brand, Gap recently launched a series of YouTube videos profiling the creativity of the newly established 1969 denim design studio in downtown Los Angeles. Chief Global Marketing Officer, Seth Farbman, acknowledges that the retailer needed to re-capture the highly influential twenty-something generation. He believes that seeding a viral storytelling campaign is a strategy that will help them connect again. Forming a small, nuclear studio apart from the corporate San Francisco Gap headquarters, was seen as the first step in rebooting the fashion retailer as a cooler, more relevant brand that holds creativity as a key driver of the business. It follows, that documenting this new ethos in a series of online videos, versus the more traditional advertising route, was the best approach in winning over this elusive consumer. Where the strategy falls short however, is at store level. The notion that you can re-invent the brand from a philosophical, production standpoint is only half of the equation – the store experience is the other – and here, Gap is still the same old Gap. The message can be meaningful and can resonate with customers, but if the actual experience doesn’t deliver on the promise, you’ve lost the attempt at demonstrating any authentic desire for change… So in the end, all you have is a corporate wolf in creative sheep’s clothing…

peter g