Gap (NYSE: GPS), founded in 1969 as a the Woodstock generation left Woodstock for home as the company likes to say, has succumbed to customer pressure to keep its old logo. The clothing company said that it “looks for new ways to connect to customers around the world.” One of those must be to allow those customers to “vote” for which logo it will have.
Gap announced that “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.”
“At Gap brand, our customers have always come first. We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we’ve made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels,” said Marka Hansen, head of Gap Brand North America.
The decision is probably a smart one. No one really cared if Gap had a new logo. The company probably ran focus groups and other research to see if a change was possible. The research was obviously flawed as it true with so many straw polls.
The decision may set a precedent now that a large public company has decided that customers can overrule corporate decisions. Corporations routinely change their logos and even their names. Altria is not much of a name for a cigarette company when Phillip Morris has been its name for nearly a hundred years. Perhaps customers and shareholders could push to replace the old name.
Public companies will not allow shareholders to vote for board members or compensation, but their customers can fight for and get a change in a company’s branding.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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