Branding is a complex process for any organization - especially when you're a large, national clothing chain such as The Gap. Updating a brand requires considerable planning and a strong and strategic implementation. Can some please explain that to The Gap?Some of you probably saw or heard about the new Gap logo unveiled via social media last week. At the time I'm sure Gap's marketing execs thought it would be a great idea to use crowd sourcing to have Gap fans come up with a new logo. As one might expect, the Gap logo redesign "contest" garnered a significant amount of interest from Gap fans, marketing execs, designers, wannabe marketers, wannabe designers, media and social media professionals.
Most people weren't sure why The Gap was changing its logo and why a professional agency wasn't used as opposed to the weak idea of using crowd sourcing for such an important business decision. A lot of people just made fun of the new logo and the method it was developed.
When a company doesn't approach branding strategically, problems are likely to arise. Take for example the backlash that The Gap has been enduring since last week. Already Gap has announced it will stay with its original logo -- proving that the decision to crowd source a new brand identity is not a good one.
I'm curious would you consider crowd sourcing for your company or personal brand? Did you like the newly designed Gap logo or think returning to the classic logo was the right decision?
I have read about this but have not seen the old logo. Thanks for sharing both versions with us.
ReplyDelete1) No crowd sourcing .... maybe for t-shirt designs.
2) Old logo for sure, new is awful
3) Man did they get a lot of publicity out of this. My guess would be that this whole "stunt" did more good than harm ...