Can GAP return to its former glory ?

There have been a few articles about the new team at GAP recently, and how they are trying to return to the heydays of the 1990's. Well I was there in the 90's and for what its worth here are my thoughts. 1994 was a pivotal year for me at GAP. I was promoted to district manager for the north of the UK, which in those days was everything north of Watford! It was an exciting brand to work for, having spent 4 years as a store manager, in several stores, I was given the task of opening lots of stores in the UK. Gap was known NOT for fashion forward designs, far from it. It was excellent basics with an American flavour, which the UK loved at that time. Jeans jeans and more jeans plus a few colourful staples such as the "pocket T" and socks to match! Until the opening of the store in Glasgow I had mainly dealt with smaller stores, and this was to be a huge flagship in the main shopping street . This store was a massive investment for the UK team and no expense was spared. You can see that the external marketing was by no means subtle! It nearly blew off one day in the Glasgow weather when being installed! We moved the old store from a small shop along the road, overnight. Suddenly the new store opened with a blaze of publicity and a huge amount of customers. We opened with live models walking the shop floor in pyjamas and gave out bottles of GAP water (ahead of the curve!). No opening discounts or promotions in sight, we didn't need them.

The shop looked more like a Banana republic than Gap, Leather chairs, glass tables on rugs. Not a 40% off banner in sight.

So i now look back and try to think how can Gap return to its heyday of the 1990's ? And where did it go so wrong to now have closed all of its UK stores ?

1... Discounts: These started in the late 90's early 20's and grew from 10% off days to everything at 50% This was never sustainable and devalued the brand significantly as people only shopped when at a discount in the later years

2...Product quality : This started to decline at the same time as discounting, with many cotton items changing from high quality American cotton to cheaper thinner products made all over the world.

3...Style: Gap tried to become a fashion player but missed the mark. They had been known for quality basics but tried to introduce "fashion" pieces that were frankly NOT good especially for the UK market who were buying European designs instead. Fit was also not good and sizing not adapted to the UK market for a very long time. Gap Logo was always avoided initially then exploded and has been over exposed for too many years.

4...Over expansion: Instead of keeping to around 50 UK stores they opened in many secondary and tertiary towns, where the shops failed to perform well. The larger flagship stores also cost too much to open and operate and should have been kept to just a few major cities and be special buildings

5...People: Many of the original teams started to leave in the late 1990's. I recall many went to M@S as senior leaders abandoned ship. The USA senior team stopped listening to the feedback from the shop floor teams and were arrogant that they knew best. BIG mistake.

6...Brand identity: Before OLD NAVY Gap was at the quality level of Banana Republic today. It feels like all of the brands merged into one after awhile, each losing its distinct look and more importantly cannibalising customers across the 3 brands. Gap started to become Old Navy at a slightly higher price and Banana Republic started to look like Gap, all very confusing for the customers

So what next.... Gap needs to return to selling top quality products, made well at the right price. People will pay for quality! Levis now £100 a pair in the UK

Stop promotions and discounting unless in actual sale mode ! A race for the bottom will always end badly. (I love the saying that Discount is the cocaine of the retail world)

Stop trying to be a fashion brand...you never were and will not be! You are NOT Zara...Look at Uniqlo instead then do better

Retain the American feel/style to your products , especially for the european markets. Its what GAP stands for and should represent

Clearly define your customer base for each brand, now this seems to be happening with BR ( the new name for Banana republic...mmm very much like RH !) They seem to be moving this brand towards the Ralph Lauren market with expensive marketing and the new BR home. But they need to stay away from the big red discount button again! And maybe have separate websites for each brand with different identities ?

GAP need to regain its mid market quality customer who quite frankly has walked away ! Its going to take some serious conviction to re energise this brand but would be a travesty to lose the GAP brand all together and just have OLD NAVY instead, as some would suggest!

Old Navy I have less thoughts on, as it never came to the UK, but it should be entry price points and NOT copy Gap products at a cheaper price

As a good example of how brands can be owned by the same parent company yet be totally different I would use the H&M and COS brands as a great example. Many customers would not even realise they were sisters!

I for one hold very fond memories of Gap, and truly want it to succeed but will they listen ?