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Gap Inc. broke the mold earlier this year, offering a universal shopping experience between its legacy brands Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic and its newest venture, Piperlime, a pureplay shoe shop selling many famous and popular brands. Customers can now shop all 4 properties in one session, with one navigation and one checkout. And with the exception of Piperlime items, using a universal warehouse it all arrives in one box which benefits customers, business and the environment. (Plans are to integrate Piperlime with the universal warehouse).
The goal is to make the whole of what Gap does greater than the sum of its parts.
Some may ask, with such differentiation between the four brands, how in the world did this idea get past the “brand police?”
1. The decision to universalize the shopping experience was customer driven. Focus group customers were asking them to do this. And Gap understands the best brand strategy is to do things that customers love, not what the brand marketers think customers want.
2. Gap knew it could preserve each individual brand identity, while offering the single brand customer to become a multi-brand customer effortlessly online.
3. Offering Piperlime as the fourth tab can further accelerate the growth of its pureplay Piperlime brand alongside its legacy brands. For now, the legacy brands will help sell Piperlime shoes, but over time they believe Piperlime will also help sell legacy brands.
By challenging its traditional strategic thinking and adopting a customer-centric approach, Gap is rapidly increasing its online market share and delighting customers. But as President Toby Lenk stated in his keynote Enhancing the Customers’ Shopping Experience Through Innovation, they are just scratching the surface for what’s possible in online retail.
I still have my doubts that the brands are not being diluted. As someone following the industry, I know they are all part of one company, but does the consumer who spends $150 on a pair of pants from Banana Republic want to see $9 T’s from old Navy in the same experience?
Michael Arking
http://www.frenchtoast.com
Perhaps not for themselves Michael, but they may be interested in a shirt from Gap that compliments those $150 pants, and a pair of shoes that look stunning from Piperlime. After all, there are a lot of these consumers that will purchase that $9 T you mention for their child.
[...] note: I covered GAP’s talk about its strategy from Shop.org Annual Summit on the Shop.org Blog in [...]
Brands are created for a reason, and the marketing money that is spent on Banana Republic as well as the higher quality clothing differentiate the product for the consumer.
Why spend money on a high quality suit when Sears offers the same 40 Long? Consumers will pay for a perceived value or an actual value, so making the shopping experience easier is going to help everyone in the long run.