Gap, one of the largest clothing retailers in the United States, recently had an attempt to change their logo. Their attempt caused a lot of controversy among GAP fans, showing their loyalty to the old design of the logo. But this controversy brought GAP on the first page of the newspapers and in the attention of the media, once again. In the past couple of years, the reputation of the brand decreased and consumers and fashion people seemed to have forgotten its value from the 90’s.                                       

The original logotype, simple and recognizable to anyone, contains the word GAP in capital letters, encased in a blue square. On their ends, the letters had decorative elements, called serifs. The new logo still retained the word GAP, but the blue square was replaced by a white square, with a blue square in the middle. The serifs were gotten rid of. After the protests and critics of thousands of people brought to the address of the new logo, the president of the GAP brand in North America, Marka Hansen came forward to say that “the outpouring of comments indicated that the company "did not go about this in the right way", and that the company decided to continue using the old logo.

 

In order to find out why the costumers didn’t approve the new GAP’s new brand logo, NeuroFocus, the world’s leading neuromarketing company, “went looking for the most accurate and reliable answers in the best place to find them: the deep subconscious level of the brain. The company conducted neurological testing of Gap customers to discover why the new execution failed to attract them — and in some cases earned negative reactions” (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brain-gap-neurofocus-study-reveals-what-went-wrong-with-the-gaps-new-brand-logo-105165954.html)

Dr. Pradeep, psychologist and the author of the new best-seller The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind found that for a company’s brand to be successful, there are two things that need to be taken into consideration: “does the new design violate any Neurological Best Practices? And does the new design build upon the existing brand attributes that are identified through the Brand Essence Framework?”. GAP took advice, listened to the voice of its costumers and kept their original logo. At least for now.

  

Works Cited:

Gap logos: http://neurofocus.com/images/logos_gap.jpgMarka Hansen: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/World-view/699153/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brain-gap-neurofocus-study-reveals-what-went-wrong-with-the-gaps-new-brand-logo-105165954.html