This past week I noticed on my Twitter feed headlines stating Gap has received some serious backlash over their new and improved logo. Although I did not read the full article at the time, I went back to see what the negative hype was about.
This morning the situation was mentioned in my media planning class; I felt so out of the loop since I skipped over the tweet last weekend and didn't have much to contribute to the discussion.
But now that I'm up to speed, the article I found from Mashable.com briefly discussed the issue and response from the Gap's Facebook fan page. This is a perfect example of customer/business relations via social media tools.
In order for businesses and organizations to maintain a transparent relationship with consumers, active responses and feedback is key. Social networking and review Websites easily facilitate these relationships and allow companies to respond quickly to negative feedback, much like what happened with the Gap.
Apparently the Gap tried to revamp their bland yet timeless logo by trying to modernize the blue box's effect. After the decision had been made, they shared their new logo on its Facebook page and instantly received negative feedback and thousands of tweets of consumers expressing their attitudes toward it.
Gap immediately responded and announced they were changing the logo back to the original. According to Mashable.com, the Gap said,"Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback."
The Gap also stressed the importance of brand/customer relation and reassured the big blue box will be back. Clearly, the Gap fan base was not thrilled about the logo change but I personally was shocked to realize how many people really cared about the Gap logo looks.
If you've ever shopped in the Gap, they sell decent quality clothing items and staple articles, however their logo is no where to be found actually on the articles. If it was a brand such as Polo Ralph Lauren who drastically altered their logo, I feel that would be a different story given the label-social status behind it. But the Gap? Who even hardly notices the store?
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