Fall into the Gap.

         The New York Times recently called the Gap "one of the great hot-to-not stories" of American retailing. In her article, Stephanie Clifford called it "a remarkable comedown for a chain that once seemed to dictate how America dressed".

         I've been intrigued by Gap's rise and fall and maybe inching-up again. I could never understand how they let Mickey Drexler leave. He's one of the great merchants of our time, and now c.e.o. of J. Crew and doing fabulously. Mickey was replaced at Gap by Glenn Murphy, former head of Canada's Shoppers Drug Mart.

        According to Ms. Clifford's article, Gap is on the verge of a renewal. Their store at the Grove, the outdoor upscale mall in Los Angeles, is a lab for renewing the brand and doing quite well.

       The article mentioned that Gap also replaced their advertising agency. That kind of surprised me. Their ads weren't all that great, but neither are their new ads. In my experience, the difference between good ads and ordinary ads is the client. A restrictive, conventional client will get restrictive, conventional work. The saying in the advertising business is that every client gets the ads they deserve.

       For Gap to start changing minds about the store, the ads will have to be edgier, provocative, and actually speak to people. Not just look like stills from "Glee". That will take guts. The kind of guts Levi's had when  it introduced the "501 Blues" and went from cowboys to the streets of New York. Levi's has since slipped back a bit in young people's consciousness, and Gap will, too, unless they shift into contemporary gear.

       Commenting on the L.A. store at the Grove, Ms. Clifford wrote, "This can't be a Gap. The mannequins look kind of happy."

       Hopefully, soon their financials will look kind of happy, too.

 

Why the Gap has trouble filling the gap.

          Today I'm in Chicago, and I stopped in at at the Gap flagship store on Michigan Avenue. Plenty of customers were looking around because the sandwich-board sign outside said "New Items on Sale". I was curious, too, trying to figure out what I would do to turn around the brand if I were in charge.

           The woman who greeted me informed me that the men's section was on the second floor. I got on the elevator and the button panel said men's was on three. It was wrong. I got off on three into Body Gap. So I waited for a down elevator.

            As soon as I got off, a salesperson asked what he could show me. I said chinos, slim fit. He immediately corrected me and said what I wanted were khakis. He told me they had wonderful new colors. Trouble was, they weren't in one place. The khaki ones were here, the olive ones over there, the grey ones back here, and the light blue ones a few feet behind the olive ones. He reminded me that Gap sizes run big, and then vanished.

            When I did have a question (why the sign said "Everything here $22 or less" and these pants were marked $54), there was no salesperson within sight. I went over to the registers, and the woman agreed to come and look. She said the sign was meant to be very general. I told her no, the sign is very specific. $22 or less. She said what the sign meant to say was that many things in that section were $22 or less, but not all. She decided I was a crank and drifted back to her register.

            I did choose a sweater to buy as a gift, and there was a long line at the register. When I got there, I wanted to be sure the sizes ran a little big. The cashier said definitely not; Gap sizes are accurate. I asked if I could return it in San Francisco if it didn't fit. She said she couldn't see why not.

             I can see why not. Everything seems a little jumbled, a little out of control at the Gap. My fashion marketing students could get in there and straighten everything out in an afternoon. They could tell the Gap what it needs, how to accomplish it, and how to win customers back. But the Gap isn't run by merchants these days, and I'm not sure they'd understand. What they're doing is a lot like the joke about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

             The Gap isn't the store of the future, because the future isn't what it used to be.