Influx

With all the problems at The Gap, it needs all the help it can get.

Influx wondered if there were any gems of wisdom out in the press and blogosphere that could help.

We scoured reports in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Ad Age, The Daily Telegraph, USA Today and Reuters and looked for ideas in the form of quotes from the experts.

Please feel free to add your own thoughts, solutions only please.

Influx will offer its solutions later in the week.

The Problem

“If there is one thing you cannot be in the middle of the mall anymore, it is all things to all people And that is what Gap has been trying to do. Gap has gone from being a destination store that everyone wants to shop at to being a store that no one cares about.”

“You start off being a cool brand and if you get ubiquitous you are no longer cool”

Marshall Lester- Former Gap Executive.

“Gap has been blindsided by the feeling that it has to have an overall vision. It seems to me to be more of a concept than a shop, which works if you’re Gucci but not if you’re selling jeans.”

Rob Mann-Collins Stewart.

“What if the problem is not about people, but something even more fundamental? What if the problem stems from having to manage three very different business types in an increasingly competitive market?”

John Hagel- Edge Perspectives

“Everything I’ve read about Pressler says prefers to make decisions based on loads of data and not on gut instinct. However, it seems Pressler’s penchant for customer research clashed with the Gap business culture.The Gap company culture has been to use gut retail instinct to make decisions and not to use focus group research data.”

John Moore- Brand Autopsy

“Over time, Gap has lost its original basis for differentiation of having high-quality basics at affordable prices.Everyone else provides basics. Many other people have very affordable prices. Everyone’s got classics.”

Paul R. Charron, the former chief executive of Liz Claiborne

“By making Banana Republic its high-end brand, Old Navy its low-priced one and launching Gap stores for kids, babies, maternity and undergarments, “The top is off, the bottom is off and all the branches are cut off.”

Jeff Nisch- Retail Consultant

“If you stand for everything in fashion today, you stand for nothing, brands like the Gap, brands broadly available have a special challenge to be relevant in a period when focus and exclusivity are so important.”

Paul R. Charron, the former chief executive of Liz Claiborne

“The definition of a specialty store is focus. Gap does not have that focus, And in trying to meet the needs of infants, teenagers, and even the elderly, its designers play it safe, season after season. The merchandise is booooooring, too basic.”

Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates

Solutions

“Beyond a nice place to get basic clothing. Gap has to go up-market with more expensive clothes. Or the other direction, down-market with cheap fashion knockoffs.”

Adamson, managing director of brand consulting firm Landor Associates

“This company has to emerge in a different format.”

Jennifer Black- Retail Analyst

“They [Gap] have to stick with Monday through Friday, which is where America works and plays, and not be distracted by Saturday night. They have to be in the uniform business rather than the costume business.”

Paco Underhill- Retail consultant

“As the Gap assesses its strategic options, it might start by asking the most fundamental question of all “what business are we really in?” There’s a lot of money to be made by getting the answer to that question right.”

John Hagel

“They have to pick out a demographic and go after it with a maniacal focus, to the exclusion of anyone else.”

Bob Buchanan-A. G. Edwards & Sons.

“As far the Gap brand, I’m talking about closing all the Gap retail locations and refocusing the Gap brand as solely a licensed apparel brand for retailers like Target, J.C. Penny, and Kohl’s. Leverage the ubiquity of the Gap brand name and reposition it as a clothing brand and not a clothing retailer.”

John Moore- Brand Autopsy