Gap 4ps

Product Strategy

Currently the Gap has a very wide target market, and its products are not very differentiated from its competitors. To many consumers the image that the Gap is trying to represent is unclear. Instead of having an ambiguous brand image the Gap should adopt a defined brand image that will emphasize a superb fit and will target a middle class lifestyle with consumers ranging from babies to retirees.

In order to ensure that the large target market will become a more plausible strategy, the Gap needs to reduce the number of products it has available and return to “the basics”. According to Michael Santoli’s (2011) article Can the Gap come back? “Gap brand merchandise should be streamlined and the stores given a cleaner look”(para 13). Santoli (2011) is suggesting that there are far too many products crammed into the stores, and the brand would benefit from de-cluttering and reducing the number of products available. The “Our Story” tab of the Gap’s website details that Don Fisher, the store’s founder, “couldn’t find a pair of jeans that fit” (Gap Inc., 2012, para. 1). This is the main premise behind Gap and how they started out as a basic jeans and t-shirts company. Bringing these products back to the forefront of the brand will help to reduce the number of products available and re-focus the brand.

Company research shows that “of thousands of women who [buy] high-end jeans brands, Gap jeans ranked No. 1 or 2 for best fit, alongside expensive specialty brands such as Seven and Joe's Jeans” (Santoli, 2011, para. 16). Fit to most women is extremely important as pointed out by Goldsberry’s study (as sighted in Shin 2007), that out of more than 4000 women, 69% were not happy with the fit of jeans in general (para. 5). By increasing the number of fits and styles the Gap can provide to consumers, the better able they will be able to attract and capture their large target market.

Extending this thinking to other products as well will also...