Consumer Analysis Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Consumer Analysis - Term Paper Example Research indicates that young consumers strongly believe in fashion consumption as a tool by which to improve their social status and social relevancy. To identify whether this was true, a primary study was constructed that surveyed 14 youth consumers to determine whether they believed the Gap should or could provide for these needs. Findings indicated that conspicuous consumption is not a primary concern for younger markets, leading to formulate a set of recommendations that The Gap should focus more on product in the marketing mix and select certain lifestyle-relevant celebrities to gain more interest from youth consumers. The Problem of Rival Promotions in the Apparel Industry: Gap Inc. 1.0 Background Gap Inc., based in San Francisco, was founded in 1969 as a small retail store selling record albums and blue jeans. By 1970, the Gap had achieved $2 million in revenues allowing the company to expand to 25 different stores by 1973. It was not until 1974, however, that the Gap began o ffering consumers private-label apparel and accessories, a tradition that has positioned the business as a stand-alone innovator able to maintain strong sales volumes without reliance on various established apparel brands. 1.1 The Marketing Strategy Problem Gap Inc. has diversified its merchandise offerings from its original foundations of providing blue jeans and record albums to a variety of merchandise that maintains mass market appeal. Gap not only provides apparel and accessory merchandise in the United States, but in Europe as well, competing with major clothing retailers Zara (the fast-fashion company owned by Inditex) and H&M, two retailers offering clothing that is generally targeted to the younger, trend-centric consumer markets. It is the European market that provides the majority of sales revenues to this business that is in a growth stage in Europe and in decline in the United States. The main problem with Gap Inc. is the firm’s lack of focus on creating effectiv e promotional strategies in order to position the business properly with its desired target markets. When sales began to decline significantly in 2007, Gap executives attempted to modify its long-standing logo to make it fresher and more contemporary to a changing consumer audience. (See Figure 1). However, the business received such a significant outpouring of consumer discontent about the modified logo that the business scrapped its 2010 modification to return to its iconic blue box logo (Fredrix, 2010). In fact, the Chief Executive who authorized the change swiftly resigned from the company allegedly due to the failed repositioning effort (Wahba & Sage, 2011). Gap learned a significant lesson that its legitimate marketing problem was not associated with its corporate image, as consumers had built attachments and loyalties to the blue box logo. The problem was inefficient promotional strategy that could not outperform rival companies in the U.S. and Europe. From the consumer persp ective, repurchase intentions are based on stereotypes and physical appearances when interpreting marketing communications from a retailer (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010). Internally, Gap had determined that it would need to seek out new markets in order to boost profitability, but did not take into consideration the cognition patterns of dedicated customers that already