"Will companies know when an outcry isn't pointing to a terrible design, but rather just people refusing to embrace change?"
I was thinking this this morning. Gap aren't amateurs, the new logo will have been tested, focus group-ed and all - and likely those groups would have been more representative of the target market for Gap than the general blogosphere which criticised the new design.
So, what seems to have happened is that they've overruled the views of a more representative but less vocal group, in favour of a more vocal group who may have no relationship with or interest in Gap at all bar criticism.
And remember, the default position for most people is conservatism (with a small c). We dislike change so the default position for a majority of people to this sort of thing will be to keep what's already in place.
People keep drawing the parallel with New Coke but that seems wrong. New Coke was launched, bought and disliked by actual Coke consumers. In this instance we have no real idea what the actual Gap customers thought or what impact the new logo might have had because it never got that far.
This will go down as a formative moment in marketing and branding but I'm not sure whether history will show Gap acted wisely or foolishly. My gut feel is that later.
Comments
"Will companies know when an outcry isn't pointing to a terrible design, but rather just people refusing to embrace change?"
I was thinking this this morning. Gap aren't amateurs, the new logo will have been tested, focus group-ed and all - and likely those groups would have been more representative of the target market for Gap than the general blogosphere which criticised the new design.
So, what seems to have happened is that they've overruled the views of a more representative but less vocal group, in favour of a more vocal group who may have no relationship with or interest in Gap at all bar criticism.
And remember, the default position for most people is conservatism (with a small c). We dislike change so the default position for a majority of people to this sort of thing will be to keep what's already in place.
People keep drawing the parallel with New Coke but that seems wrong. New Coke was launched, bought and disliked by actual Coke consumers. In this instance we have no real idea what the actual Gap customers thought or what impact the new logo might have had because it never got that far.
This will go down as a formative moment in marketing and branding but I'm not sure whether history will show Gap acted wisely or foolishly. My gut feel is that later.