Campaign of the Week: Gap #DoYou Campaign Highlights Individuality

The Gap is trying to differentiate its brand from the competition in the eyes of fall shoppers. The company’s new #DoYou campaign highlights individuality in Gap clothing and accessories using some popular fashion influencers. So how many clothing buyers like this type of messaging? And how might this campaign impact The Gap’s sales? We asked 1,000 consumers on August 15-16 about their opinions of various clothing brands. Then we tested one of The Gap’s latest ads to see if it made any impact.

Clothing Shoppers

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 7% of respondents said they shop for clothing and accessories multiple times per week. 15% shop for clothing items a few times per month. 27% do so a few times every three months. 41% said they shop for clothing and accessories less often than once every three months. And 11% said they aren’t clothing consumers at all.Overall, 28% of respondents said that they have shopped at The Gap, making it the second most popular clothing brand listed after Macy’s. And 12% said that they shop at The Gap regularly. But more respondents said that they regularly shop at both Macy’s and Levi’s.

Gap #DoYou Campaign

Looking forward, 6% of respondents said they are almost certain about choosing The Gap the next time they shop for clothing or accessories. 9% said it would be very probable. And 8% said they would be practically certain about choosing both Levi’s and Macy’s for their next clothing purchases.Of those who viewed the Gap #DoYou ad, 6% also said they would be practically certain about choosing The Gap for their next clothing purchase. And 10% said it would be very probable. 6% said they would be practically certain about choosing Levi’s. And 8% said they would be practically certain about choosing Macy’s. In addition, 74% of respondents who viewed the ad said they use at least one social media site. Of those respondents, 8% said they would be practically certain about choosing The Gap for their next clothing purchase.

Brand Attributes

Overall, people seem to attribute several positive brand traits to The Gap. Consumers feel that it is made by a trustworthy company, respectable, reflects the kind of person they are, and exudes quality. However, consumers were even more likely to attribute those same qualities to Macy’s and Levi’s as well. Those who viewed the ad were not significantly more likely to attribute any of those qualities to The Gap. But they were slightly less likely to attribute some of those qualities to competitors like Levi’s and Macy’s.

Key Takeaways

The Gap’s #DoYou campaign is an entire branding initiative intended to appear on multiple different platforms. But the ad seemed to have very little impact on consumer opinions. There were some very small positive effects from the ad, especially if you just look at social media users. But one ad on its own is unlikely to make a significant difference. If The Gap is able to share enough of its branded content on various channels so that people see multiple ads or marketing messages from the campaign, it could have a small impact. But overall, it's unlikely that the #DoYou campaign is going to make any difference in sales or consumer opinions for The Gap on its own. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Midcentury Gap Store by Phillip Pessar under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on August 15-16 via AYTM’s online survey panel.