After a year-long hunt for the company’s CEO, Richard Dickson left to become CEO of Gap in August, having previously worked for toymaker Mattel.
According to Dickson, the clothing company’s products were “lost in the message” of its heavily discounted online marketing.
The success of the “Barbie” movie over the summer is attributed to him for turning around the fortunes of Mattel’s Barbie brand.
Richard Dickson, the CEO of New Gap, has talked about his experience since joining the beleaguered company in August from Mattel’s toy division.
He claimed on Wednesday that “you barely knew what we were actually selling,” explaining how the company’s four clothing brands had primarily relied on sales and discounts.
Dickson was speaking to a crowd at the Voices conference in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, which was arranged by the clothing industry website The Business of Fashion. A screen grab of the Gap website featuring prominent money-off messages was projected behind him on stage. Dickson described this as typical of the company’s brands “a few months ago.”
“There was some clarification that needed to be added to the consumer conversation. Dickson continued, “Our product is excellent, but it gets lost in the message.
Gap beat analyst expectations when it released its third-quarter earnings earlier this month, but its prediction for holiday sales was underwhelming. Same-store sales at its flagship Gap brand decreased 1% and revenue decreased 15% year over year. Sales decreased by 6% when the Gap’s China business and Yeezy Gap were not included. Up roughly 78% so far this year are the shares.
About the doll, Dickson remarked, “She just didn’t reflect what was culturally relevant.” He continued, “Moms had actually shifted from loving Barbie to being turned off by Barbie.” With $575.4 million in North America and $1.35 billion worldwide, the smash hit “Barbie” movie became the highest-grossing U.S. release of 2023 in August. The company’s introduction of diverse body types and ethnicities for Barbie contributed to the turnaround.
Speaking about leaving Mattel for Gap, Dickson recalled, “People thought you’re crazy when I left.” “You have this hugely popular film. a fantastic group and you’re going to be changing at this company. “But that seems crazy to me—I wouldn’t do it,” he remarked.
Together with its namesake banner, the Gap company consists of four brands: Athleta, Old Navy, Banana Republic. “These are amazing brands, but they need to set themselves apart from one another. Every aspect of a brand, including copy, font, and typography, must be communicated precisely. and you’ll start to witness the progression of that journey in each of our brands,” Dickson stated.
Dickson discussed the “origin story” of the Gap, describing how the company began in 1969 as a San Francisco store selling “Levi’s, records, and tapes.” Dickson stated that the original intention of the outlet’s founders, Donald and Doris Fisher, was to call it “The Generation Gap” because they intended for a variety of age groups to shop there. However, Doris Fisher removed the word “Generation,” leaving only “The Gap.”
Dickson stated that Gap must “look back” at this tale “and determine what that ‘cultural conversation’ is today.” He stated.
An ad campaign for jeans that shows a woman wearing “The jeans” in various denim styles. The trousers. “The jeans” as a tagline is a potential direction for Gap’s advertisements, according to Dickson.
