The Pontiflex Blog

TV Ads a waste of money for GAP

May 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm Arun Krishnan Leave a comment

There was a time when an hour of TV wouldn’t fly by without a TV commercial advertising the therapeutic qualities of wearing apparel from GAP. And now, in the current economic downturn, the brand has decided to move away from TV advertising.

To quote from the article, GAP Chairman and CEO Mr. Glenn Murphy said that the brand would have to fulfill the following four criteria to justify a marketing spend: good product, well-run retail environments, an imaginative, creative” message for the target consumer, and whether the consumer is ready to respond to the marketing.

The question really should not whether brands should spend during a downturn, but really on how they should spend their advertising dollars.

To give just one example, GAP could invest in contextually relevant Cost-per-lead advertising and pay only for leads that have expressed an interest in the GAP brand. They could use these leads to bolster their lists and run member loyalty programs with promotions geared to get those feet back and tapping in their stores.

That would ensure a higher ROI on their advertising – i.e. GAP would get returns on every marketing dollar. What’s more the people responding to their messages would have to opt-in to be contacted by GAP – a sure sign that a consumer is interested in the marketing message.

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