GAP Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

GAP - Research Paper Example In as much as it is a publicly traded company in the United States of America, Gap’s brand is known all over the world. Currently, it is a billion dollar company that has over one hundred thousand employees in all its stores spread all over the world. Gap Inc. headquarters is currently in San Francisco, California. However, it also has some of its design offices London, San Francisco and London. The company’s brand name is Gap, and it sells clothing to all groups of people ranging from males, females and children. Gap operates five principal divisions namely; Banana Republic, Piperlime, the namesake banner, Athleta, and Old Navy. The Piperlime is its online store that sells handbags and shoes to its customers; the Banana Republic brand demonstrates a high quality and a luxurious brand; Athleta is a novel brand that was created by athletic women to make and sell athletic clothing to active women; and Old Navy brand which meets the demands for all the cost-conscious customers (Rosenbloom, 2008). From all these, it is evident that Gap Inc. covers and all people and meets the demands of almost all age groups. From its inception, Gap Inc. has remained the largest specialty retailer in United States of America despite being surpassed by Inditex Group, a Spanish-based company, as a the world’s leading apparel retailer. Some of its strengths that have enabled it to remain relevant in the market include; brand recognition, multiple stores worldwide, segmented markets, product utility, among others (Maheshwari, 2012). However, it failed to acknowledge the importance of its customers by paying lots of attention to its expansion strategies, instead of meeting the customer needs. It is a fact that expansion strategies can only be successful when apposite research is done. Concentrating on expansion strategies is correct for several stores only when they have a strong foothold in the market, or when their customers are extremely loyal. However, these two fundamental