Gap, Inc. Displays Dynamic Denim Advertising
1) Email Advertisements: extremely cost effective way of reaching customers about promotions, coupons, new products and more through email; as long as the advertisements are permission based, this method is one of the most effective ways to reach consumers and repeat business
(Information cited from the following links: http://www.sba.gov/content/email-marketing and http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/gettingtrafficmarketing/a/Why-You-Need-Email-Marketing-Advertising-For-Your-Online-Business.htm)
2) Search Engine Advertisements: used to create more traffic for a company's webpage; may be paid or unpaid; when consumers search specific keywords in a search engine like Google, links to companies with matches keywords will appear; used mainly with Google, Yahoo and Bing
(Information cited from the following links: (http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-sem and http://www.wordstream.com/search-engine-marketing)
As a previous employee of Gap Inc., I chose to research the online advertising done by the company. Currently ranked at 179 on the Fortune 500, Gap uses many forms of online advertising. The two I will be reviewing are email advertisements and search engine advertisements.
1) Gap Email Advertisement
The goal of this email advertisement is to get consumers to check out Gap's new line of skinny jeans. The target audience is women because all of the products advertised in this email are women's products. When you click on any of the pictures in the email, it directs you to the women's portion of Gap.com.
The subject line of the email, "The best thing in skinnies? (Besides you)", was a very cute lead-in to what the email was selling. Although the pictures in the email were fairly monotoned, the font was big, bold and blue. Plus, the text was creative. "Cuff Love" deals with not only the skinny jeans, but the fact that Valentine's Day is a few days away. Further in the email, they used a catchy phrase, "More Tees, Please!".
2) Gap Search Engine Advertisement
This search engine result proved that one of Gap's html keywords is women's jeans. When searching "women's jeans" in Google, Gap.com is the first website to show up on the results page. The goal of this form of advertising is to attract any woman who is shopping for jeans online. Obviously, the target audience for this search engine ad is women. When you follow the Gap.com link, it takes you directly to the women's jeans page on the Gap website.
I did some experimenting and noticed that Gap is not the first link to show up when you search "women's jeans" on Yahoo or Bing. This suggests that maybe there is some sort of payment or alliance going on amongst Gap and Google.
I believe that the email advertisement is more effective than the search engine advertisement. Email advertisements reach people who are existing customers of Gap. Consumers receive emails from Gap because they want to hear about deals and products specifically from the Gap. Most sales that occur within a company are from loyal consumers who provide repeat business.
Since search engine advertisements are a result for anyone who searches "women's jeans" on Google, I think this is a less successful advertisement. Someone looking for women's jeans is not necessarily interested or committed to Gap.
Using social media advertisements might be a good idea for Gap. If loyal Gap consumers support Gap on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., they might influence their peers to browse Gap.com or shop in stores.