Yes, Gap is again searching for a new agency to generate creative ideas for their upcoming campaign. This is their strategy to reach their goal of increasing sales. I guess it is hard for a one-time market leader to actually do something different.

To save me from repeating myself, here’s last year’s blog: The Challenger Gap!

I still have my 1988 Gap jean jacket. It is increasingly becoming buried in the back of my closet. But as a loyalist, I’m still rooting for you, Gap. If this year’s campaign doesn’t work, maybe you’ll think about a brand spanking.

Can the Gap brand be saved?

The all-American brand of the Gap has been under scrutiny over the last several years from Wall Street analysts, branding industry leaders and advertising publications all asking roughly the same question: Can the Gap brand be saved? The topic even came up earlier this year on Gap’s own Facebook discussion board, albeit without much action.

The most recent move by the Gap was to go outside of their agency of record relationship to hire Crispin for their holiday season campaign. A bold move? Yes. The correct move? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. I am fairly certain Crispin will be very creative. However a clever holiday campaign may boost year-end sales, but will it truly save the Gap brand?

No. To truly save their brand, Gap must step outside of their comfort zone and think like a Challenger Brand. (Yes, Gap executives, Brand Spanking® can help even the market leader!) So many other retailers, including those within Gap Inc.’s own brand family, have mimicked them for such a long time, that the consumer can’t distinguish clearly one from the other. And Gap, who was once the market leader, has been standing still while the others have been steadily gaining market share. The Gap brand has become diluted by the same old message that consumers don’t care if they are shopping at Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle or Abercrombie & Fitch. The Gap must break out of the category that they themselves created to take rightful ownership again. They must be bold, and change the rules of the game.

As I sit here nostalgically in my 1988 Gap jean jacket, I am rooting for the Gap brand and begging for them to break the rules and surprise me! Unfortunately, this shift in thinking must come from the top, not from a clever advertising campaign.

Companies that are not the market leaders in their industries need special advice about how to compete. For example, when a Challenger Brand company like K-Swiss, a shoemaker with 3% of the athletic shoe market, looks for an agency, they need three important qualities. First, they need an agency that understands their prime customers. Second, they need an agency experienced in image-driven products.

The first of these two things an agency can learn through primary and secondary research and by firsthand field studies of members of the target audience. The second comes with having worked on branding and marketing campaigns for companies whose products or services are historically commoditized or where the market has been primarily price driven.

But third, and perhaps most important, they need an agency that is not afraid to speak truth to its client; the honest truth about their brand, even if it’s painful to hear. What Challenger Brands need and want most is honesty. Only then can the real work of shaping brands and engaging customers begin.

Challenger Brands have to develop a clear and resonant “voice” and speak with that one voice throughout all communications, internal and external. Good Challenger Brand agencies listen, monitor, help shape and advise until Challenger Brand companies become very, very good at projecting their brands.

Another special service that Challenger Brands need from their agencies is confidence-building support in the face of overriding pressure to conform. Challenger Brands are often pushed to adhere to standard industry practices, compare themselves to the market leader and compete according to unwritten rules that the market leader has established. If the Challenger’s products or services are truly breakthrough innovations, they may even be derided and ridiculed by the market leader whose continued success depends on the status quo.

This is where Challenger Brand agencies really shine. Their task is to reassure Challenger Brands and keep them focused on the prize; whispering affirmations in their ears as bold and provocative branding and marketing strategies are about to be executed.

And this is where true Challenger Brands show their stripes. They work through their fear and follow through.