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The Gap Inc.

Delivered September 25, 2019. Contributor: Ashley N.

Goals

Provide insights showing the total ad spend, breakdown of ad spend by platform, links of advertising campaigns from the past year, total number campaigns per year, percentage of brand's revenue that comes from international national sales, and how the brands advertising efforts and spend has changed over the past five years, for each of the following brands (all of which that are owned by Gap Inc.): Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, Intermix, Hill City, and Janie & Jack.





Early Findings

Gap Inc.

  • Gap's 2018 annual report notes that the company as a whole (Gap Inc.) has been increasingly relying on social media and digital advertising.
  • The company notes that their operating expenses have been increasing over the past 3-4 years which is partially due to an increase in their advertising efforts.
  • In 2018, Gap Inc.'s total advertising spend was $650 million.
  • In 2017, Gap Inc.'s total advertising spend was $673 million. 
  • In 2016, Gap Inc.'s total advertising spend was $601 million.  

Gap Global (Not Gap Inc. as a whole)

  • U.S. 2018 revenues were $2.99 billion.
  • Canada 2018 revenues were $379 million.
  • Europe 2018 revenues were $589 million.
  • Asia 2018 revenues were $1.089 billion.
  • Other geo regions had a revenue of $113 million in 2018.
  • Total revenues for Gap Global were $5.160 billion in 2018.

Banana Republic

  • U.S. 2018 revenues were $2.09 billion.
  • Canada 2018 revenues were $277 million.
  • Europe 2018 revenues were $14 million.
  • Asia 2018 revenues were $94 billion.
  • Other geo regions had a revenue of $26 million in 2018.
  • Total revenues for Gap Global were $2.456 billion in 2018.

    • Other Brands

    • Gap Inc.'s annual report does not itemize their revenues for the following brands: Athleta, Intermix, Hill City, Janie & Jack. Instead, these revenues are lumped together under the companies 'other brands' category in their annual report revenue breakdowns. One exception is Janie & Jack, as this brand was acquired in March 2019, therefore, sales and data for this brand are not included in the company's 2018 report.
    • Collectively, the company's revenue for 'other brands' in the U.S. in 2018 was $1.121 billion. In Canada, the 2018 revenue for other brands was $3 million. The company does not report any revenues for their other brands in Europe, Asia, or other regions. The total revenue for the 'other brands' category in 2018 was $1.124 billion.

    RESULTS OF INITIAL RESEARCH

    • It appears that Gap Inc. does not provide an official breakdown fo their advertising efforts/spend in terms of brandname or advertising channel.
    • The majority of financial information that the Gap Inc. publishes references the company as a whole, but sometimes breaks down the data by their major brands (specifically Old Navy, Gap Global, and Banana Republic), however, they do not provide a detailed breakdown of their other smaller brands.
    • Additional initial research for the ad spend of the other aforementioned brands across trusted media sites and company databases corroborates this lack of information.

    Proposed next steps:

    You need to be the project owner to select a next step.
    Initial research suggests that the majority of the information requested about the aforementioned brands is not publicly available due to the fact that the Gap Inc. does not make such detailed financial and advertising data about each of their brands publicly available in their annual and proxy reports. Despite this, further research would need to be conducted in order to perform a deep dive into each of these brands in order to concretely determine which of the following pieces of information is and is not available: 1) The total ad spend. 2) Breakdown of ad spend by platform/channel. 3) Links of advertising campaigns from the past year. 4) Total number campaigns per year (past year or on average). 5) Percentage of the brand's revenue that comes from international national sales. 6) How the brands advertising efforts and spend has changed over the past five years. In doing so, each of the following brands will be analyzed: Gap Global/the brand (not Gap Inc. as a whole), Banana Republic, Athleta, Intermix, Hill City, and Janie & Jack. In this case, we could try to zero in on U.S. specific data, but due to the limited amount of information, we may need to focus globally if U.S. specific insights cannot be located. It is likely that much of the requested information will not found.
    Alternatively, because it's unlikely that the requested financial breakdowns of each brand will be available (i.e. total ad spend, breakdown of ad spend by platform type/channel, revenue), research can instead be focused on/limited to the following: 1) Links of advertising campaigns from the past year. 2) Total number campaigns per year (past year or on average). 3) How the brands advertising efforts and spend has changed over the past five years. In doing so, we can analyze the following brands: Gap Global/the brand 'The Gap' (not Gap Inc. as a whole), Banana Republic, Athleta, Intermix, Hill City, and Janie & Jack. In this case, we could try to zero in on U.S. specific data, but due to the limited amount of information, we may need to focus globally if U.S. specific insights cannot be located.
    As a last option, because the Gap Inc. tends to consolidate their advertising data and present it as a whole or only provide a breakdown of information for some of its brands, we can focus the research on Gap Inc. as a whole and present a profile for Gap Inc. which covers the following details: 1) The company's total ad spend. 2) The percentage of channel-specific advertising (i.e. %social media, %mobile, %TV, etc. or any other relevant breakdown). 3) Links of advertising campaigns from the past year (campaigns can be for any of Gap Inc's brands) 4) Total number campaigns per year (past year or on average) -- Campaigns can be for Gap Inc. as a whole or provide breakdown for any of their brands. 5) Percentage of the company's revenue that comes from international national sales. 6) How the brands advertising efforts and spend has changed over the past five years. In this case, we could try to zero in on U.S. specific data, but due to the limited amount of information, we may need to focus globally if U.S. specific insights cannot be located. This would be a high-level analysis and may include any relevant information that was already identified during the initial research phase.