Old Navy Marketing Plan

Old Navy operates a chain of 960 stores in North America. Old Navy offers its own brand if women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing and accessories at discount prices. According to Yahoo Finance, in 2006, the company’s revenue grew 1.6 percent to $6.86 billion.

Business Mission

Old Navy is a brand owned by Gap, Inc. As a whole, Gap’s purpose is “to make it easy for you to express your personal style throughout your life” (www.gapinc.com). The culture of Gap, Inc is governed by their key values: integrity, respect, open-mindedness, quality and balance. One way Gap achieves their purpose is through one of their four brands, Old Navy. The brand is known for offering on-trend apparel and accessories at great value. Old Navy's mission is to offer affordable, fashionable clothing and accessories for the whole family (www.oldnavy.com). Their mission is defined in terms of customer benefits rather than in terms of goods or services. For the remainder of this analysis, the Company will refer to Old Navy and not Gap, Incorporated.

Objectives

Old Navy’s objective, according to Gap, Inc., is to “offer great fashion at great prices for, everyone” (www.gapinc.com). This objective is certainly easily translated into the company’s objective. The company’s mission and objectives illustrates its focus on the customer rather than sales and profits.

The mission and objective translates into their marketing objective. In 2004, after a long period of disappointing sales, Old Navy refocused its efforts on serving the customer. The company educated its employees on all levels of the company from strategic to sales levels. Jenna Whitney, the director of Learning and Development developed a “Service Map” to be displayed in employee areas at every Old Navy location (www.fastcompamy.com). The map provided a guide to “an interactive exchange of dialogue, exercises, and questions that emphasize each individual’s role in providing customer service” (bid). In addition, a certification program was also developed. As a result of it’s revitalised objectives, employees at Old Navy felt more valuable and involved in the organization. This change was recognized both within the organization and by the general public, making Old Navy a major contender as a leading customer service-oriented retailer in the nation.

Although Old Navy’s objectives are not stated in hierarchical order and are not so specific that they can be measured, they are reasonable in light of the company’s objectives. In addition, there is no time-frame specified, because the objectives are continuous in nature.

Old Navy’s main goal is to clearly maximize customer satisfaction.

Situation Analysis (SWOT) Analysis

Strengths

Old Navy’s strengths include the fact that they offer clothing and accessories for the whole family at value prices, they have high brand recognition, including their latest catchy campaign: Get Your Fash’on. Although the company’s first stores only opened in 2004, Old Navy has already developed incredible brand recognition. Old Navy also promotes its brand recognition not only through its numerous recognizable TV, jingles and print ads, but also