Company Overview

           In 1969, Doris and Don Fisher founded the original Gap Store in San Francisco California with only a handful of workers. Now, Gap inc. is a multinational company with six different brands- Gap, Athleta, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Intermix, and now, Hill City (Gap, 2018). According to Gap’s LinkedIn page, they have almost three-thousand two-hundred stores and more than one hundred fifty thousand employees (Gap, 2018). Gap doesn’t publicize how many states they operate stores in, because some are regular flagship stores and some are franchise stores, they like to draw attention to the fact that they operate in forty-three countries (LinkedIn, 2018). Though they are now a global brand, Gap Inc.’s word headquarters are still centered in the San Francisco bay area, with other Headquarters in the United Kingdom, China, Canada, and Japan (Gap, 2018).

Gap Inc.’s mission statement claims that the company devotes most of its energy to ensuring that Gap is non-discriminatory in its hiring practices, and that working for Gap is harassment-free (Gap, 2018); For example, Gap’s pursuit of including different sized models in their advertisements, as well as widening the range of models that they hire, shows that they are in fact devoted to equality and equal opportunity (Gap, 2018).

Gap Inc offers a variety of goods and services depending on which brand a customer purchases from. For example, Gap stores specifically offer eclectic, casual American style pieces, and Old Navy offers similar style with more of a focus on teenagers and young people for a lower price (Gap 2, 2012). Banana Republic focuses on delivering contemporary, classy as well as classic styles for a higher price than Old Navy (Gap 2, 2012). Athleta is a lifestyle brand that offers up-scale workout and yoga clothing as an alternative to brands like Lululemon. Intermix delivers more trendy and modern items, for a higher price (Gap 2, 2012). Finally, the newest out of the group, Hill City offers a “forward thinking” and functional type of clothing designed for athletic performance as well as casual, comfortable pieces (

Gap Inc.’s Primary SIC code is 5651 and their NAICS is 448140 for family clothing stores (Siccode, 2018). Gap Inc. is wholly part of the fashion industry; every brand offered by the corporation is considered a lifestyle or fashion brand. As most people know, the fashion industry is deeply competitive, which likely explains why Gap’s stock price plummeted by 22% in 2016 because they could not keep up with the highly competitive market.

At Gap, the primary product being offered is “compelling[1] , covetable apparel and accessories” that “found the ideal mix of style, quality, and price that positioned them to win in the market-place” (Gap, 2018). As for services, Gap typically focuses on supplying affordable, practical, and aesthetically pleasing clothing to everyone in the family through different branches of their company. Each branch of Gap inc. has a different service that is offered; for example, in a publication in 2013, Gap outlined its stellar services that were offered by each branch (Gap Inc) mandating that its services included “the bright and fresh colors that highlighted Gap’s casual style, Banana Republic’s focus on “new work” that established a growing dominance in styles for the office, and Old Navy’s commitment to deliver everyday fashion essentials for the entire family” (Gap, 2018).