Gap Inc. announced second-quarter profits were up a staggering 25% yesterday, driven by an increase in sales at its namesake brand, up a 6% from a year earlier.
Gap credited new jean styles for the soaring sales.
The company's recent "Back To Blue" campaign touts Gap's classic denim, a style staple of the 1990s.
"They obviously have had momentum in the business,” Anna Andreeva, a
Gap, which is America's largest clothing chain, went through a rough patch for several years.
In 2011, the chain announced it was closing hundreds of stores, many top managers jumped ship, and sales of the brand's signature jeans and sweaters fell off.
So how did Gap execute an amazing turnaround?
Its marketing campaigns, such as this one profiling rising music stars, have given the retailer credibility with the young crowd.
Chief Marketing Officer Seth Farbman said the company would be focusing on millennials when he took over two years ago. And Gap worked out its identity crisis and went back to the t-shirt and denim looks consumers loved.
Executives also recruited tons of talent from successful brands like J. Crew to make the overall product better.
Spencer Jakab at The Wall Street Journal wrote last year that Gap was finally becoming cool for the first time since Bill Clinton was in office.
"The Gap seems to have gotten its mojo back. The last time the specialty apparel retailer was cool, Bill Clinton was in the White House," Jakab wrote. "Now, a number of design and marketing initiatives finally seem to have paid off and the stock is again trading at levels last seen around the turn of the century."