Gap recruits new CMO from Adidas

The CMO door is swinging at Gap again. The San Francisco-based retailer has tapped Alegra O'Hare as senior VP and CMO. A 12-year veteran of Adidas, O'Hare will join the apparel brand on Feb. 25. She was most recently VP of global brand communications at Adidas Originals and Style. "I have always admired Gap's ethos, including the culture, creativity and heritage of the brand," O'Hare said in a statement. She noted that she's tasked with shifting brand perception and amplifying Gap's stories. Doing so has been a heavy lift for the once-mighty brand, which has fallen victim to changing consumer tastes in both product and channel. Gap's former CMO Craig Brommers, who joined the brand three years ago from Abercrombie, is no longer with the company, a Gap spokeswoman confirmed. Brommers joined a year after the chain had said it was doing away with the CMO position. In recent campaigns, such as the holiday period's "Meet Me in the Gap," the brand has focused on trying to resurrect its '90s heyday with nostalgia, music and color. The company has often worked with agency Yard on such marketing. Last June, Gap appointed Neil Fiske, who had been with clothing brand Billabong, to lead its namesake brand as CEO and president. Fiske was tasked with improving marketing along with product and brand positioning. On a recent conference call, Art Peck, CEO of parent company Gap Inc., spoke about improving the chain's marketing. "I am always hopeful that was we improve the product and get our marketing in line, et cetera, that we start to get positive lift out of the business," Peck said on the call, which occurred with analysts following the company's third-quarter earnings release. For the period, same-store sales at Gap were down 7 percent compared with the year-earlier period.

Gap recruits new CMO from Adidas

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