When Millennials were coming of age in the 1990s, Gap\u2019s fragrances, with names like Heaven and Dream, gained a cult following. Now the retailer is trying to use a new line of scents to generate some much-needed buzz with today\u2019s tweens and teens.<\/p>\n
Gap Inc. is making its biggest foray into the beauty category in years with the launch of Old Navy Beauty Co. in some stores this week. The line, which includes hair and body mists, has brightly colored packaging with zeitgeisty names such as Vibe and Thrill and scents called juicy pear and seductive vanilla. They were created with Robertet, the French fragrance company also behind Sol de Janeiro \u2014 one of the hottest brands in beauty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to attract new customers,\u201d said Haio Barbeito, Old Navy\u2019s president and chief executive officer.<\/p>\n
Part of Gap Chief Executive Officer Richard Dickson\u2019s strategy to revive the stagnant retailer is to make it more culturally relevant, much like he did with the Barbie brand at toymaker Mattel Inc. He\u2019s prioritized splashy ad campaigns with celebrities and collaborated with up-and-coming brands. The push into fragrance is jumping on the beauty boom among US teenagers.<\/p>\n
Gap has been showing progress. Total company sales gained 1.3% last fiscal year, just the second gain in six years. But to really get the company back on track, it needs to win over Gen Alpha (tweens) and Gen Z (teens and young adults) and hold on to them as customers for years \u2014 much like the company did during its heyday in the 90s.<\/p>\n
But it won\u2019t be easy. Competition is fierce for those shoppers, especially within beauty. The company\u2019s recent attempts in the category haven\u2019t produced any hits. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had beauty at Old Navy, as well as with other Gap brands, and it is a healthy business, but it hasn\u2019t been like a knock out of the park,\u201d said Deb Redmond, Gap\u2019s general manager of beauty.<\/p>\n
Gap is betting this time will be different. The Old Navy line spans mists to lotion and body wash and will start being tested in 150 of its stores and then expand to more locations by the summer of 2026. As part of this offering, Old Navy will also be selling products from other brands, including Neutrogena and Aveeno \u2014 both owned by Kenvue Inc. \u2014 and Mario Badescu.<\/p>\n
Prices range from about $8 to $17. That falls in line with the Old Navy brand\u2019s positioning as one of the cheaper US apparel chains.<\/p>\n
The company is first expanding beauty at Old Navy \u2014 its biggest unit with more than $8 billion in sales and accounting for roughly 55% of the company\u2019s total revenue. The Gap brand is also planning a launch into the category, including new versions of its popular scents that were a big hit a quarter century ago.<\/p>\n
Meier writes for Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Millennials were coming of age in the 1990s, Gap\u2019s fragrances, with names like Heaven and Dream, gained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4521,22316,22320,22321,1804,22314,1554,22322,22317,22313,22318,101,103,102,22315,104,106,105,360,22319,72],"class_list":["post-30282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-beauty","tag-beauty-category","tag-body-mist","tag-chief-executive-officer","tag-company","tag-gap","tag-name","tag-new-customer","tag-new-line","tag-old-navy","tag-other-gap-brand","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-scent","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-teen","tag-tween","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}