Old Navy’s Failure to Penetrate the Chinese Market

FTM 482: Global Brand Management in Textiles and Apparel
North Carolina State University

This project was an analysis of the failure of an apparel brand/retailer in the global marketplace. With a group of 5 of my peers, I researched the failure of Old Navy to expand into China. Our analysis included failure identification, company strategies that led to the failure, market factors that contributed to the failure, and how the company failed to overcome its challenges. This information was then used to suggest potential retail strategies that the brand could have conducted to succeed in the Chinese market.

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I researched the market factors that influenced Old Navy’s failure in China. I found that cultural and consumer factors were where Old Navy fell short. They specifically failed to consider the importance of localizing their products to Chinese consumers. The following factors impacted Old Navy’s failure:

  • failure to consider China’s high-contrast society

  • not realizing the importance of localization

  • lack of social media presence and use of influencers

  • not utilizing the rise of e-commerce and social media shopping

  • lack of brand awareness

  • pricing strategy