{"id":2404775,"date":"2026-05-06T16:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2404775"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:17:57","slug":"old-navy-turns-to-retail-entertainment-vet-to-invigorate-turnaround","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/old-navy-turns-to-retail-entertainment-vet-to-invigorate-turnaround\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Navy turns to retail, entertainment vet to invigorate turnaround"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <br \/>\n        Listen to the article<\/p>\n<p>            <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">2 min<\/span><\/p>\n<p>    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/819439\/2026-05-06_12.15.59\/old-navy-retail-entertainment-veteran-walmart-target-dreamworks-invigorate-turnaround.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/contact\/\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Gap Inc. has tapped an executive with retail and entertainment experience to serve as chief customer officer at its Old Navy banner and as head of marketing shared services for the whole enterprise.<\/li>\n<li>Michael Francis, founder and CEO <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michael-francis-5ba10219a\/details\/experience\/\">of strategic marketing firm<\/a> Farview Associates until last month, has held leadership posts at Walmart, Target, DreamWorks and J.C. Penney.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>At Old Navy, reporting to brand CEO Haio Barbeito,\u00a0he is tasked with \u201cstrengthening brand storytelling, deepening customer engagement, and evolving the customer experience across touchpoints.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Since Richard Dickson <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/what-gap-inc-needs-from-its-new-ceo\/689778\/\">took the CEO job<\/a> in 2023, Gap Inc. has showered its value brand with opportunities, bringing in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/zac-posen-gap-inc-creative-director-old-navy-yeezy\/706654\/\">Zac Posen<\/a> to serve as chief creative officer and centering its <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/gap-inc-old-navy-launch-beauty-accessories-handbags\/759253\/\">new beauty effort<\/a> there.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests that Gap Inc. sees Old Navy\u2019s appeal beyond low prices. Before this appointment, Francis had been advising the brand, according to an emailed press release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld Navy has a powerful connection with customers and enormous opportunity ahead,\u201d Francis said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m excited to partner with Haio and the team to build on that momentum, elevate the customer experience and tell stories that are distinctive, modern and unmistakably Old Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image-right inside_story\">\n<div class=\"figure_content\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A person with glasses wearing a denim shirt and jacket.\" data-imagemodel=\"-1\" src=\"https:\/\/imgproxy.divecdn.com\/bVEHgaKxI59PUGSErMhPeTGv9AtLsrVfNDMm7hdQTQ0\/raw:1\/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS9NX0ZyYW5jaXNfZ2FwX2luY18tXzEuanBlZw==\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"inside_story_caption\">\n<p>Michael Francis<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Gap Inc.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a statement, Barbeito called Old Navy \u201ca beloved brand with real momentum\u201d and said that Francis \u201cwill help sharpen how we show up for customers and strengthen every connection they have with Old Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The brand has been a growth machine since Gap Inc. launched it in 1994, grabbing market share and revenue as the namesake plummeted and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/how-gap-lost-marketing-vibe-branding-merchandising\/693479\/\">faded from view<\/a>. Last year Old Navy furnished <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net\/CIK-0000039911\/2e0abe22-2c22-427f-b802-b21897b94291.pdf\">more than half the company\u2019s revenue<\/a>, reaching $8.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Growth has slowed in recent years, in part because value consumers are squeezed, but executives in March told analysts that Old Navy is once again becoming a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/4879278-the-gap-inc-gap-q4-2025-earnings-call-transcript\">reliable growth engine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.retaildive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the article 2 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: Gap Inc. has tapped an executive with retail and entertainment experience to serve as chief customer officer at its Old Navy banner and as head of marketing shared services for the whole enterprise. Michael Francis, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2404777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2404775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Old-Navy-turns-to-retail-entertainment-vet-to-invigorate-turnaround.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2404778,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404775\/revisions\/2404778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2404777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}