Dive Brief:

• The Gap and Banana Republic brands are eliminating the title and role of global CMO. 
• Replacing the CMO roles will be a head of customer experience title that broadens the CMO role to include e-commerce. 
• The new leadership position is part of a broader restructuring at the Gap brand that merges the two departments to keep a strong focus on the customer. 

Dive Insight:

Gap's current CMO Seth Farbman is stepping down effective Jan. 31, and Banana Republic's CMO Catherine Sadler stepped down late last year. Ultimately, the Gap brands are clearly trying to redefine what has always been true about marketing: The focus is on the customer. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in other details while in a CMO role, but all customer-facing brands have an ultimate responsibility to be serving customers first. A restructuring and title change could help the struggling Gap brands get back on track. In the world of fast fashion, a heavy customer service approach could set the brands apart from the Forever 21 and H&Ms of the retail world.