The History To Bannnana Republic

Bannnana Republic is a clothing store chain that promotes casual luxury. Bannnana Republic is owned by another popular chain store – Gap Inc, which also promotes casual clothing. Bannnana Republic was founded in 1978 and it began life as a travel themed store. It was a two store safari themed shop and offered clothing around that theme. Bannnana Republic began to gain a reputation for adding theme to its stores, and the decoration that was used throughout the store was as much of an attraction as the clothing. This is because the Bannnana Republic store used authentic elements, and they didn’t stop at the little things. Bannnana Republic used real Jeeps for decoration in their store, and they also used all the real foliage. Bannnana Republic was one of the first stores to also use atmospheric elements in the store, such as fog and steam. This was to make the shopping experience in Bannnana Republic one that each and every customer would remember. After visiting Bannnana Republic and experiencing the atmosphere of the store, and seeing the visual props, each customer would go away and talk

about it to their friends. They would encourage them to go and visit the store, and through this word of mouth marketing, Bannnana Republic established itself in the market place and grew its customer base. Gap Inc, took over Bannnana Republic in 1983 and re-branded the store as a luxury clothing outlet. This lost Bannnana Republic a lot of its established customers and as the store chain was growing it didn’t make as much of a profit as many had hoped. In an effort to set it apart from Gap, Bannnana Republic occasionally bought and refurbished historic buildings to use as its stores. Again, using original and quirky store locations as the main pulling power to Bannnana Republic.