Categories
Archives
Where Do Brands Go When They Die?
John Cassella, our creative director, passed along a pretty interesting link to me the other day about how the credit crisis is snuffing out some pretty huge brands on a regular basis these days. The article points specifically to 15 everyday brands that might not make it through 2009 alive without a divine intervention. Yikes.
Among those brands are some favorites such as Chrysler, Rite Aid, Six Flags, Trump Casinos, Sirius Satellite Radio…and even Krispy Kreme donuts! It’s hard to imagine big, successful companies like these are potentially going to cease to exist—especially after all the millions of dollars and thousands of hours invested in building their brands. We’ve seen it already with Circuit City, Aloha Airlines and Tweeter (not Twitter!).
But what happens to them when they die? In many cases they’re gone forever, destined to live on only as a Wikipedia page and a few bits of memorabilia for auction on Ebay. It’s pretty sad, really, when you consider that so much has been invested to build equity in the brand, only to have it turned to dust when the company shutters. Some really powerful brands (remember Nuprin, the little, yellow, different pill?) are lucky enough to be purchased by companies that specialize in nurturing legacy brands with the goal of bringing them back to life to capitalize on existing brand equity.
I was just thinking this morning about how I really wish there were a place (a blog, perhaps?) that both cataloged dead brands from the past as well as kept the public up to date about brands that are in peril. So far all I’ve been able to find is BrandLandUSA, but that’s not exactly what I was looking for. I’d love to have a resource – a catalog of sorts that would allow me to learn more about what happened in each case that contributed to the death. Kind of like Brand New, but the exact opposite. I don’t think it exists, so who wants to help me put it together?
by
Comments
There are no comments for this entry yet.