Ten Brands That Will Disappear In 2012
Brands that have stood the test of time for decades are falling by the wayside at an alarming rate. For instance, Pontiac – a major car brand since 1926 – is gone, shut down by a struggling GM. Blockbuster is in the process of dismantling, after it once controlled the VHS and DVD markets. House & Garden folded after 106 years. It succumbed to the advertising downturn, a lot of competition, and the cost of paper and postage. Its demise echoed the 1972 shutdown of what is probably the most famous magazine in history–Life. That was a long time ago, but it serves to demonstrate that no brand is too big to fail if it is overwhelmed by competition, new inventions, costs, or poor management.
This year’s list of The Ten Brands That Will Disappear takes a methodical approach in deciding which brands will walk the plank. The major criteria were as follows: (1) a rapid fall-off in sales and steep losses; (2) disclosures by the parent of the brand that it might go out of business; (3) rapidly rising costs that are extremely unlikely to be recouped through higher prices; (4) companies which are sold; (5) companies that go into bankruptcy; (6) firms that have lost the great majority of their customers; or (7) operations with rapidly withering market share. Each of the ten brands on the list suffer from one or more of these problems. Each of the ten will be gone, based on our definitions, within 18 months.
The list:
- Sony Pictures
- A&W
- Saab
- American Apparel
- Sears
- Sony Ericsson
- Kellogg’s Corn Pops
- MySpace
- Soap Opera Digest
- Nokia
Comments:
- A&W will continue to exist as a DPS beverage
- Kodak is close to extinction
- The name "Baptist" (and I lament this) has been sorely tarnished by KJVonlism, legalism, shallow preaching, authoritarianism, and isolationism that I fear it will soon disappear as a brand in North America. Baptists today are far from their founding documents and history!
