Upheavals
The reputation contradiction
24/7 Wall Street, an online financial news Web site, has published a list of the brands it believes could be dead by next year: Budget rental cars; Borders books; Crocs footwear; Saturn vehicles; Esquire magazine; Old Navy apparel; Architectural Digest magazine; Chrysler brand cars; Eddie Bauer; Palm; AIG; and United Air Lines. You can read their rationale for why here.
Are they right? We’ll see. The key take-out is that just because these are brands we all know and recognise doesn’t mean they’re safe – Crocs, for example, or Palm. Reading the analysis is an interesting exercise in just how volatile value can be and how much and how quickly circumstances can change – which brings into question again the worth of brand valuation models.
It also leads to one of those existential truths (if there can be such a thing) that makes working with brands so interesting – reputation can absolutely save you, or not save you at all.
POSTED: Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Suggest your own upheavals by writing to us with your thoughts on a critical issue facing business today. Reach Mark directly at mark@markdisomma.com
