Brands That Might Sunset in 2016

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are looking at brands that may not survive in the year ahead.

We have discussed numerous times that to remain successful a brand has to be unique, relevant and resonate with their customers and potential customers. Another key element to brand success is being top of mind with consumers when it is time to make a purchase.

Below is the list of brands 24/7 Wall Street is predicting will disappear in the coming year along with a brief description of key reasons for their demise:

• Smart Cars – Sales plummeting amid stiff competition from other automakers
• Office Max – Ripe for takeover as online retailers eat into sales; will fade away if merger with Office Depot is approved
• American Apparel – Not keeping pace with customer preferences
• PacSun – Revenue per locations is not strong and still on the decline
• A&P – Not keeping up with trends and in bankruptcy as they face strong competition
• Volkswagen’s TDI brand – decimated by the gas mileage scandal
• US Airways – Fading away as American Airlines continues to absorb the airline after 2013 merger
• Ashley Madison – Their brand promise of privacy was destroyed overnight by a data breech, the company will face an uphill battle to entice new customers into trusting the site
• RadioShack – Bankruptcy forced the sales of assets; the electronics chain is not likely to survive new ownership and branding changes
• Sears – Along with subsidiary Kmart, has lost $1 billion annually for the last several years and sales continue double-digit declines for Sears

All of these have been very strong brands; some for a short time others for over 100 years. The lesson to be learned for looking at these businesses reinforces the keys elements of a successful brand described above. Stay fresh and continuously reinvent your brand to keep up with consumer preferences and trends. Stay top of mind by Branding Bold in 2016.

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