Lately, the business sector has been shaken violently to its very roots and many victims are lying in the ground agonizing. Some of them will not make it.
A number of well-known brands disappeared last year, in large part due to economic forces. Many of them were in the retail industry, led by Circuit City. ATA and Aloha airlines are gone. Gateway Computers has effectively disappeared after being bought by Acer. It still has a website, but the brand is no longer marketed. Even as we speak, car maker Chrysler is fighting to keep itself afloat and GM is also in a similar situation.
As the recession deepens and stretches out quarter after quarter, more companies will close or will shut divisions. More brands will disappear because their parents firms fold or can no longer afford to support them. Other brands will be obliterated by mergers.
In a recent study made by 24/7 Wall St. the following twelve major brands will probably survive until the end of next year. Let’s take a look.
- Budget Rent-a-Car
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Borders, the No.2 operator of book stores behind Barnes & Noble.
- Crocs, seller of the fastest growing footwear in America at one point.
- Saturn, created by former GM CEO Roger Smith to be the company’s platform for manufacturing and marketing innovation.
- Esquire Magazine owned by the Hearst publishing empire.
- Old Navy of the Gap Group
- Architectural Digest Magazine owned by Conde Nast which is controlled by the Newhouse family. (I regret the disappearance of this excellent magazine.)
- Chrysler. When the company is restructuring Chrysler will be gone.
- Eddie Bauer, the company could be out of business by mid-year.
- Palm. The bottom line is that Palm has no chance of getting an even modest part of the smartphone market in a severe economic downturn since it competes with two of the premier technology companies in the world—Apple and RIM. Palm won’t be in business in a year.
- AIG, it may be the one large brand in America which almost everyone would like to see disappear.
- United Airlines is walking a thin line and it’s most likely to close doors as the airline industry faces substantial overcapacity.
I’m sure that before the financial tsunami is over, there will be more brands added to this black list. We are definitely living through uncertain times. Good Day.
Source: Twelve Major Brands That Will Disappear – 24/7 Wall St.
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