Reviving A Dormant Brand
Can a Forsaken Name Give Life To A New Product or Service?
Entrepreneurs are trying to develop niche markets for new products under brand names that have been dormant for years.
Some entrepreneurs believe dead or dormant brands may still have commercial value years after they are dropped or allowed to die. Although a fortune may have been spent to build some brands over several or more years, the promotion and marketing comes to a halt. The product itself is discontinued. The name lives only in the memories of aging consumers.
But to show the potential value of dormant brands, entrepreneurs point to:
- Volkswagen, which lost much of its American business in the 1990s but recovered significantly in the 21st Century with the introduction of its new Beetle model..
- Chrysler, which discontinued its 300 series cars in 1965, but successfully revived that model 34 years later with its 1999 Chrysler 300M. It was still producing and selling the 300 series in 2008.
- White Cloud, which was a brand of tissue paper that Proctor and Gamble dropped in favor of Charmin. An entrepreneur later obtained the dormant name and sold a new toilet paper to Wal-Mart under the White Cloud brand.
Local Savings Bank Revived Bank of New Orleans Name
There are also local examples like the Bank of New Orleans (BNO). It was a community leader for decades, but was eventually swallowed up in a merger and disappeared. Years later a small savings bank gave up its own 90-year-old name, created a logo similar to that of the original BNO and adopted the name Bank of New Orleans. It has been growing ever since and even survived Hurrricane Katrina.
Neither the new bank products, Volkswagen, Chrysler 300 nor the new White Cloud paper are the same as the original products. But according to a New York Times article by Rob Walker, that’s okay because researchers say people remember the brand more than the original product. It’s the brand that they trust.
River West Brands Trying to Capitalize on "Fill It to the Brim"
Walker says River West Brands, a small Chicago firm, in 2008 is trying to capitalize on consumers’ fond memories of a 20th Century coffee commercial that said: "Fill it to the rim — with Brim!" The production of Brim was halted in 1995 but a significant number of consumers remember the coffee, or at least the brand and its commercial.
River West is trying to convert that bit of nostalgia into a new commercial enterprise. Its success was still up in the air in 2008, but it was an interesting experiment because researchers learned that people remembered more about the Brim brand than they did about the coffee itself.
Walker said that finding was reinforced in research for Stanley Works, the well-respected tool manufacturer. One focus group participant fondly remembered owning a Stanley ladder, although Stanley never produced ladders. That has prompted Stanley to put its name on, and share the profits from, a new ladder developed by another company
Paul Earle Says There's Value in Brand's Intellectual Property
The faulty memory findings add value to what entrepreneurs refer to as brand "equity" or what River West founder Paul Earle refers to as a brand’s "intellectual property." They give River West a bit of latitude in manufacturing and marketing a new coffee, as well as some other products, under the Brim name.
The number of products that have been discontinued in recent decades has given rise to a new industry in which entrepreneurs try to develop new products they can sell in niche markets under dormant brand names.
Reference: Rob Walker, New York Times, May 18, 2008
