Are Out of Date Brands Really Out of Date?

Everyone knows how hard it is to create brand awareness today if you're not the latest greatest thing in a fast moving industry. As pointed out in this article from today's New York Times, there is an inherent value to well known brands of the past. In this case Brim, which through research that stated they had 90% aided awareness and the push of River West in Chicago, is being relaunched in the marketplace. Fill it to the rim!

A sampling...


"A great deal of what happens in the consumer marketplace does not involve brands with zealous loyalists. What determines whether a brand lives or dies (or can even come back to life) is usually a quieter process that has more to do with mental shortcuts and assumptions and memories — and all the imperfections that come along with each of those things.

Stanley hired Beanstalk about nine years ago. Stanley conducted “consumer permission research” to try to determine where the Stanley brand could go. “I remember looking through the focus-group tests, and there was a guy who absolutely swore that he had a Stanley ladder in his garage.” Stone paused. “Stanley never made ladders.” This is an excellent example of what “brand equity” really means in the marketplace. "

(Good thing they didn't go quantitative research only.)

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