Endangered brands Bashny.Net

24/7 Wall St. It published a list of brands that will disappear in 2012. Potentially dead brands, according to the companies included Sears, Sony Pictures, American Apparel, Nokia, Saab, A & W All-American Foods Restaurants, Soap Opera Digest, Sony Ericsson, MySpace, and Kellog's Corn Pops.
Each year, 24/7 Wall St. is a list of brands that may disappear in the near future. The list of last year turned out to be prophetic in some cases. Thus, the company predicted the disappearance of T-Mobile. In late May it was reported that AT & T will buy T-Mobile USA for $ 39 billion.





1. Sony Pictures
Sony is the owner of non-core companies, which have nothing to do with its main activities in the field of consumer electronics and computer games. So, Sony bought Columbia Tri-Star Picture in 1989 for 3, 4 billion dollars. This company shows losses in recent years. Fiscal year Sony, ended in March, showed that its earnings fell by 15%. The gaming system competing with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, and consumer electronics - with Apple. Future prospects Sony Pictures is very unclear, especially after the earthquake in Japan and the problems with the PlayStation Network.



2. All-American Food Restaurants
Enterprises All-American Food Restaurants belongs to the fast-food chain Yum! The brand offered for sale, but the buyer it is not found. The network was founded in 1919. The company grew rapidly, immediately after World War II were open 450 franchises. It had 322 branches in the United States and 317 outside the country at the end of last year. Its main competitors are Subway and McDonald's, the market has recently reached a huge number of networks, including Burger King. This logistics and shipping costs All-American in comparison with competitors many times more.



3. Saab
The first Saab car was launched in 1949 by the Swedish industrial company Svenska Aeroplan. Saab's problem now is that the industry is dominated by very large players such as Ford and Chevrolet. The company does not produce low-cost cars as VW, or expensive sports cars like the Porsche. Saab also has a wide range of models to suit different budgets and tastes of consumers. Saab, according to experts, is not financially viable brand.



4. American Apparel
Once a large and well-known manufacturer of clothes stood on the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, and there are no signs that the situation will improve. She belonged to the 260 stores, and she had a 545 million dollars in profits in 2008. During the first quarter of this year, the retailer showed a sharp decline in sales compared to the same period last year.



5. Sears
The parent company Sears and Kmart - Sears Holdings now has a whole lot of trouble. The total revenues of the group fell to 341 million dollars, to 9, $ 7 billion for the first quarter of the year, which ended on 30 April. New CEO Lou D'Ambrosio told the group that "we did not meet projections. We can not control the weather or the economy, or government spending. " Expenses for wages and logistics company giant. D'Ambrosio is probably going to combine the two in one brand: Kmart and Sears - that the business has become more efficient.



6. Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson is at the beginning of its history has been one of the largest manufacturers of mobile phones. Sales of Sony Ericsson phones originally contributed to the popularity of other portable devices, such as Walkman. Now the Sony Ericsson product development lags behind companies such as Apple and Research In Motion, which dominate the smartphone market. At a time when global sales of smartphones are growing double-digit pace, while iPhone sales doubled compared to last year, sales of Sony Ericsson devices falling. New competitors, such as HTC, Sony Ericsson overtaken by expanding the number of models offered. Management expects several quarters of falling sales, has already laid off thousands of employees.



7. MySpace
MySpace, once the largest social network in the world, died. He will be buried in the near future. News Corp bought MySpace in 2005 for 580 million dollars. MySpace ranked first among social networking sites in the number of visitors from mid-2006 to mid-2008. But later it took the position of Facebook, which has 700 million users around the world at the moment. Why MySpace left their positions and is behind Facebook? Nobody knows for sure. It is possible that Facebook has more than attractive services, perhaps it is aimed at a younger audience, which spends more time on the Internet. News Corp announced in February that it would sell MySpace, but now the brand is not worth almost nothing. The buyer is likely to change the name of the service and subscriber base will spread to another brand. News Corp has already hinted that it will close the MySpace, if you do not sell it.



8. Soap Opera Digest
The collapse of the magazine is linked to two trends. The first - the abolition of a number of "soap operas." For example, the project "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" were replaced by talk shows, which are cheaper to produce. Another problem is the wide availability of "soap operas" on the Internet. In 2000, the magazine's circulation was more than 1, 1 million. By 2005, it fell below 500 thousand. And remains so for the past five years. Interlink Media, the parent company, which also owns magazines, automobile and motorcycle themes, will not support the product, covering a dying segment information.



9. Nokia
Nokia has already dead, the shareholders are just waiting for the undertaker. Sales of previously the world's largest manufacturer of phones falling steadily. Analysts believe that the company will sell in the near future. It has a very modest presence in the rapidly growing smartphone market dominated by Apple, Research In Motion, Blackberry, HTC and Samsung. Nokia will be an attractive takeover target competitors.



10. Kellogg's Corn Pops
Brand sales decreased by 18% during the last fiscal year, which ended in April, to 74 million. The positions of the company are far behind the brands that also produce oatmeal and cereal every day - they have sales of more than $ 200 million a year. In addition, according to rumors, Kellogg's products are less "healthy" and natural than the competition.



However, in fairness it must be said that the punctures in forecasting at 24/7 Wall St. It was also. Last year, the list of potentially endangered brands includes T-Mobile, BP, RadioShack, Merrill Lynch, Kia Motors, Blockbuster, Readers Digest, Dollar Thrifty, Zale and Moody's. Kia, Moody 's, BP, and Zale now look even better than analysts had expected. As the Roman Tkachuk, head of analytical department of company "RIK-Finance," the company regularly publishes such a list, and so regularly mistaken - to predict such things is quite difficult. "Thus, in the list in 2010 includes still alive BP, Kia Motors and Merrill Lynch. So by the rating should be treated with skepticism. For example, Nokia's position continues to look confident, and this brand is not threatened oblivion ", - the expert points out.

Other nominees in 2010 have already disappeared, while some brands such as Dollar Thrifty, are on their way to oblivion. For example, Pontiac, one of the largest car brands, which existed since 1926, left the market because of the bankruptcy of GM. Blockbuster is in the process of liquidation, although once controlled the market VHS and DVD. House & Garden closed after 106 years of existence.

"Talking about the disappearance of these companies early - they are all still quite large players in their respective markets, and it is, rather, a question only of the fact that their brands are becoming less attractive in the eyes of consumers. Indeed, who use Myspace, if you have Facebook? How many people buy their Nokia, not the iPhone or HTC? Certain trends can be traced in this list - all of these companies are strong competitors who are currently working much more successful - says Nikolay Solabuto, the asset manager of the Criminal BCS. - But disappear giants simply can not - firstly, there is still a lot of fans of these brands, and, secondly, can never be ruled out that the brand can open a second wind - for example, the launch of a successful new product.

Global brands, which are almost dead, can be found in the financial sector. For example, Lehman Brothers. For a long time, the company was part of the global financial elite, the brand was very well capitalized in the eyes of the target audience. But now that the dust from the crisis and bankruptcy of financial giant has settled, few people remember about Lehman Brothers, that is, the brand die ».

However, as pointed out by analysts Lionstone Inevstment Servises Dmitri Kruglov, the presence of Saab in the list of WS is easily explained: the automobile manufacturer sold, profitability is low, sales are down, so if the brand will not disappear, it will undergo drastic changes. What can we say about the Nokia (transition to another level of quality).

Well-established brands in most cases do not "die", and absorbed by, or merged with others, resulting in there "multibrands," says the director of analytical department of the IG "Nord-Capital" Vladimir Rozhankovskiy. Especially clearly seen this process in the global financial sector, which is very readily complements the structure of insurance, "plastic" brunch and so on. N. - With the result that these brands are comprised of components or parts of the combined words of their former names. "I believe that completely disappear due to physical bankruptcy (cessation of activity) may develop some film studios (which, incidentally, happens in Hollywood, and in Bombay and other parts of the world with steady regularity, as a business that was originally very it is difficult to "count" because its success is not associated with physical products, but only with unpredictable preferences of the public), "- said the expert.

In the field of IT and mobile communications, said Rozhankovsky occurred and will soon be intensive processes of M & A, which will result in the formation of, for example, the five universal multibrand, combining the best intellectual-design products of individual brands, which quickly ascended the bright star above horizon, but, unfortunately, just as fast and "burned out" - for example, the same Blackberry from RIM. According to the expert, "big" revision "in the near future and will undergo a segment of air transportation. Due to high energy prices are steadily declining profits of the airlines, and the market is becoming more competitive for them to continue to survive alone ».

One way or another, but the list of Wall Street serves as a reminder to all world companies that both have known and old as they are, no one brand is not too strong, so he could not go bankrupt, unless he has been fighting for the competition, does not introduce New invention avoids the costs and has poor management.

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