AUBURN HILLS – The news on Chrysler isn’t good. The company announced yesterday that it was drastically scaling down its dealer network, only a few months after killing off models like the PT Cruiser. The move will cost dealers millions, and is necessary because Chrysler isn’t selling enough cars toMORE HERE
We usually write about good brands that are screwed up. But this year, 2008, is the 50th anniversary of the Boston Whaler. The 50th year of the Unsinkable Boston Whaler. The company was founded in 1956 by Richard T. “Dick” Fisher and C. Raymond Hunt. Boston Whaler is now aMORE HERE
In London, The Crown Estate has sold the old Hotel Metropole to Malta-based International Hotel Investments Plc for £130 million. The once-successful hotel, built in the 1880s, will be renovated into a luxury hotel again. This came after worries of a possible demolition, as the building was not Listed. InMORE HERE
It is always a good idea to remember the lessons of brand-killing mistakes. While most know the case of New Coke, there are other products that have returned because of consumer pressure. One fan sites relating to a bad decision is Bovril. In 2004, Unilever removed beef from the productMORE HERE
The news that Chinese automaker CAIC will restart production of the MG signals a new era, and a good one. For the last 20 years, Western countries have suffered as production has moved offshore and once-great American brand names and manufacturing companies and divisions have been either shut down (Oldsmobile)MORE HERE
The question for companies with long established brands is always how to keep a brand fresh for new consumers all the while keeping old consumers happy. That question is sometimes asked wrongly; sometimes it is better to keep a product fresh for current consumers who have grown tired of aMORE HERE
QUEENS – Egad. This is weird territory, but kind of fascinating. There was an elderly Brooklyn man who, in the 1980s, driving in a Mercedes coupe on the Grand Central Parkway, crashed and turned upside down. His distraction? He spied the Unisphere of the Queens World’s Fair, and was soMORE HERE
If it’s Lego’s 50th birthday, there is a reason. They came up with a good thing. They stick to it. Oh, they might add a Star Wars line. But the basic product remains. BrandlandUSA Rule: If it’s good, stick with it. Add some new things, but don’t muck with theMORE HERE
There have been rumblings from anonymous BrandlandUSA readers that Kraft Pizza Dinners from Canada are being smuggled across the border to the U.S. The apparent reason? They are no longer sold in the U.S. Sorry for the crummy lo-res jpeg at right but its all there was. There is oneMORE HERE
Reader (and Quebec native) Mark Shainblum has alerted us to some revivals in the comic book field, and other dead comic book brands that need to be revived. Thrilling Wonder Stories was one of the first science fiction pulp magazines, founded in 1930 by Hugo Gernsback. Gernsback originally created theMORE HERE