What makes a brand fail?

Poor decision making... If you are starting off, find one thing and do it well... You can't be all things to all people, so you are probably wasting money and resources trying to do everything...
 
GolfSmith has helped keep them afloat

Is that right? I know I see them still in Sports Authority - on the very rare occasion I go in there - but not Golfsmith. Maybe because I wasn't looking for Tommy Armour! I know Golfsmith has McGregor
 
Sitting here eating dinner and was thinking about some brands I used to love that just fell into oblivion and wonder what happened.

Is is it that they stopped listening to their customers? Did staying in the past lock hem out of a future? Bad releases?

what do you think makes a brand fail?

Marketing.
Product Quality.
SOUND.
 
Interesting responses so far.
 
Just making bad decisions. I think the one that stands out in my mind MacGregor. They used to be the cream of the crop in the 60s, 70s, even the 80s and into the 90s. They were bought out by an investment group who thought they could make more money by lowering the quality and price and selling through Wal-Mart and the like. It didn't work it backfired. So a new group purchased MacGregor intent in returning them to glory, and made some great products but they got completely left behind and lost. And the reputation was tarnished. They failed to attract big enough endorsers to get back on track and now they are just another store brand at Golfsmith.

This sounds very similar to what happened with Ben Hogan golf clubs.
 
Hogan didn't drop their quality but then was bought out by Callaway when they started signing pros and needed players irons for them. The Apex name currently being used came from Hogan. Callaway also bought Top Flite for their ball tech.
 
I remember the momentum Adams had when they came out with the original tight lies clubs, man it seemed like everyone was after them and were hitting shots out of impossible lies, I look at the company now and wonder what went wrong? was it the plan to buy it and kill the brand? or did they simply over extend themselves and fall victim to the diminishing golfer theory.

With Hogan I was a devout follower of the brand, I was staffed for a few years by them and believed through and through in the vision of the brand, I would have worn Hogan underwear if it was available lol. I always felt like Callaway killed the brand and hated them for it (unreasonable I know) maybe it needed to happen, it was a the end of it's life and my lack of acceptance hurt me more than helped me. The new line is nice but will have to do something much more remarkable than the current line if they want to succeed on a large scale but success is measured differently to all of us.

MacGregor was awesome, Jose Maria played them when he was peaking and man they had some great clubs, they were what came to mind when I was thinking about this topic, such a great club and a household name for so long, I just wondered what caused the death.
 
too much money on marketing and endorsements. too little on real r&d. the belief that shipping a dubious product out with tons of marketing behind it will work. not being able to capitalize on a good idea they put out. and oh, releasing the next new product out before the better previous one could catch wind. stopping a good momentum by changing tracks when they should have done better pushing it.
 
Apple is a perfect example of this. They had superior products for years before the original iMac was released. It was the marketing which got the iMac over the line.


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competition, make a good product at a fair price and you will succeed, don't , and you won't
 
What ever happened to Ram Golf? Back in the 90's there was a local shop that had all of the latest stuff. Some of those fairway woods were awesome.

Jack
 
What ever happened to Ram Golf? Back in the 90's there was a local shop that had all of the latest stuff. Some of those fairway woods were awesome.

Jack

Bought and sold from owners to Palmolive and then the balls were sold to TaylorMade and the clubs are now a house label to Sports Authority.
 
Thanks JB. That's sad to hear. I always liked the clubs and they had that life-sized cut-out of Tom Watson.

Jack
 
Just making bad decisions. I think the one that stands out in my mind MacGregor. They used to be the cream of the crop in the 60s, 70s, even the 80s and into the 90s. They were bought out by an investment group who thought they could make more money by lowering the quality and price and selling through Wal-Mart and the like. It didn't work it backfired. So a new group purchased MacGregor intent in returning them to glory, and made some great products but they got completely left behind and lost. And the reputation was tarnished. They failed to attract big enough endorsers to get back on track and now they are just another store brand at Golfsmith.

I remember when MacGregor came back with some sweeeeet blades and cavity back forgings. I think they were the V-Foil? I had the blades and they were gorgeous. Next thing I know they were lumped with Snake Eyes at Golfsmith.
 
Bought and sold from owners to Palmolive and then the balls were sold to TaylorMade and the clubs are now a house label to Sports Authority.

My son is playing my old set of FX irons that were an early cavity to blade set. People still notice them and comment. Those babies sold for $600-700 back in the day and now it saddens me to see what's become of Ram (along with Tommy Armour and MacGregor).
 
Another company that should have made it and didn't was Sonartec. I will swear by those fairway woods until the day I die.
 
Marketing and perception. If a company isnt constantly innovating and getting their name out there, they arent going to succeed. There are very, very, very few golf companies out there who are able to survive on their name alone. Mizuno and Bridgestone are pretty much the only one and in the case of Bridgestone, they have a huge, multinational tire company backing them; so they have very deep pockets.
 
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