Feature: Gone But Not Forgotten
The discontinuation of a brand can mean the loss of much hard-won familiarity and loyalty. As brand value becomes an increasingly valuable goal in the media process, is it time to dust off those old favourites and let them have another shot? Will Collin of Naked Communications would be at the front of the queue for Spangles and the Banana Splits…
“Buildings age and become dilapidated. Machines wear out. People die. But what live on are the brands.”
So said a past chief executive of United Biscuits at an Annual General Meeting, explaining to shareholders where the long term value sits within that business.
How many CEOs of big media owners could you imagine having said something similar about their own businesses? Do brands create shareholder value for media owners in the same way as they do for McVities Hob Nobs?
If they do, then you might wonder why some media owners seem occasionally to play fast and loose with their precious brands. Changing the editorial voice of a newspaper (as has happened with titles such as The Express and Sunday Businesss, and is apparently being mooted with The Mirror) is a bit like changing the formulation of an established brand. This can be a risky undertaking: just look what happened with New Coke!
Closing a title altogether, as happened for example to Today and to the venerable Melody Maker, means junking all the accumulated familiarity and goodwill. Rather like the disappearance of great childhood brands like Pacers and Spangles, you’ll only know how much you miss them when they’re gone. Maybe a better option is to maintain the brand in a different format: Sporting Life continues as a website, so maybe Melody Maker could have moved to publishing special edition books (a Nu Metal Bible, anyone?)
In this oversupplied, fragmented media world, when it’s harder than ever for a newly launched media brand to carve out an audience, closing down existing brands can seem a little reckless. There’s even an argument to resuscitate some long lost brands, which may yet retain more residual familiarity than some more recent arrivals. So how about bringing back Thames TV as a digital TV channel, GLR as a digital radio channel or The European as a website?
If brands really are the enduring assets in the media business, then they should be cherished and sustained. And media owners who still own the rights to ex-brands should conduct a spring clean of their inventories, to check if there are any hidden gems collecting dust in the corporate attic.
My suggestions for the Lazarus treatment? How about the following: Sounds, TV-am and Radio Caroline. All great in their own way and fondly remembered by many. Maybe they’re a little nostalgic, but with an ageing population that’s no bad thing.
And finally – to my mind, The Banana Splits were the original Teletubbies and are ripe for a remake. You heard it here first.
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