Gambles or Brilliant Moves? Brand Resurrection, Abandonment, and Obfuscation.

Brands can eventually die and lose favor for various reasons. Some can live on, resurrected and given an opportunity for new life. Others, even very strong and iconic ones, are put on the shelf. Some are tampered with, causing confusion among users and stakeholders.

The big question is “Why?” these sometimes monumental shifts in branding strategy take place and how will these gambles play out in the future. Are there obvious lessons for brand managers to learn, especially given the huge investment in time and resources required to make a brand well-known?

Here are a few examples.

Brand Resurrection – Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY)

I recently received my first Bed Bath & Beyond 20% coupon (immediately followed by a 40% coupon), since the end of July 2023, following the demise of the beleaguered store chain. The new coupon was from the former Overstock.com, now rebranded as Bed Bath & Beyond.

Overstock.com acquired the intellectual property of BBBY and what they got with the $21.5M acquisition was the BBBY domain and its massive consumer database. What they also acquired was other baggage - thousands of disgruntled old BBBY stockholders, store employees and other stakeholders left out in the detritus of the bankruptcy.

At the same time, the new BBBY is relinquishing its nearly 25 year-old Overstock.com brand. The reasoning was that BBBY had greater consumer awareness and broader appeal for many types of products than Overstock. Also, Overstock wanted to rebrand anyway and rebranding quickly as BBBY would save time and money. Only time will tell if this was a smart strategic move or not.

Brand Abandonment – HBO Max to “Max”

HBO, much loved for their original programming and long familiar to cable TV subscribers, began their streaming services in 2010 with HBO Go. In 2020, they became known as HBO Max, with the word “Max” reflecting it expanding libraries of content from Warner Bros, Discovery, and other brands.

In 2023, the company perceived it “...needed to widen its tent,” according to Patrizio Spagnoletto, Warner Bros. Discovery’s global chief marketing officer. In other words, cover a deeper demographic, especially kids.

But it’s interesting that a brand such as HBO, with its highly developed reputation for excellence and premium content, such as “Game of Thrones” would shake off the iconic moniker and simply want to be known as “Max.”

“Max” will survive, but one wonders how long “HBO” will remain on the shelf.

Brand Obfuscation

Another form of brand tampering can only be described as “brand obfuscation,” where an attempt to add value to a brand results in confusion among users and other stakeholders.

For many years I developed marketing programs for a North American manufacturer of industrial equipment with a reputation as a market leader and innovator. As the industry sales leader in their category, their brand name was synonymous with the product itself. They had several smaller competitors, but their brand and reputation stood out among all the rest.

Eventually, in the ‘90s, the company was purchased by a much larger European manufacturer with global reach. The new owner quickly set out to “dual brand” the equipment by placing their name in front of the existing brand name. There was some push back by their dealer network and users, and contrary to what the European owners thought, the new European name was not well known in North America.

In the eyes of the European owners, their justification for the brand tampering was to help the North American brand fit in better with their global array of products and to better establish their brand in North America by “hitchhiking” on the existing brand.

The dual branding strategy continues today, but even after 25 years, an internet search will still turn up the old North American brand and its continued use by dealers and users without the European brand.

Rationalized Strategies or Gut Feeling

One thing that seems to stand out with these branding decisions is the speed with which they were implemented, which may mean they were made on orders given from the top of the organization.

• How much testing and talking to customers, users, and other stakeholders was done?

• Was there clear communication between the company and its customers about why the change was being made? Was their input solicited?

• Were points of potential brand resistance considered and how they would be addressed?

Branding changes are inevitable. Brands that successfully navigate challenges often do so by investing in customer research, staying attuned to market trends, maintaining a strong focus on customer satisfaction, and adapting swiftly to changing consumer preferences.

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