10 brands that will disappear this year

A great deal needs to happen for an established brand to die. Brands can have immense power and the fortunes of a brand do not necessarily reflect the company's fortunes. For example, car manufacturers have many brands -- some successful and some less. And brand management is an integral part of a company's marketing strategy.

Each year, some established brands will disappear - either due to bankruptcies, mergers, discontinuation, or re-branding. Majority of these cases represent some failure, in company or brand, and often in both. Some of the brands on this list are already certain to disappear, with just the last remnants left to dissolve. Others are on a trajectory to vanish, but their final fates will depend on what happens this year.

The best brands have staying power and can weather major changes in the company that owns it. People will continue to follow a sports team through generations, even if the players, management, and even home city change. When companies merge, the new parent company will often opt to keep the strongest and most successful brands intact.

Bankruptcy is the most common reason for brands to vanish, and many of the companies on this list will disappear this year for this reason. Some Retail companies for instance, are being driven to the brink by the growth of e-commerce and declining shopping mall traffic, and appear likely to go bankrupt this year as well; even if retail companies in Nigeria, like Shoprite and Addide are thriving in spite of e-commerce.

Outright failure of brand or company is not always the reason for a major name to vanish. The acquiring companies may have the better brand name.

Here is the list of 10 brands very likely to disappear this year:

1. Virgin America

Alaska Airlines announced in April 2016 that it would acquire Virgin America, combining to create the fifth largest airline company in the United States. While the deal was officially completed in December, Alaska has yet to decide whether it will continue to operate the two airlines as separate brands or fold the Virgin brand into the Alaska Airlines brand.

Each of the four main U.S. carriers today - American, Delta, United, and Southwest - who collectively control more than 80% of the market, has also expanded by acquiring an airline and absorbing its brand.

2. Dodge Viper

Auto manufacturers often benefit from the strength of some of their most well-known and long-running brands. This list would include cars like the Toyota Camry, the Ford F-150, and the Honda Accord. While it might not quite be at this level of brand name recognition, the 25-year old Dodge Viper is one of the biggest names in sports cars - but it will soon be a thing of the past.

3. Scottrade

In October 2016, TD Ameritrade and Toronto-Dominion Bank announced that they would purchase Scottrade for $4 billion. Based in St. Louis, the discount brokerage has been operating since 1980. Compressed margins in the industry are likely the main reason for the merger. The combined company will have more than 10 million accounts and nearly $1 trillion in assets.

4. Pebble

Pebble is the story of a Silicon Valley start-up that beat Apple, Google, etc, in creating a smartwatch, only to eventually lose the market entirely. In April 2012, Pebble launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $10 million in just a month, the most funded such campaign at the time. Pebble's first watch, the first of its kind to run on iOS or Android platforms, was launched in 2012, far ahead of major competitors.

When Apple eventually released the Apple Watch in April 2016, it appeared that the increased interest in smartwatches might drive up demand for Pebble, which were a cheaper alternative. Sales initially spiked but eventually plummeted. In March, in the midst of tanking sales, the company laid off one-quarter of its existing staff. Pebble’s fate was sealed last year after it was acquired in December by competitor Fitbit for $40 million. 

5. Theranos

Consumer health care technology company Theranos raised more than $400 million in funding and had a valuation of $9 billion in 2014. The company was poised to revolutionize the health care industry, and its founder Elizabeth Holmes was hailed as the next Steve Jobs. The company’s flagship product, the Edison device, could draw and test blood in a single finger prick.

In a series of investigative reports by The Wall Street Journal assessing the accuracy of the blood tests, however, the Edison devices were found to be faulty. Theranos voided the tens of thousands of blood tests administered in 2014 and 2015, and Holmes’s net worth fell from $4.5 billion -- her 50% stake in the company - to nothing.

6. The Limited

The Limited is the latest casualty of changing customer behaviour and declining mall sales. A mall-based retailer, The Limited was originally a spinoff from L Brands, a company whose flagship brands include Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, and is today owned by Sun Capital Partners. The company's recent activities point to imminent bankruptcy; and Bloomberg has reported that sources close to the company have confirmed as much.

In the case of The Limited, consumer tastes among women are changing in favour of high-end products over mid-priced apparel. After more than 50 years in business, The Limited will likely close its doors in 2017.

7. AT&T U-Verse

AT&T U-verse is the brand of fiber-based triple-play telecommunications offerings from AT&T that includes broadband internet, telephone, and Cable services. After the 2015 acquisition of DirecTV, the largest satellite TV provider in America, AT&T has been phasing out its U-verse subscriptions and pushing customers towards DirecTV.

The transition is part of a larger effort by AT&T to combine its services into a single entertainment hub, with internet, satellite TV, and wireless in one home device.

8. Sports Authority

After 29 years in business, Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 2, 2016 with more than $1 billion in debt. After failing to reorganize under bankruptcy protection, however, Sports Authority has been forced to close all of its stores, and sold to Dick’s Sporting Goods, who bought the company name and other intellectual property for $15 million at an auction that took place in June.

Some other sporting goods brands, Vestis Retail Group, Bob’s Stores, and Sport Chalet, filed for bankruptcy in April; and City Sports filed last December. As e-commerce increasingly becomes the preferred method of shopping, and trends such as athleisure become more popular, sporting good brands that cannot adapt are likely to disappear as well.

9. Yik Yak

Yik Yak is currently experiencing declining use and corporate downsizing although it was once one of the fastest growing social networks. It is a location-based message board that allows app users to post anonymously. The format lent itself naturally to college campuses, where users could gossip and spread information about current events.

According to some observers, changes to the app’s interface and function helped cement its decline. While anonymity was key to the app’s early success, in March 2016, Yik Yak began to require that users create a username in order to post. The app shows no signs of a comeback and is not likely to make it past 2017.

10. Time Warner Cable

In May 2016, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications completed one of the many recent mergers among content and data service providers. The structure and ownership of the major cable and satellite companies have been shuffling for years, driven in part by the increasing popularity of internet-based movie and television streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, HBO Go, and HBO Now.

Following the merger, the name of what was the second largest cable company in the United States behind Comcast, has officially changed to Spectrum. The elimination of the Time Warner Cable brand likely stems from its extremely poor customer service reputation. Any remaining signs of the old Time Warner Cable brand on company merchandise, vehicles, and the website will likely vanish by the end of 2017.

By Michael B. Sauter and Evan Comen.

Additional reports by ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist and publisher of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.