Old brands never die — they just fade away until someone figures a way to capitalize on the nostalgia for them.
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From candy to retailers, even the biggest names can fall out of favor. Some disappear forever while others just become harder to find.
Eventually — if enough folks start playing "remember when?" — someone will take notice and try to cash in.
Remember Narragansett Beer? Rhode Island-based Narragansett Brewing opened for business in 1890. In 1981, the original Cranston brewery was closed and due to poor management by Falstaff (which had bought the brand in 1965) andproduction came to a near stand-still. In 2005, Mark Hellendrung, former president of Nantucket Nectars, along with a group of investors, bought the brand back from Falstaff.
A similar East Coast treat, the sweet, concentrated syrups marketed since the 1930s as Zarex (with a Zebra mascot) were once hugely popular, then all but vanished. That is, until a new generation of owners brought it back to store shelves.
Last year, Racebrook, a New York-based private equity firm and auction specialist, announced it was selling off 150 "classic American brands" it had acquired over the years. Among them were Handi-Wrap, Victrola, American Brands, Meister Brau, Braniff International and Shearson (as in Shearson Lehman, which begat Lehman Bros., which begat financial chaos in 2008).
"In recent years, there has been renewed interest around the world in branding that evokes nostalgia," John Cuticelli, CEO of Racebrook, said in a statement at the time of the auction. "These brand names have been, and will become again, globally recognized by consumers."
Roughly a third of the names at that auction found buyers.
There are probably hundreds of long-gone or hard-to-find brands, products and businesses that trigger happy memories and remind us of "back in the day." Here are 10 of the most talked-about:
F.W. Woolworths
 Photo: Associated Press |
There was a time when predicting the demise of the famous Woolworth's would have been unthinkable.
The retail giant, one of America's biggest businesses for many years, was among the breed of so-called five-and-dime stores that used their buying power to undercut the prices of competitors. Started in 1879, it is credited as being the first general merchandise store that kept its goods out in the open, letting shoppers handle, inspect and compare items.
For decades, shoppers across the country and overseas flocked to Woolworths to shop and enjoy a snack at its beloved food counters, which often became a community gathering spot (parent to modern food courts). Its success established a blueprint for retail giants that followed, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT - News), Target (NYSE: TGT - News) and Kmart (NASDAQ: SHLD - News) among them.
Why do we speak of Woolworths in the past tense when so many people loved it for so long? Simply put, it collapsed under its own weight — expanding beyond sustainability and moving away from its five-and-dime discount roots and more toward a department store model.
The end came in 1997 when its parent company pulled the plug and evolved into Foot Locker (NYSE: FL - News), devoting its energy to sporting goods and footwear.
Diners Club Card
 Photo: Diners Club International |
You may not see too many folks paying with the card any more, but it holds an important place in history for creating the massive credit card industry we have today. For many of our older readers, it was likely the first charge card they ever had.
The origins of the card began when a man named Frank McNamara had dinner in a New York restaurant but left his cash in another suit. The embarrassing situation gave him the idea for a "charge card" that could be used for payment. In 1950, Diners Club International launched the first such card of its kind, with members required to pay off the balance upon getting their monthly statement.
Over time, American Express (NYSE: AXP - News) horned in on its market and there was additional competition from a new breed of "revolving credit" cards offered by the likes of Visa (NYSE: V - News) and Master Card (NYSE: MA - News).
Those feeling nostalgic for their first charge card can take some solace in the fact that Diners Club, though rarely seen, still exists, owned by Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS - News), which bought Diners Club International from Citi (NYSE: C - News) for $165 million in 2008.
Its current website, perhaps trying to rekindle its cache, describes Diner's Club as "a globally recognized brand serving the payment needs of select and affluent consumers, offering access to more than 400 airports lounges worldwide, and providing corporations and small-business owners with a complete array of expense management solutions."
It even has its own online gift shop, if you are inclined to brag about being "select" and "affluent."
Thus far, we haven't seen a similar reissue of the Players' Club Gold Card, once marketed with machismo by the late Telly Savalas.
Tab
 Photo: Coca Cola |
Pepsi (NYSE: PEP - News) tapped into such nostalgia recently when it made Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, packaged with retro labeling and a made with real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup (just like in the olden days).
Other brands we may recall fondly from years past include Shasta, RC Cola (now owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS - News)) and White Rock (which always makes us think of grandmothers and ginger ale).
So why our focus on Tab? It started the diet cola craze, for one (advertising slogans included: "A Beautiful Drink for Beautiful People" and "One Calorie — Beautiful)."
The familiar pinkish can with simple white lettering has become a symbol of the 1970s aesthetic. TV shows and movies set during his era very often include a can somewhere in the scenes to add a touch of period-piece verisimilitude.
Alas, Tab in its original form had a hard fall from '70s stardom.
To start with, there was that whole cancer thing. To produce a tasty but low-calorie beverage, Tab included the artificial sweetener sodium saccharin. Tests on lab rats (that years later were debunked) led to a scare that the chemical could cause cancer. Those concerns led to mandatory, off-putting warning labels. (The FDA relented on the labels and admitted it goofed regarding saccharine in 2000.)
The bigger problem was the global power of the Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO - News) name. Soon after its introduction in 1982 a product called Diet Coke became the soda standard for calorie-counters, and the company focused on it rather than its older Tab product.
Tab, which hit shelves in 1963, never regained its popularity. As more and more diet drinks hit the marketplace it became a bit of a footnote to the cola wars.
Nevertheless, it is still available in the U.S. if your grocer is inclined to carry it (something the website ILoveTab.com has started a petition to encourage). There is even a Tab Energy Drink launched by Coca-Cola in 2009. Within a year, it was deemed an underperformer and now is found in only a handful of countries, among them Canada, Fiji, Mexico and New Zealand.
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