You've got to hand it to Dov Charney. The mustachioed founder/CEO of American Apparel doesn't give a damn (or a tee) that his once-hip hipster fashion line has been given less than 18 months to live.
A video posted on the brand's YouTube channel shows the struggling brand's CEO chatting with a reporter from his homeland — Canada — to prove that the rumors of his brand's death are greatly exaggerated. Other videos feature the marketing team, the creative team, the production team, the chief manufacturing officer, the showroom — even shipping & receiving and the masseuse.
Yes, 24/7 Wall Street feels you'd better enjoy that bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Pops while wearing some American Apparel clothing and reading your Soap Opera Digest right now. Get a call in on your Nokia phone while you’re at it and grab a bite at an A&W restaurant.
Those are just five of the brands 24/7 Wall Street predicts will have gone the way of the dodo bird by the end of 2012. The site has a decent batting average with its predictions.
Last year’s list hit the mark with Blockbuster and T-Mobile. Another company on last year’s list, car-rental chain Dollar Thrifty is looking close to buyout. Of course, some of the brands on last year’s list — Kia, Moody’s, BP, and Zales — seem to be doing just fine.
The other five brands on the death watch list are Sony Pictures, Saab, Sony Ericsson, Sears, and MySpace.
Some brief summations of 24/7 Wall Street’s brief summations of why each one will die:
1. Sony Pictures: it “lost $3.1 billion in its latest fiscal on revenue of $86.5 billion.”
2. A&W All-American Food Restaurants: “The A&W Restaurant business is too small to be viable now. It had 322 outlets in the U.S and 317 outside the U.S at the end of last year. All were operated by franchisees.”
3. Saab: “Saab is no longer a financially viable brand.”
4. American Apparel: “The once-hip retailer reached the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, and there is no indication that it has gained anything more than a little time with its latest financing.”
5. Sears: “The parent of Sears and Kmart–Sears Holdings is in a lot of trouble.”
6. Sony Ericcson: “Sony Ericsson management expects several more quarters of falling sales and the company has laid off thousands of people.”
7. Kellogg’s Corn Pops: “None of these [mono- and diglycerides, and BHT] are likely to be what mothers want to serve their children in an age in which a healthy breakfast is more likely to be egg whites and a bowl of fresh fruit.”
8. Myspace: “The brand is worth little if anything. A buyer is likely to kill the name and fold the subscriber base into another brand.” [Time will tell if Justin Timberlake and the site's new co-owners can do what News Corp. couldn't.]
9. Soap Opera Digest: “Source Interlink Media, the magazine’s parent, which also owns automotive, truck, and motorcycle publications, has little reason to support a product based on a dying industry.”
10. Nokia: “It has a very modest presence in the rapidly-growing smartphone industry which is dominated by Apple, Research In Motion’s Blackberry, HTC, and Samsung.”
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