Why Once Great Brands Fail

Walking down 5th Avenue in New York City this past weekend, in the midst of winding my way through the thankfully dense Christmas crowds, I was struck by the remnants of the Lord & Taylor logo on the side of their former flagship store. After 195 years, Lord & Taylor is no more. Probably why this caught my attention, other than that I thought it made a cool image, is that I’d been thinking a lot lately about the imminent no more-ness of Sears – a brand that when I was growing up had a catalogue the size of a phone book and a store in which I could wander for hours among the tools and appliances, despite the aggravating humming of the 1970s fluorescent ballasts.

How could such iconic brands and anchors of our culture simply cease to be? I am fascinated by the decline of these brands…Radio Shack, Blockbuster, Blackberry, Pan American, Borders, Tower Records (true loss there), and Kodak, to name a few. It is true some of these exist still as online ghosts of their former selves, but for the most part they are gone.

Part of that is capitalism. The old make way for the new, whether they want to or not. But could the old not become the new? With the right insight and right information all of these brands could have adapted, innovated, and survived.

In the 1980s, the then President of Lord & Taylor said, “We don’t change…that’s the way to run a company.” I suppose so, if your goal is to run the company into the ground. Still, in the end, they did change, but rather than innovating, they de-innovated. Instead of adapting their offerings while keeping to the affordable feel of luxury and style their customer base wanted, a new set of owners homogenized, pushing undifferentiated racks of discount fashion, and basically Lord & Taylor became a confusing version of Nordstrom Rack, attracting fewer and fewer customers as their once high-end stores fell into disrepair.

 Selling discounted fashion perhaps was not a bad plan, but it had to be differentiated and interesting to the consumer and it had to align with what people expected from the Lord & Taylor brand. It was not and anyone working on the floor at any Lord & Taylor store could have told the decision makers exactly why this plan was not working and what was needed for it to work. The knowledge to save the company existed within the company, though it was neither heard nor sought out.

With Lord & Taylor and the other brands listed above, the decision makers failed to gather the information needed to save their company. They failed to communicate in a way that effectively garnered the information they needed and instead pushed forward with an attitude of “I know best.” The truth is, if your organization lacks a culture of communication and the capacity for valuable and accurate information to move freely, even the best-intentioned decisions will go astray and you risk the same fate as many once mighty brands.

I do not claim to be a branding expert, though I am fascinated by the branding process, and I claim basically no credentials as a fashion expert, but I am an expert in working with people and organizations to increase the flow of accurate and actionable information. With an intentional focus on open communication, we come to better understand the risks we face, and how to mitigate them, and we change the culture of the organization from a defensive culture to a learning and adaptive culture. We build the capacity to thrive.

With Pyxis Academy we bring our Synched Communication Methodology™ to help you move forward with new, productive ways of communicating and relating. All of our programs are adapted to your specific situation and needs. For those wanting to get away from their space and try something different, I also offer Somoetic, where we reinforce self-awareness and communication skills by working part of the day with horses (who will provide you immediate and honest feedback). And for those wanting to expand their potential through one-on-one coaching, I have Pyxis Academy Coaching. I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with you and your team and to help you to perform at an even higher level.