6. Timex
Timex was created by the Waterbury Clock Company that was founded in 1854. The Waterbury Clock Company, a pioneer in the wristwatch business, changed ownership several times. Wristwatch manufacturing became so efficient and the costs of components decreased allowing the launch of the inexpensive Timex brand in 1950. One of the most fam
ous ad campaigns in marketing history was, “Timex-Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking”. By the early 1960’s Timex had the number one market share in the watch industry, selling one out of every three units. Inexpensive digital watches and quartz analog watches arrived in the mid 1970’s displacing Timex as the most durable and functional watch available to those who wanted value in their time piece.
7. Maxwell House Coffee
The Maxwell House Coffee brand was introduced in 1892, rumored to be named after the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Maxwell House was the number one selling coffee in the US for most of the 20th century and its famous slogan, “Good To The Last Drop” was almost universally recognized. The decline of Maxwell House mind share coincided with competition from a number of inexpensive brands, which included Eight O’Clock, along with the arrival of consumers who became passionate about coffee from the beans to the process of creating a special experience from premium products, from companies like Nespresso. Maxwell House was also flanked by coffee house chains including Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and oddly enough, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD).
8. Reebok
Reebok was to the wearer of American casual shoes what Nike’s (NYSE: NKE) are today. The first Reeboks were created by the grandsons of famous shoemaker, J W Foster. The new product and its company were called Reebock, the name of an African antelope. The rapid growth of this company began when Paul Fireman acquired the marketing rights to Reebok in America and began to sell these shoes in the US in 1979. The brand became one of the top selling athletic shoes in America in the 1980’s and introduced the first widely available athletic shoe designed for women. Reebok became a public company after its 1985 IPO. Reebok became well known for partnering famous athletes and pop singers with specific shoes in their design line. The company’s costs, especially for marketing, were extremely high and its price points caused it to be one of the most expensive athletic shoes available. Reebok was purchased by another large competitor, Adidas in 2006 and most Reebok products were re-branded with the parent company’s name.
9. Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch was founded by Charles Merrill in 1914 to be a firm of investment advisors. The company became, through a series of mergers the largest financial firm in the world by the start of WW11.During this time, Merrill Lynch was also the largest securities firm in the US. At the end of the 20th Century, Merrill had over 15,000 stock brokers, the largest number of any firm. The company’s reputation and financial stability were almost destroyed by Merrill’s participation in the subprime mortgage crisis and its involvement in the CDO scandal. Merrill Lynch became so financially compromised that it was sold to Bank of America in 2008 to prevent its bankruptcy. That famous slogan, “We’re bullish on America” is now long gone and the Merrill brand is now one of many small brands used by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).
10. MySpace
Myspace, launched in 2003, was the largest social network in the world when it was purchased by News Corp (NYSE: NWS) in 2005 for 580 million dollars. Within a year, MySpace signed a 900 million dollar advertising deal with Google and reached one hundred million users. FaceBook, the number two social network, added a number of new features to its property that made it simpler to use and increased the ease of use for members to interact with each other. MySpace took too long to add similar features of its own, which allowed FaceBook to quickly become the largest social network in the world, growing every minute.
Douglas A. McIntyre
