Oldsmobile is basically a defunct brand. Due to falling profits, General Motors stopped manufacturing Oldsmobile vehicles in 2004. After all, the perception of Oldsmobile among consumers was that the cars were for older people. Even the name sounded "old."
Oldsmobile was started in 1897, and was named after the founder, Ransom Olds. So I guess there was good reason for putting "old" into the name.
Then there's Old Navy, a clothing store I frequent. I think it's ironic that the company markets clothing to a young audience with the name "Old" Navy.
According to The Gap family of brands, the company was named after a bar in Paris. That's a piece of trivia most folks don't know. (I didn't know it either until a few minutes ago.)
Here's what I wonder about: will Old Navy eventually fall prey to the same fate as Oldsmobile? Will consumers begin to think of Old Navy as clothing for "old" people? Will history repeat itself?
Old Navy will continue to succeed as long as they keep up with the times.
Oldsmobile had a good run all the way up to the end of the muscle car era (when Olds' were tearing up the drag strip with a touch class).
After the oil crisis, they became boring sedans. Old folks bought because they remembered the Oldsmobile cars from their youth (and couldn't afford Caddy's).
While they started to make a comeback with some good models near the end, GM just couldn't justify dragging around another brand when they already had Caddilac and Buick for luxury and Pontiac and Chevy for the regular folks (and they all shared platforms with each other).
Posted by: Tim Schaefer | July 06, 2007 at 01:05 PM