“That’s because brand equity lasts forever.” I have to admit upfront that I was unaware of the attempted rebirth of Packard in the late 90’s because at that time I was working on the rebirth of Rolls Royce for BMW in England. As Director of Design or VP of Design for several OEM’s I’ve been part of a few different brand revivals culminating with Indian Motorcycles in 2012. I disagree, to a certain extent with the author on how long a brand stays relevant, Indian was still in people’s memories (at least we boomers remember an Uncle with an Indian) and at the same time the brand had relevance to millennials due to its history, authenticity and racing pedigree. However when we talked about reviving Austin Healey in BMW we determined that it’s time had past- there was a core of enthusiasts that remembered the brand but it meant nothing to most people and the brand lacked the depth needed to translate it into the present day. That’s what makes the big brands, like Indian, worth so much. I think perhaps that’s a couple of the things Packard ran up against- it wouldn’t matter if the core enthusiasts were all billionaires ready to buy, you’d still need way more folks to aspire to the brand to get the momentum you need- you need to “sell way more t-shirts than bikes” before something captures enough people’s imagination and begins to make money. Because at the end of the day most of these efforts don’t do that, balancing the passion you need to start something with the ice cold decision making you have to do to be profitable is very difficult. Cheers to the companies that can do it and I feel for the people that have poured their souls and fortunes into brands and ventures that never could quite get off the ground.
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