Logos associated with failure.

[Cujo]

[kajeet]

[cajunaggie08]

[cajunaggie08]

[goforbroke]

This was the "Nobody Beats the Wiz" logo (rebranded to just The Wiz) when Cablevision bought them over and drove them to banruptcy.. or, saved them and then drove them back. idk exactly what happened. But i know the new logo was awful

Classic logo: - now used by PC Richards

[tBBP]

Most are missing the point if you're looking for refreshes that then failed. I didn't miss the point, I just don't think there are that many that fit the definition. I thought ValuJet did a version of this without the so-called "critter" (cartoon plane) after the Everglades crash but I couldn't find an example.

For those unfamiliar with what happened to them, ValuJet was acquired by AirTran which has since been bought by Southwest.

Ehhhh....I remember it being just a tad bit more complicated than that, from what I understood at the time (my ramp-rat days). Back in '92, a couple folks from the then-newly-defunct Southern and Eastern Airways banded together to form ValuJet (with just two planes, mind you). A couple years later, another group of former Eastern Airlines associates banded together to form the first iteration of AirTran Airways, which was previously known as Conquest Sun--AirTran Corporation bought it up and renamed it (I wanna say around '94, but I don't feel like digging up my Airline Football League Concept Series notes to vet any of this stuff right now--plus I can't find them right now anyways ), and moved its HQ down to Orlando. Here's where the complicated part comes in: ValuJet's holding company, ValuJet Inc, actually ended up acquiring AirTran's holding company, then known as Airways Corporation, then renamed its own airline, shortly after all that Everglades mess, to AirTran Airlines, so for a short while two airlines, AirTran Airlines and AirTran Airways, were flying around with dang-near the same name. Eventually ValuJet Inc. and Airways Corporation merged under the same certificate, I think this was '97, and the new entity rebranded itself as one singular AirTran Airways. (And after that 592 disaster, I can see why they wanted to distance themselves from that as far as humanly possible.) Airline history...gotta love it sometimes, eh?

Looking at rebrands that failed, I would nominate Oldsmobile:

Oldsmobile had very strong brand identity and brand loyalty in the 80s, with the streamlined straight-line rocket logo, having a market place of being more luxurious than Pontiac or Chevy and more performance-oriented than Buick or Cadillac. In the mid-90s, GM sought to refresh the brand against foreign imports by dumping the Cutlass and the 98, moving to the logo on the right, and muddying the identity by downplaying the rocket/V-8 performance history (did you know that logo on the right is supposed to conjure images of rocket-fast speed?) as they emphasized Pontiac as a performance model and downplayed the luxury elements in comparison to how they kept marketing Buick.

They were gone for good in 2004. They even made good cars and still had lingering brand loyalty, but rebranding to make yourself more generic seems like a recipe for failure. It's kind-of what happened to Pontiac later on when they decided to make Pontiac the producer of the Aztec and the Vibe.

Oh dear...dastard GM, in failing to market it right (like you said) chose to kill it off, for shame. I remember, like you said, good ol' Olds DID have a super-strong following and brand loyalty (including me), so why GM chose to axe Olds and not Buick belies my comprehension--but I think that's more sympomatic of GM not knowing what the hell it was doing back in those days, with any of its brands, let alone Olds. As for that updated logo up above, if I remember right it was actually inspired from the logo they created for their then-intended-to-be-all-new-flagship Aurora, one of two cars GM built on its then-new G-platform, which I believe was originally supposed to underpin a new Cadillac supercar, only to end up underpinning the Aurora and it's frame-rail twin, the 2-door eigth-generation Buick Riviera. (I used to own one of those Auroras--this was mine--and loved every cubic centimeter of it--in fact if not for the fact that 4.0L Northstar-derived twin-turbo 250HP motor required 93 octance, I'd have probably traded my 4Runner back in for another one a while ago...you'd be surprised how many of those I've seen for sale all around Indiana.) At the time Olds desperately needed the Aurora, because I remember at that point in the '90s about the only Olds people cared about was the Cutlass (this thing, which in and itself was seventy different kinds of awesome--they're also hard as hell to find these days)--but again, that was really GM's fault both for getting away from what made Olds, well, Olds, and for the rampid "badge-engineering" they became notoriously famous for about the time that Aurora came out (you can only build the same car so many different ways...no amount of differing name tags is going to help that--mid-late '90s Buick Century and LeSabre, anyone?), not to mention blurring the lines between its own brands, particularly Buick and Oldsmobile. I think Olds/GM fell so in love with that car that every other Olds that came after it took cues from that car, and for that matter, so did the badge-twins of those cars, (in particular the Pontiac Grand Am, from the Alero, and Grand Prix/Intrigue twins). But yeah, to your point, GM/Olds effed up badly during the '90s...again, for shame.

[arnocom]

[sc49erfan15]

I just associate Kmart with everything equating failure. I don't know how they're still in business.

[tBBP]

I think the fine folk of Atlanta GA might have something to say about that assessment...

[shaydre1019]

when compared to this guy:

And sad to say these too:

Dreamcast was like te best system ever! Easily the most underrated and underappreciated of all time...of all time.

[GriffinM6]

I think the fine folk of Atlanta GA might have something to say about that assessment...

We don't even have K Marts here anymore. LOL

[pmoehrin]

Most everything else I can think of has already been said, but I will give credit to Enron and KMart. No clue how KMart keeps getting bailed out either.

[NoHoJoe]

Hmmm...Then of course there were a couple of radio stations in NYC that failed MISERABLY.... Blink 102.7, 101.1 JACK FM, Fresh 102.7 , HOT HITS 103.5 WAPP, FM NEWS 101.9, just to name a few...now if only somebody could put those logoa up....

[pmoehrin]

Hmmm...Then of course there were a couple of radio stations in NYC that failed MISERABLY.... Blink 102.7, 101.1 JACK FM, Fresh 102.7 , HOT HITS 103.5 WAPP, FM NEWS 101.9, just to name a few...now if only somebody could put those logoa up....

I do remember Jack FM.

We're going to play all the Bon Jovi and U2 we want no matter how offended people get by it because we're anti-establishment.

Think that lasted about six months.

[Shumway]

Yes the point of this thread was the company failing, not the logo's failing.

Like here are some logo's that I think are a possibility if these stores go under since they were changed to them recently.

The current Sears logo is actually slightly bolder than the one you posted...it changed a few months after that thinner one was introduced with the new branding.

The off-mall stores finally switched to this look this past fall. Until then, they still used the inlined type.

[Joshawaggie]

Yes the point of this thread was the company failing, not the logo's failing.

Like here are some logo's that I think are a possibility if these stores go under since they were changed to them recently.

The current Sears logo is actually slightly bolder than the one you posted...it changed a few months after that thinner one was introduced with the new branding.

The off-mall stores finally switched to this look this past fall. Until then, they still used the inlined type.

Most of the independent stores I see around here have the new font, but there are still a few malls that have the inlined, including the MOA, if you can believe that.

[Cosmic]

Hmmm...Then of course there were a couple of radio stations in NYC that failed MISERABLY.... Blink 102.7, 101.1 JACK FM, Fresh 102.7 , HOT HITS 103.5 WAPP, FM NEWS 101.9, just to name a few...now if only somebody could put those logoa up....

I do remember Jack FM.

We're going to play all the Bon Jovi and U2 we want no matter how offended people get by it because we're anti-establishment.

Think that lasted about six months.

We still have a Jack station here in Buffalo. For those that don't know, the idea behind the Jack format was to emulate the variety of music people might carry around with them on their iPods... with the idea that most people don't just listen to rock or just country, etc. I loved that station when it first came out, but now it's 90% bad 80's music with some other decent stuff sprinkled in.

[JackieMoon]

[kmccarthy27]

Most are missing the point if you're looking for refreshes that then failed. I didn't miss the point, I just don't think there are that many that fit the definition. I thought ValuJet did a version of this without the so-called "critter" (cartoon plane) after the Everglades crash but I couldn't find an example.

For those unfamiliar with what happened to them, ValuJet was acquired by AirTran which has since been bought by Southwest.

Ehhhh....I remember it being just a tad bit more complicated than that, from what I understood at the time (my ramp-rat days). Back in '92, a couple folks from the then-newly-defunct Southern and Eastern Airways banded together to form ValuJet (with just two planes, mind you). A couple years later, another group of former Eastern Airlines associates banded together to form the first iteration of AirTran Airways, which was previously known as Conquest Sun--AirTran Corporation bought it up and renamed it (I wanna say around '94, but I don't feel like digging up my Airline Football League Concept Series notes to vet any of this stuff right now--plus I can't find them right now anyways ), and moved its HQ down to Orlando. Here's where the complicated part comes in: ValuJet's holding company, ValuJet Inc, actually ended up acquiring AirTran's holding company, then known as Airways Corporation, then renamed its own airline, shortly after all that Everglades mess, to AirTran Airlines, so for a short while two airlines, AirTran Airlines and AirTran Airways, were flying around with dang-near the same name. Eventually ValuJet Inc. and Airways Corporation merged under the same certificate, I think this was '97, and the new entity rebranded itself as one singular AirTran Airways. (And after that 592 disaster, I can see why they wanted to distance themselves from that as far as humanly possible.) Airline history...gotta love it sometimes, eh?

Looking at rebrands that failed, I would nominate Oldsmobile:

Oldsmobile had very strong brand identity and brand loyalty in the 80s, with the streamlined straight-line rocket logo, having a market place of being more luxurious than Pontiac or Chevy and more performance-oriented than Buick or Cadillac. In the mid-90s, GM sought to refresh the brand against foreign imports by dumping the Cutlass and the 98, moving to the logo on the right, and muddying the identity by downplaying the rocket/V-8 performance history (did you know that logo on the right is supposed to conjure images of rocket-fast speed?) as they emphasized Pontiac as a performance model and downplayed the luxury elements in comparison to how they kept marketing Buick.

They were gone for good in 2004. They even made good cars and still had lingering brand loyalty, but rebranding to make yourself more generic seems like a recipe for failure. It's kind-of what happened to Pontiac later on when they decided to make Pontiac the producer of the Aztec and the Vibe.

Oh dear...dastard GM, in failing to market it right (like you said) chose to kill it off, for shame. I remember, like you said, good ol' Olds DID have a super-strong following and brand loyalty (including me), so why GM chose to axe Olds and not Buick belies my comprehension--but I think that's more sympomatic of GM not knowing what the hell it was doing back in those days, with any of its brands, let alone Olds. As for that updated logo up above, if I remember right it was actually inspired from the logo they created for their then-intended-to-be-all-new-flagship Aurora, one of two cars GM built on its then-new G-platform, which I believe was originally supposed to underpin a new Cadillac supercar, only to end up underpinning the Aurora and it's frame-rail twin, the 2-door eigth-generation Buick Riviera. (I used to own one of those Auroras--this was mine--and loved every cubic centimeter of it--in fact if not for the fact that 4.0L Northstar-derived twin-turbo 250HP motor required 93 octance, I'd have probably traded my 4Runner back in for another one a while ago...you'd be surprised how many of those I've seen for sale all around Indiana.) At the time Olds desperately needed the Aurora, because I remember at that point in the '90s about the only Olds people cared about was the Cutlass (this thing, which in and itself was seventy different kinds of awesome--they're also hard as hell to find these days)--but again, that was really GM's fault both for getting away from what made Olds, well, Olds, and for the rampid "badge-engineering" they became notoriously famous for about the time that Aurora came out (you can only build the same car so many different ways...no amount of differing name tags is going to help that--mid-late '90s Buick Century and LeSabre, anyone?), not to mention blurring the lines between its own brands, particularly Buick and Oldsmobile. I think Olds/GM fell so in love with that car that every other Olds that came after it took cues from that car, and for that matter, so did the badge-twins of those cars, (in particular the Pontiac Grand Am, from the Alero, and Grand Prix/Intrigue twins). But yeah, to your point, GM/Olds effed up badly during the '90s...again, for shame.

Problem with Olds and most GM cars at the time, was the badge twins. There was nothing that Olds had that you could not get somewhere else. My car in HS was an Olds Achieva which was just a Grand AM. Sad part is after getting rid of that I now own 2 Pontiacs :-)

[pmoehrin]

Hmmm...Then of course there were a couple of radio stations in NYC that failed MISERABLY.... Blink 102.7, 101.1 JACK FM, Fresh 102.7 , HOT HITS 103.5 WAPP, FM NEWS 101.9, just to name a few...now if only somebody could put those logoa up....

I do remember Jack FM.

We're going to play all the Bon Jovi and U2 we want no matter how offended people get by it because we're anti-establishment.

Think that lasted about six months.

We still have a Jack station here in Buffalo. For those that don't know, the idea behind the Jack format was to emulate the variety of music people might carry around with them on their iPods... with the idea that most people don't just listen to rock or just country, etc. I loved that station when it first came out, but now it's 90% bad 80's music with some other decent stuff sprinkled in.

Well the other thing that made Jack such a bad idea was that it replaced WCBS-FM which was and still is a the most popular oldies station in the New York metro area.

So not only was it a bad radio station that nobody wanted to hear, it replaced another station that had a very loyal following.

Also I will post the logo of Jack FM when it was first launched. To me its one of the perfect examples of something wanting to be seen as anti-establishment, but at the same time being as mainstream as you can get.