Reputation of a Reputation

[Meyer Wolfsheim]

On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Tim May wrote:

> This is "the reputation of a reputation."
>
> As soon as people tumble to the fact that "Tom Clancy" has sold his
> nym/reputation to some hack writer, that is, let them put his name on
> their words, then the reputation of "Tom Clancy" falls.
>
> Nothing new here. "Fisher" was a respected (high reputation) name in
> stereo equipment. (I don't like the term "reputation," due to issues
> I've discussed here, but I'm using it in the commonly understood sense.)
>
> The name Fisher was bought by a Taiwan maker of equipment, and one can
> now see "Fisher" on boxes at Costco and Best Buy.
>
> Draw your own conclusions. My own sense is that no one is fooled: those
> young enough not to know what "Fisher" once was don't care. Those old
> enough to know aren't fooled. I expect the brand name Fisher sold for
> very little money, reflecting all of these issues.

It seems to me that the sale of the "reputation" is a red herring in these
cases. Tim's giving examples of instances where a particular brand's
reputation for a given level of quality became devalued when the brand's
product became inferior to products previously sold under the same brand
name.

I suspect that buyers of Fisher would find the sale of the name
unimportant, if the new Taiwanese owners continued to produce equipment of
the same caliber as the old Fisher.

It takes significantly longer to build a brand reputation than it does to
lose it. By purchasing another's name, one attempts to cut the "brand
building" stage short -- but it is necessary to live up to the
expectations associated with that brand.


-MW-