Saturday, March 28, 2015

BUSINESS SPECIAL ............THE BIGGEST BUSINESS COMEBACKS OF THE PAST 20 YEARS (3)

THE BIGGEST BUSINESS COMEBACKS OF THE PAST 20 YEARS (3)


The preppy retailer lost its pep in the late 1990s, and from 1998 until 2003, three CEOs cycled through the fading brand. Then Mickey Drexler and Jenna Lyons came along. In 2003, Drexler—recently fired as CEO of Gap Inc.—invested $10 million of his personal cash into J.Crew in return for a 22% stake and the CEO title. Soon after he arrived he discovered Lyons, who had quietly been working in the design department for 13 years. She soon became the company’s driving creative force, crafting a more upscale product that was equal parts catwalk and Nantucket. It was a hit: During Drexler’s first five years at J.Crew, revenues leaped 107%.

With a prime-time lineup full of snoozy grandparent bait likeMurder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, the Tiffany Network sank to last place in the mid-1990s. That changed after CBS hired Leslie Moonves away from Warner Bros. TV, where he’d green-lighted such shows as the zeitgeist-defining Friends. The Moonves era has produced a slew of huge hits—CSI, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory—and CBS is now the nation’s most-watched network.

Launched in the 19th century, iconic Milwaukee beer PBR reached peak popularity in the 8-track era. But by the late 1990s, the brew had gone flat. Here’s how it came back:
In 2001, with sales hitting an all-time low, the company brought in Benetton exec Brian Kovalchuk as CEO and Neal Stewart as brand manager. Stewart was just 27 at the time.
One of the few places where sales were up was the hipster hub of Portland, Oregon. Young people embraced the brand due to its no-frills ­image, lack of cheesy advertising, and affordability.
PBR sponsored cool events like gallery openings rather than buy traditional ads. Since 2001, ­national sales have increased by 165%.

Remember the GameCube? Nintendo dominated the video-game world in the ’80s and ’90s with products like the Game Boy, but in the early 2000s Sony and Microsoft launched the PS2 and Xbox, and Nintendo’s response—an underpowered purple box that screamed "me-too product"—was a flop. Then Nintendo embraced its individuality with the DS, DS Lite, and Wii, each of which would go on to sell around 100 million units worldwide.

It ruled the athletic market from its founding at the beginning of the 20th century until the 1970s, but then Nike and Adidas muscled their way in and Converse faded, filing for bankruptcy in 2001. How it rebounded:
2003:
Nike buys Converse and implements a counterintuitive plan: Make the brand less about sports and more about style.
2005:
The shoe company expands a previous partnership with John Varvatos to create a clothing line, capitalizing on Converse’s association with cool musicians.
2011:
Converse builds on its new reputation as a fashion and lifestyle brand with hip initiatives like Rubber Tracks, a recording studio for emerging artists in Brooklyn.
2014:
The company sues 32 competitors, including Ralph Lauren, for allegedly producing knockoffs. Annual revenues hit $1.7 billion, up from $205 million in 2003.

BY FAST COMPANY STAFF

http://www.fastcompany.com/3042431/meme/the-biggest-business-comebacks-of-the-past-20-years

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