As Abbey, Bradford&Bingley and Alliance&Leicester are set to vanish from our high streets, following Woolworths and Zavvi into the annals of brands past, here at The Value Engineers we put our heads together to remember some of the other brands that have headed for the hills.

Personally I still feel the loss of Gino Ginelli ice cream which spurred my now Sisyphean search for an equivalent mint-choc-chip. Tutti Fruitti never really floated my boat. The other brand I’ve been missing recently is Chambourcy, their “Shhhh, don’t tell the children” chocloate mousse was a never fulfilled desire for this 5-going-on-30 year old.

Beverages feature heavily: from the epitomes of 80s style Taboo, Mirage and Bezique to the even more suspect Tab Clear and Mountain Dew, it seems even the most outlandish products still have their loyalists. Other brands that are gone but definitely not forgotten include TVR, MG, Hesketh and other staples of the classic auto convention.

Crushingly my metrosexual credentials were shot to bits by not knowing what Gliss Corimist is/was/wanted to be. I’m reliably informed that fabulous shampoo is the answer…

Lastly, and most worringly, special mention has to go to a certain lady who will remain anonymous who misses Jackie magazine. With agony aunts answering questions like “dear Cathy & Claire, I kissed a boy while standing up – am I pregnant ?” maybe this magazine has a lot to answer for and is better off both gone and forgotten!

1. “Research is for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.” (Steve Dunn)

2. “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts – for support rather than for illumination.” (Andrew Lang)

3. “Research stops you making mistakes, but it does not produce ideas.” (Anon)

4. “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” (Albert Einstein)

5. “Research is the process of going down alleys to see if they are blind” (Marston Bases)

(Borrowed with pride from all over the place)

Having thought about brand migration yesterday in the context of Santander(http://www.thevalueengineers.com/2009/05/27/banks-and-brand-migration-alex-comments-on-santander-for-the-bbc/), I thought it might be worth setting out some of the key issues brand owners might want to consider before setting out on a similar exercise.

- Why are you doing this? Simple question to start with but a good one to check before you start the journey. Inevitably there will be benefits of synergy, costs savings in rationalisation and so on, but you also have to ask yourself what is the benefit from a branding perspective? How will the new destination brand be a bigger and better brand vision than where you are now – rather than just replacing one name with another?

- What is in it for your end consumer? Consumers can be very cynical about brand name changes and will always ask “What is in it for me?” In order to take them with you on the journey you have to offer them the benefits of coming with you – whether that is better product, better service, or better value.

- What are the risks involved? Which customers are you likely to lose along the way and do the benefits of the new brand in attracting new customers outweigh that loss? How do you mitigate against the risks through effective marketing?

- How do you tell the right story about the brand migration? You can position a brand name change in the same way you do a brand – who am I targetting? what is the benefit? why should they believe it? Once you have that you need to tell the story powerfully and convicingly.

- Do you have enough resource to really get behind it? Changing a name is not just about new livery and letterheads but also about the resource commitment for communicating the change to your customers and building a vision for the new brand in people’s minds. This does not come cheap – just imagine the cost of the recent Norwich Union to Aviva campaign.