In The New York Times Magazine: What Is A Dead Brand Worth?

In addition to Consumed, I have a feature story in the May 18, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine. It’s about brands and memory — and a company that’s trying to build (or rebuild) businesses out of nothing more than what’s in our heads.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, and I hope you give it a look. You can read it online now, right here.

As always, I would love to know what you think. Usually I entertain questions and criticisms and comments here. But for this story, the Times Mag will have me answering questions on its site. I’m telling you about this a little early, before most mag readers will be aware of it, so I hope you’ll go over there and post. My answers will begin appearing there on Monday.

Here’s one bit from the story:

By and large, examinations of successful branding tend to focus on names like Harley-Davidson, Apple, or Converse, which have developed “cult” followings. Such cases are misleading, though, because they are not typical of most of what we buy. A great deal of what happens in the consumer marketplace does not involve brands with zealous loyalists. What determines whether a brand lives or dies (or can even come back to life) is usually a quieter process that has more to do with mental shortcuts and assumptions and memories — and all the imperfections that come along with each of those things.

There’s also some interesting stuff about memory research, the licensing business, commercial Americana, brands and the brain, and so on. Check it out.