Ten Famous Brands That Shoppers Are Fed Up With

By Barbara Thau

Surprise, surprise: Sears won’t be winning any popularity contests with shoppers these days. Nor will its sister company Kmart, or American Apparel , for that matter.

These chains have earned the dubious distinction of being three of The Least Engaging Brands of 2014.

The list of 64 retail and consumer products brands is based on a shopper survey conducted by brand loyalty/emotional engagement research consultancyBrand Keys.

Brand Keys defines brand engagement as the degree to which a brand meets shopper expectations in the product categories in which it competes.

And brand engagement is not just about creating good will with shoppers: It also closely corresponds with positive consumer behavior, sales and profits, Brand Keys says.

An American Apparel store, Los Angeles, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brand Keys president and founder Robert Passikoff shared with Forbes just why these brands have failed to connect with customers.

Here he recaps what shoppers said about the 10 least engaging brands on the list.

 BlackBerry: “Corporate hubris. They felt the touch screen was a passing phase, something a ‘toy’ had, and that nobody could possibly match their security.” (Another take on BlackBerry here from Forbes’ contributor Gene Marks.)

Quiznos: “Never figured out how to leverage ‘toasted’ and couldn’t credibly challenge Subway ’s dominance of owning ‘healthy.’ Why would you go there unless you were starving?” (Some extra context here.)

Kmart: “Became interchangeable with anyplace that had low prices. There was not one compelling reason to go there versus a Walmart.”

Sony : “Couldn’t compete with Amazon [in terms of] the necessity of a fully stocked and comprehensive e-bookstore.”

(See Forbes’ ranking of Sony as the 80th most valuable global brand.)

WOW search engine: “Should be named ‘WHO?’ Was an online service offer by CompuServe in 1996, and decided to stay there. No compelling reason to use them over Google , Yahoo , or Bing.”

Sears: “If you’re not buying tools or appliances (and even appliances less frequently), they’re not really in consumers’ consideration sets — at least not enough consumers to make them profitable.”(More here on Sears.)

American Apparel: “The fact is that buzz comes in two frequencies: good and bad, and [there's] market proof that raunchy ad entertainment is not a substitute for authentic brand engagement.”

Budweiser: “Proof that a screw-top bottle and ads with cute puppies are no substitute for the values of authenticity and real craftsmanship.” (Budweiser ranked as another valuable global brand by Forbes.)

Coty Cosmetics: “Coty has become a ‘placeholder.’ They compete in the category, but are interchangeable with a number of brands. No compelling, differentiated reason to buy them except price, and if consumer are buying on price, you’re not really a brand.” (Some elaboration on Coty’s troubles of late.)

Volkswagen: “Current product mix (or lack thereof) and their reliance on small cars in a cross-over marketplace gets in the way of their being put on the consumers’ shopping lists.”

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