Can a brand be brought back from the dead?

While reading ADWEEK this past week this headline captured my attention - "Korey Kay to Relaunch Commodore".

OK you are trying to bring back an iconic brand from the dead and do you really believe that this can actually be a success. And they are actually going to spend $30MM in marketing support starting up later this fall.

This brand was launched in the early 1980's and then went bankrupt in 1994. So sixteen years after bankruptcy they are trying to revive the brand and bring it back.

This will fail - pure and simple. My reason is based on the fact that technology brands come and go so quickly that any affiliation of the past -and yes the 1990's are the past in the technology world - is doomed to fail. People want the newest and latest thing and how does Commodore think that people will give them an even chance against Apple or Dell. So anyone under the age of 25 probably doesn't know much about the Commodore brand so maybe they will have a chance but anyone that is over 25 and has any recollection of Commodore is going to immediately think "old, tired, dead" brand - which does not exactly equal success in the the technology world.

Instead of bring back a dead brand - which certainly has been done in other categories - I think the people behind this effort should stop this attempt and start over with a new brand. I just don't think people are going to get excited about a computer brand from the 1980's unless they are going to reminisce while they see it in a museum.

With technology brands I would recommend something new and I believe that Commodore is going to fail misearably with this re-launch. What do you think?