Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2014

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. identifies 10 well-known brands sold in America that we predict will disappear before the end of 2014. This year’s list reflects the brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the importance of not falling behind in efficiency, innovation or financing.

The list also reflects how industry trends can accelerate the demise of certain brands. This year, we included two magazines — Martha Stewart Living and Road & Track. With print advertising in a multiyear decline, these two stand out. Both have suffered particularly sharp drops in advertising revenue over the past five years. Magazines also carry the heavy legacy costs of printing, paper and distribution — a problem not shared by online-only competition.

Consumer electronics is another category with disappearing brands. The Barnes & Noble Nook makes our list. It competes with better-selling products from larger companies — Apple and Amazon.com. The Nook is also in the e-reader business, a shrinking industry. The Olympus digital camera also will disappear from store shelves by the end of 2014. Camera sales, especially point-and-shoot models, have been eroded by smartphones, which have increasingly high-quality cameras.

The automobile industry also has two brands on our list. Car sales are growing in the United States, but brands with market shares under half a percent cannot compete with companies that either produce high-luxury models like Mercedes-Benz or multiline giants like General Motors. Suzuki pulled out of the American market last year and Mitsubishi and Volvo will follow soon.

Looking back on last year’s list, we have had some winners, and some bad calls. Suzuki, MetroPCS and Current TV are all gone in the United States. American Airlines is part of a new company through its combination with U.S. Airways, though the American Airlines name lives on. Talbots was acquired by a private equity firm less than two months after we called it. Research In Motion is no longer a brand, having been renamed BlackBerry. We bungled our predictions regarding Avon, the Oakland Raiders and Salon.

We continue to use the same methodology in deciding which brands will disappear. The major criteria include:

Declining sales and losses;

Disclosures by the parent of the brand that it might go out of business;

Rising costs that are unlikely to be recouped through higher prices;

Companies that are sold;

Companies that go into bankruptcy;

Companies that have lost the great majority of their customers; and

Operations with withering market share.

Each brand on the list suffers from one or more of these problems. Each of the 10 will be gone, based on our criteria, within 13 months.

This is 24/7 Wall St.’s 10 brands that will disappear in 2014.