A new study from marketing experts at Interbrand suggests that Bear Stearns may have bungled it's marketing starting all the way back in the 1990 recession, at time when rival Merrill Lynch spent far more to market its brand to the market than Bear.
"Merrill Lynch was seeing the return on its early '90s branding investment in its ability to build and leverage its reputation in a broader market. It may have outspent Bear Stearns to do so, but the positive return was clear," Interbrand says.
Of course, Bear was in a very different business than Merrill, which has a much broader retail business. (And Interbrand is obviously conflicted here. It's hard to imagine a marketing company urging customers not to spend more on marketing.)
Nonetheless, the contrast in early nineties stock performance is striking. Merrill outpaces the S&P every year while spending more while Bear more or less tracks the index. It certainly leaves open the possibility that if Bear had done a better job of explaining its business to the market, the market may have been more confident about its ability to survive and perform during the credit crunch.
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:04AM
This was revenge. Stop trying to figure out what happened. Revenge for their behavior during the LTCM "bailout."
Posted by Anal_yst , Aug 14, 2008 10:08AM
@1
Agreed. Proving that there is, indeed, a god, and that arrogant douchtastic behaviour does, at least sometimes, come back to bite you in the ass.
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:09AM
Eat more Mayo!
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:13AM
> Caution: stock performance over relatively short periods is very end point sensitive and therefore not such a useful measure.
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:14AM
yes, adverts are very not important.
MER is about to kick it -although the running bull is awesomely funny.
was GS running ads in the 90s?
-retail donny douche
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:15AM
Talk about some self-serving bullshit... "Hey, maybe if Bear had used the services of a top-notch brand consultant (wink, wink), they wouldn't have been in this predicament!"
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:27AM
what is going on with this mayo craze!We are turning into a MAYO NATION.I know it goes well with turkey,but this mayo worship has got to stop!
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:28AM
dare I say it: MHL
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:31AM
Mayo Nation Rulz!
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:33AM
"bungled its", not it's
shoddy attention to detail
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:34AM
MHL = mayo, ham and lettuce
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:43AM
#11 that is a great sandwich, good job.
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 1:37PM
completely worthless report from Interbrand...looking at marketing spend as the only explanation for increase in share price is ridiculous. let's show the increase in janitorial services spend at MER vs BSC and attribute MER's performance to the fact they took more shits
Posted by guest , Aug 14, 2008 10:33PM
I agree. Clean toilets lead to success! And the shit hit the fan at BSC.