Guest post by Laura Dodgson

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Is any brand safe in today’s volatile market? Since 2008 we have seen many high street brands vanish into obscurity, so it was with great interest that JCPR recently read 24-7 Wall St.’s article on the ‘Ten Brands that will disappear in 2012′.

Their predictions have proved ominously prescient in the past foreseeing that brands such as Blockbuster and T-Mobile would buckle under economic pressures and this year’s predictions seem no less likely with stock market losers Nokia, socially in-ept MySpace and decidely un-hip American Apparel all featuring in the list.

The site takes a methodical approach in deciding which brand is likely to do the walk of shame in the next 18 months, with the major criteria being:

1. A rapid fall in sales and deep losses

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

3. Rapidly rising costs that are extremely unlikely to be recouped through higher prices

4. Companies which are sold

5. Companies that go into bankruptcy

6. Firms that have lost the great majority of their customers

7. Operations with rapidly withering market share

Each of the ten brands on the list suffers from one or more of these problems. Each one of the ten will be gone, based on their definitions, within 18 months.

These key indicators aside, the loss of such well-known and previously industry-blazing brands highlights a growing factor for those trying to stay afloat in the consumer industry: You cannot take your customers for granted – consumers are fickle and brands must take evolution seriously to stay ahead of the game. Nokia, My Space and American Apparel all have competitors who are seemingly more hungry and more aggressively searching for ways to challenge or please their consumers – whether it’s Facebook’s simple interface, Apple’s cutting edge design or a hundred clothes brands that were more willing to break out of their niche – we are no longer happy to settle.

Some of the listed brands have already learnt their lesson and begun to adapt – Nokia have recently formed a high-profile partnership with Microsoft to deliver the next range of cutting edge Windows 8 smartphones, but will others be so smart?

So, if your company’s name is on the following list, think sharp! You only have 18 months to save it –

1. Sony Pictures
2. A&W
3. Saab
4. American Apparel
5. Sears
6. Sony Ericsson
7. Kellogg’s Corn Pops
8. MySpace
9. Soap Opera Digest
10. Nokia