Worst branding idea ever?

I was at the Local Walmart yesterday and saw this:road bike

It's the GMC Denali branded road bike!! Okay, I can sorta understand the idea behind the Jeep and Hummer branded mountain bikes that came out a few years back, but this one is just confusing. Are they hinting that it will have a terrible resale value in 2 years ? That it wouldn't be practical for offroad situations ?

To me it seems that the image you want to create for a road bike is one of sportiness. Therefore, wouldn't, say, a CORVETTE branded bike be more fitting ? Of course, there was probably a guy who didn't get it working for the manufacturer: "Look, if we brand this bike as a luxury SUV/pickup, we can pay less for licensing than if we brand it as a sports car!!"

Better not, why not try selling the bike without any sort of branding? As it is, the selling price is $158 . Surely, without licensing costs tacked on, they could drop that a few bucks. As it stands, it's pretty competitively priced compared to the crusty old road bikes needing EVERYTHING on CL. I just couldn't get over the idea of riding a GM advertisement.

Schwinn had a Corvette bicycle in the '50's to early '60's. I can't remember if it went into the mid to late '60's or not. I think it paralleled the C1 Vette production.

Looking at the current Schwinn line up it is available again, at least in name. It's not the same Schwinn company as it was the first time they made a bike with the Corvette name.

-Rob

Maybe they figured there's a lot more people driving around in Denalis than Corvettes, so there's a larger customer base. Or maybe because it's easier to haul a bicycle around in the back of a Denali. Or they figure Denali owners will be shopping at Wal-Mart, and Corvette drivers won't.

I remember the Schwinn Corvette bikes, my cousin had one when we were kids. I wondered about it as well, but those bikes had no features that would seem to seem to connect them to the car, so I finally decided they got the name from small, fast naval vessels.

schwinn is now owned by pacific cycles. Mongoose is owned by them as well.... Same with GT and Cannondale.

maybe BMW should start marketing some bicycles in their showrooms? I know they have designed some

Worst branding idea ever? Nah... not a good one, but not the worst. The worst would have to be the Colgate microwave dinners. Or Smith and Wesson bicycles. Or Bic underwear. The bicycle thing has been done to certain success by other car companies... so its not that far of a stretch.

Seems about perfect to me.
Not really a good bike for a serious rider.
Not really a good car for a serious driver.

Poser bike. Poser automobile.

mad_machine wrote: maybe BMW should start marketing some bicycles in their showrooms? I know they have designed some

Don't know if they're selling any currently, but in the past there have been several different BMW bikes. They also sold a skateboard for a while.

I believe that the Mustang name was originally licensed for a bike in Europe (Germany(?) ), so the Mustang was labeled as the T-5 there.

stuart in mn wrote:

mad_machine wrote: maybe BMW should start marketing some bicycles in their showrooms? I know they have designed some

Don't know if they're selling any currently, but in the past there have been several different BMW bikes. They also sold a skateboard for a while.

Just seems like it would be the perfect counterpoint to their SAVs.. buy an X3,5 or 6 and get a matching bicycle

Over here in Australia, Subaru dealers often stock Montague folding bicycles. Fits in with the go-anywhere SUV "active lifestyle" crap, I guess. Though in most cases the bike never leaves the shed and the car never leaves the pavement.

Also, Ducati showrooms sell bright red Bianchi-Ducati road bikes. We stocked them in our bike shop, too, and they're actually pretty cool.

Does he Denali bike have bluetooth, cruise control and heads up

BMW cruise bike: http://www.bmw-online.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=2117 $995.00.

jrw1621 wrote: Seems about perfect to me. Not really a good bike for a serious rider. Not really a good car for a serious driver. Poser bike. Poser automobile.

Touche'

The worst branding idea ever was making McDonald's the Official Restaurant of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

stuart in mn wrote: BMW cruise bike: http://www.bmw-online.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=2117 $995.00.

wow, 50% of that price is the bmw logo... maybe more.

Assembled in Country of Origin: USA and/or Imported Origin of Components: USA and/or Imported

Just on a hunch I'm going to guess "or"...

JFX001 wrote: I believe that the Mustang name was originally licensed for a bike in Europe (Germany(?) ), so the Mustang was labeled as the T-5 there.

Germany, and it was a truck.

And yeah, I saw one of those when I was looking for a pavement bike. I was equally flabbergasted until I considered the typical clientele at WalMart, and then it made perfect sense.

Stealthtercel wrote: The worst branding idea ever was making McDonald's the Official Restaurant of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

marketing droid with a straight face said: # McDonald's Olympic Champion Crew, made up of more than 300 top performing restaurant employees from across Canada, will serve menu favorites to the world's best athletes, coaches, officials and media at McDonald's on-site Olympic venue restaurants. # Spectators will be able to share in the Olympic Spirit and enjoy McDonald's quality and variety at any of the more than 40 McDonald's restaurants located in the Vancouver and Whistler areas.

as far as "official products" go, my favorite is found on the back of a sack of combos.

"Combos, the official cheese filled pretzel snack of NASCAR"

ReverendDexter wrote:

JFX001 wrote: I believe that the Mustang name was originally licensed for a bike in Europe (Germany(?) ), so the Mustang was labeled as the T-5 there.

Germany, and it was a truck.

Krupp had the Mustang name registered for trucks, Kreidler had it registered for motorcycles.