Submitted by ZootyCutie t3_zpe8tr in todayilearned
I forgot Sears branded Atari's as their own
The one my brother and I had was the Sears brand. My parents had a Sears credit card, and must have always had a huge balance on it, because damn near everything came from Sears. Appliances, tools, clothes, and even video games.
Or it could be that Sears had really good quality shit
Honestly Sears had really good s*** in the late 90s and even the early 2000s
This was just Sears MO. They rebadged everything. Their Kenmore appliances were whirlpool. Their garden equipment was Husqvarna. Etc
> Their Kenmore appliances were whirlpool
Holy shit. Is that why Kenmore is a thing?
I'm in Europe, where we don't even have Sears (to my knowledge), but we do have Kenmore products and they're always just other brands under the Kenmore name for reasons I never understood.
Yes. Sears basically came up with the idea of "re-badging". Basically, generic store brands for appliances, tools, etc.
Kenmore isn't exclusively Whirlpool. It depended on the product. They also had a lot of Electrolux too(the sister company of Husqvarna, so it makes sense)
Nowadays, the practice is more common. Even a lot of popular brands have their own rebadged brands, particularly in tools
> Kenmore isn't exclusively Whirlpool
Yeah. That I know.
It's just always baffled me as to why.
And it's now more baffling.
Companies, with respected names here in Europe, are being rebranded under a name created by an American store, to be sold under that less-well-known name, to European customers, where that store doesn't exist.
Obviously "money" is the answer, but I can't see how.
Well, take Electrolux as an example of why this happens.
Electrolux is a well-respected brand in Europe, but they sell under all of these brand names in Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolux#Brands
They use it as a way to differentiate their lines(using old names). So instead of needing to sell "Electrolux crappy" and "Electrolux fancy", they just sell it under the alternative brand names. That way, dumb people won't get mad at the entire brand just because their cheap unit failed on them.
Prior to this practice, one company might dominate the "cheap" sector, while another company dominated the "high end" sector for a given product. By using these sub-brands, one company can make both and maintain their reputation.
Ah, OK. Thanks.
I don't like it, but at least it makes sense.
Yeah, now Kenmore enters the chat. It is basically a zombie brand. What does that mean? It means that it is a former defunct company's name that they can use to maybe push some products. I dont know about Kenmore in Europe, but I would guess it is being applied to cheaper appliances.
See, when Electrolux goes to launch a new line, they don't just want to make up a name no one has ever heard of. So, they pay a couple thousand dollars and buy a brand name from a dead company. Then they slap that on their new line and people are a little more comfortable buying it.
The most egregious example of this in the USA was the brand "GE". GE was an industrial juggernaut in the US. They made everything from nuclear reactors to trains. However, they didn't sell very much in the consumer space. So, several companies bought the license to use their name on products like TVs.
You used to be able to buy a house from the Sears catalog.
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