Hacker News Reader

What were the effects it had on the company? They just mention the stock tanking which, by itself, is pretty meaningless. I'm assuming people stopped buying the stuff?

Secondly, why did it have any effect? Who would change their practices because of this? It really rams home how deeply brands are integrated into our understanding of value.

How depressing.

View on HN

It became a national joke in the UK. Nobody would be seen dead going into one of their stores or giving their jewellery as a gift. It basically put them out of business : https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/22/gerald-ratn...

But did it really put them out of business? They did a re-org as Signet Jewelers and is now the world's largest retailer of diamonds.

As a brand it put Ratners out of business. Your average man in the street isn't aware of the corporate structures behind the high street brands.

That's way less of an exciting headline, though. The company is the only way to realize the value of a brand, and if the company is still doing fine today, it considerably weakens the lessons here: it's apparently not even that bad in the worst case scenario.

They did manage to salvage the company, but they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. It was an absolute disaster for them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com