Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
"If trek, specialized, or whoever opened a shop and every shop within the region dropped the brand they would lose market share and have to start backing up."
Noble thought, however impractical. Shops rely upon a certain brand to stay alive. If you have the big T or S on your door, then you are very reliant upon the brand name to drive sales. Trek could slap their name on a Walmart bike and it would sell well because their name is on it. Schwinn successfully did this for years using Giant bikes. As a Giant dealer we had to fight consumer bias for the Schwinn brand, and it took a long time to finally start winning consistently.
If you have T or S on the door the sales revenue from these brands is quite a huge chunk and to just drop them and start building a brand name such as Diamond Back or Jamis is a major endeavor. Revenue will surely decrease, which affects everything else in the operation, including payroll.
I suppose it is simply a matter of time when all good things must come to an end. Businesses come and go, the cycle of life continues on. Eventually Trek and Specialized and whomever else will see their own demise when they are out-flanked or fail to respond to market forces such as Schhwinn did back in the 90's.
All this makes sense- a recognized brand has some inherent value that cant just be replaced.
I just chuckled when reading it though because a large LBS with 3 locations in my metro is a Trek and Giant dealer, but recently brought in Jamis to fill in for Giant due to lack of inventory. That move would actually make me consider buying from them, which is the opposite of what you mention. With that said, I recognize I am an outlier in brand preferences. I have 0 interest in a Giant bike from an inspirational perspective or fitment. Jamis?- sure, they have cool branding and geometry that would work for me.