Buying, Selling, Growing

Since reading about Applebee's woes in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, I've paid extra attention to the restaurant chain and its financial situation. Though the company's last annual report didn't look too terrible (okay, so I took only a cursory glance at it), the article painted a rather gloomy picture. It seems Applebee's menu and image had become too static. The suburbs, which enthusiastically embrace the restaurant in its expansion mode, have moved on to other fare while Applebee's did too little to update its image.

Today comes news that IHOP is going to purchase Applebee's for $1.9 billion in cash. Odd that the AP article blamed Applebee's woes on "soaring commodities prices" and "consumers facing high gas prices". (Or was the company's publicist doing a great job deflecting criticism away from management?) I mean, how far is it from the typical home to the nearest Applebee's? About 400 yards? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think Americans treat a trip to Applebee's like a family vacation.

From today's New York Times, "Ford Is Said to Consider Selling Off Its Volvo Brand."

From yesterday's New York Times Sunday Magazine (yeah, annoying registration is required...but worth it), there's a great little article on Crocs in Rob Walker's "Consumers" column. My introduction to Crocs came in a finance course last school year, and I've seen them all over New York City this summer. An interesting success story:

"Aspiring lifestyle brands are a dime a dozen, but Crocs have trod an unusual path. The shoes caught on first in Middle America, then migrated toward the more trend-centric coasts, possibly aided by the most significant marketing campaign in the company’s brief history: ads in Vanity Fair and other magazines carried the theme “Ugly can be beautiful.” (Mattson says that Batali, previously much-photographed in Chuck Taylor sneakers, discovered Crocs on his own somewhere around 2005; he has his own Crocs line now.) Comfort is the consistent theme in testimonials on the company’s site — despite the presence nearby of, say, a woman wearing Crocs with her wedding dress."

Update: I should also point out this Crocs article at Slate that ran last Friday. A company knows its doing well when both Slate and the New York Times Sunday Magazine write about its product within a three-day span. I sense that Crocs case studies will be to future MBA marketing courses what Snapple and iPod are to current MBA courses.