> A step further, it seems most people's favourite brands tend to be ones which were high quality in the past. Its a rare situation where that quality continues as mass market appeal arrives.

Yes, I think this is a typical brand lifecycle. Somewhat niche brand gets famous due to high quality and appealing image. Brand gets bought by big group, with a lot of expertise in distribution and marketing. Quality goes downhill, prices skyrocket. Brand eventually loses appeal.

The LVMH Group does this all the time. But arguably, they don't lower quality too much.

The whole Kenmore/Whirlpool/Maytag/Jenn-Air/etc branding joke is that they switch which brand is the good one frequently to sucker people into buying garbage so you really have to be careful and do your homework for every single device. Have a great white Whirlpool dishwasher that replaced a near identical looking model. Apparently the motor and a few other parts were significantly different as while the prior model only made "the energy star sounds" it frequently clogged and never cleaned. The new one is a champ, uses less energy, less water, cleans everything, fits more dishes, and never clogs and I'm pretty sure it was cheaper than the previous model. The previous house had an amazing portable dishwasher I'd plumbed in. I had to replace the motor once and the impeller twice (user error) but the thing was over 20 years old and still ran like new. They certainly don't build them to last like that anymore.

Today you can get the highest quality consumer appliances ever available in human history...if you are willing to pay.

https://www.mieleusa.com/domestic/full-size-dishwashers-1532...

The auto open feature is fantastic, drys out your plastic ware.

I've tried buying upmarket items as my income has appreciated, however I haven't always found the additional cost worth the price. The KitchenAid mixer we purchased was worth every penny, but other high cost items like Pampered Chef haven't been any better than what I can purchase at Target. I'm definitely in the spot of trying to find durable, quality items at any cost as I need to plan for them to not break down when I'm gone. I don't want my wife and daughter saddled with constantly breaking garbage that I'm not here to be able to fix.

I was just reading the book "The House of Morgan" and it describes how companies are purchased when they don't maximize short term profit. The bankers and executives make sure that they make millions in the transfer, and then the brand is cheapened to get more profit, usually at the expense of the customers and employees, and then the company is sold again to get more millions for the executives and bankers. They don't really care if the company goes under or they destroy society as a side effect - it is all about making more millions for the already rich principals.

I jokingly call this MBA disease as a nod to Dutch Elm disease; the parasite sucks all the nutrients it can out of the host, killing it and then moves on. It’s the reason I don’t expect to enjoy Whataburger for much longer now that it’s been purchased by a Chicago investment house.

For instance Whataburger uses fresh eggs and scrambles them on site. That’ll go by the wayside in favor of McDonald’s-style pre-made and pre-packaged eggs generating waste and lowering quality. But it’ll make the food easier to replicate nation wide creating shot term profits from growth until consumers have the predictable “I don’t see what all the hype is about” reaction, damaging or possibly destroying the brand.

> it describes how companies are purchased when they don't maximize short term profit

But they evidently did maximize short term profit by selling the company.

LVMH are mostly luxury brands. They only do high-end and way above that.

When the standard price for a tshirt is something like $50, they don't need to worry about manufacturing price or cheaper competition. That's a different business entirely than primark selling $1 or $2 tshirts.

A step further, it seems most people's favourite brands tend to be ones which were high quality in the past. Its a rare situation where that quality continues as mass market appeal arrives.

Irwin tools, Klein tools, Blaster Corp products, John Deere stuff, K-Bar, Leatherman, Ogio backpacks, and Patagonia. I'm sure there are others but these brands have held up well for me over time. It's definitely a short list. Lowe's Kobalt brand seems to be good for now but Craftsman is junk now, most major appliances are garbage, every television manufacturer I can think of has garbage QA, aside from Samsung and apple I can't think of a reputable phone brand sold in the US but even Apple quality has lessened a bit and Samsung has the exploding battery issue. It's gotten really hard to find quality that isn't hand made.

Yeah, this is kind of the entire point of trademarks - to let non-professionals get enough information about quality to make decisions on some basis other than just price.