Brand Autopsy

I don't really care about Gateway, specifically, but I do think you are asking the wrong question.

A more revealing question is "Can we reasonably expect every brand and company to deliver a unique product and customer experience consistently? (not to mention shareholder returns)

It's like the Lake Wobegon effect, where the kids are all above average, and it's fantasy. We have to learn to accept that there is a place for average companies.

What's a gateway? :)

Richard, I respectfully ask; if you went to the bank tomorrow to withdraw the $100 you deposited yesterday and they told you they only had $75 to give, would that be okay? Or, it you asked UPS to send 4 over night packages and only three arrived the next day, would that be okay? It's average, right?
I think every company has an obligation to be more than average.

"Would you miss Gateway?" Funny you should ask! Last week I was having lunch with an old friend and we were talking about laptops. He mentioned he just bought one from Gateway and I incredulously asked, "Gateway?! Are they still around?!" I also couldn't resist asking if the cow motif was still the heart of their packaging.

Honestly, I thought Gateway went the way of the dodo bird. I'm ashamed to say I'm a technology book publisher and I didn't know they still existed! What does that say about their advertising and branding efforts?!

Gateway isn't targeting technology book publishers or others "in the know," though. They're targeting our parents and grandparents, who see a lousy overpriced computer on QVC and think, "the kids are always saying we should get one..."

Gateway can get by with being "average" because it produces an average product and sells it to a clientele who wouldn't be able to see that it's mediocre. Would I miss them? No. Would anyone? No, because the people they sell to don't buy their products regularly enough to notice. Another discount computer solution will take their place.

Gateway: the Saturn of computers.

The computer market is so nicely segmented now that I don't think that Gateway has a niche. IBM/Fujitsu cater to the business user. Dell has the value-minded, set-it-and-forget user market cornered. HP is 'making the computer personal again'. Vaio is for the gear-queer, box-store millionaires.

The only people I know who own Gateway won them through a sales promotion at work.

Would I miss them? I thought it was an interesting company in 1998 or so but honestly I wasn't aware they were still in business. Well, yeah I heard they were still selling online but after there stores shut down I wrote them off. Their stores has a high point at one time..for a short time. They were kind of like the redneck Apple Store but Apple came in, did it right and have done it consistently.