Hidden gems

“CASH IN THE ATTIC” is one of the jewels in the BBC’s crown: “The show that turns hidden treasures into cash and viewers’ dreams into reality”. The format is as addictive as it is straightforward. A camera crew turns up at an ordinary-looking house and searches the attic and other nooks and crannies for things that might have hidden value. The choicest items are sold at auction. Joy is unconfined when a ragged doll turns out to be worth a small fortune. The business world has its own version of this game: entrepreneurs rummaging in corporate attics for neglected but valuable old brands. It is thanks to such treasure-hunting that you can ride an MV Agusta motorbike, wear a Shinola watch, stuff yourself with Twinkies, wash them down with Orangina and play a Gibson guitar.

There are two reasons why such rummaging is so popular. The first is that companies often discard brands that contain plenty of what marketers call “equity”. In plain English, ones that people still remember fondly. Healthy brands can be sacrificed on the altars of corporate takeovers and restructurings: Brim Coffee bit the dust when a succession of mergers and acquisitions left it sharing a stable with Maxwell House; Procter & Gamble abandoned White Cloud toilet paper to focus on its Charmin brand. Or they can become orphans when their parent companies die: former household names that are currently looking for a new guardian include Hidden Magic hairspray, Climax ginger ale and Puss’n Boots cat food.