Martha Stewart—from Asset to Liability
Martha Stewart's guilty verdict turns her from an asset to a liability. This will fuel a lot of name changes. By simply removing her name, Martha's newspaper column titles are already being shortened. As I predicted in my last post, I think MSLO will follow suit. Amongst other changes, they will reposition themselves as MSLO instead of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.This would follow Martha's physical
removal from the company she founded. Martha's departure from MSLO comes as no surprise. What initially surprised me was that Martha
tried to stay on at MSLO. But this fight actually makes sense.To resign from MSLO on her own would imply that Martha knows she is guilty.
Image experts everywhere are telling us how Martha should handle herself over the next few months. But right now, Martha is being consistent with her story and she should stick to this strategy while she appeals.Martha Stewart will live to fight another day. Already, the 20-year maximum prison sentence she could receive is being estimated at 10 to 16 months. If her appeals do not work, experts assume she could even serve half of this sentence outside of prison. There are simply too many examples out there to tell us that scandal is not only temporary, but it could be the best thing that ever happened to someone. All prison couture jokes aside; Martha could stage a comeback to rival Richard Nixon. She could be a rags to riches story twice over.What about
MSLO? The stock has plunged more than 30 percent since the guilty verdict came in on Friday. MSLO stock will continue to plunge, so buy low and sell high. I've seen companies with bleaker futures come back from more dramatic stock plunges.Brands can shift their positioning, evolve the promise that they make and live on. This is not even an apples to oranges comparison, but look at Radio Shack and K-Mart.Both positioned themselves as the cheap alternative with off-name brands. Wal-Mart has moved so quickly, it blew K-Mart into bankruptcy before it could shift gears and bring in new brands to show that low prices do not mean low quality. Radio Shack however signed on big stars to sell their cell phones and are still around, competing with local and national competitors and doing just fine in comparison to K-Mart.Will MSLO survive? Probably. Will they have to change everything? Probably not. Will it be a tough road? Definitely.
