Some PE firms do understand brand image and market segmentation based on this and know what it’s worth as a dollar-amount.

I’ve been in the room a few times where they broke down the math for me.

That's the most brilliant part of the PYREX vs pyrex situation, isn't it?

Lowercase pyrex bought the naming rights and gets to benefit off selling cheap products at a premium price, while uppercase PYREX maintains their brand image for them by selling genuinely good glassware.

I think you’re wrong about this. 90% of customers will not realize there is a distinction, and so there’s just confusion over the general state of things. My guess is that splitting the brand in half like this is actually more costly overall than just committing to one path

Eg, imagine if mazzerati also made a mid-market vehicle. It would lose some cachet, and also wouldn’t make much profit off the midmarket item. In the other side, if Walmart stocks premium goods, they won’t sell because they’ll be perceived as too expensive by the Walmart audience.

Edit: anecdotally, I once used the weaker variety, the dish exploded on me, and I luckily was not maimed. The floor was not so lucky, it is still pockmarked. The lesson I learned is: only use metal in the oven, no matter what.

> Eg, imagine if mazzerati also made a mid-market vehicle

With that spelling it sounds much worse that mid-market :-)

> imagine if mazzerati also made a mid-market vehicle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_SM