Mark Ritson on branding: Golden Wonder can blame only itself.

The news that Golden Wonder had been placed into administration last week was mistakenly attributed by the media to the success of Walkers.

Their argument is a simple one: because Walkers is financed by the deep pockets of PepsiCo, because it has run a consistently successful ad campaign featuring Gary Lineker, and because it enjoys a market share of more than 50% of the UK crisp category, Golden Wonder simply could not survive such stiff competition.

Placing the blame for the demise of Golden Wonder on the success of a competitor, however, smacks of ignorance and over-simplicity. When Sunderland is relegated from the Premiership this season, its manager, Mick McCarthy, will not blame Chelsea. So what were …