News broke yesterday that RadioShack is either considering or has already decided to change their name to “The Shack.” Harry McCracken has a fun little list of 9 reasons they shouldn’t.
But on a serious note I wanted to pick out one of his items…
4. RadioShack has problems beyond any issues with its name. Lots of them. Its stores are tiny by the standards of the past few decades of American retailing, and therefore can’t compete with the product selection at rivals. (It barely has room to sell HDTVs at all–the TV section at my nearest Costco is larger than my local RadioShack.) When I’ve been inside RadioShacks in recent years, I’m usually surprised by high the prices are. They have a reputation for iffy customer service. If the signage outside the stores changes but the experience inside doesn’t, it’s not going to be any more competitive than it is right now.
To me the lesson here is that Marketing does not happen in a vacuum. With the multitude of problems RadioShack has right now even suggesting a rebranding is nothing short of irresponsible.
I mean, I’m not a professional marketer but I know a little about logic and it seems the logical thing to do is to fix the rest of your problems and then rebrand yourself. Being the whole point of rebranding is to signal to the customer that you’ve made improvements.
As the quote above spells out Radioshack…pretty much sucks. They have no real advantages over the big chains like Best Buy and they have all kinds of disadvantages because of their limited resources (as Mr. McCraken points out most retail electronics stores have TV sections that are bigger than an entire RadioShack store).
If I have any advice for RadioShack it’s this. First, don’t change your name to “The Shack”
Second, ask yourself what your current brand can still do for you and build on that. RadioShack has been around nearly 100 years now and that has to be worth something. At one time the brand was known for being a place to find knowledgeable employees and quality products. The only chance I see of survival for RadioShack is to focus on that and start carrying a very select brand of products (e.g. high quality products). Make RadioShack the place where people who don’t know what HDTV to buy can go to and not be overwhelmed. In other words, play to your strengths rather than trying to reinvent yourself (especially since you really don’t have the resources to reinvent yourself).
One thing’s for sure, calling yourself “The Shack” on the hope that teenagers will think you’re cool is a pipe dream if ever there was one.