A minor irrelevant consumer announcement

[chipotle]

I’ve seen many people refer to RadioShack changing their name to “The Shack” and how monumentally stupid this is, following the lead of Pizza Hut changing their name to “The Hut.” I did something kind of wild and crazy and actually, y’know, went to the company web site to read the press release from August 3:

RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) will unveil its new brand creative platform, “THE SHACK,” on August 6, supported by an integrated television, print and digital media schedule, as well as a high-profile, three-day launch event taking place in New York City and San Francisco.

“Trust is a critical attribute of any successful retailer, and the reality is that most people trust friends, not corporations. When a brand becomes a friend, it often gets a nickname — take FedEx or Coke, for example. Our customers, associates and even the investor community have long referred to RadioShack as ‘THE SHACK,’ so we decided to embrace that fact and share it with the world,” said Lee Applbaum, RadioShack’s Chief Marketing Officer. “This creative is not about changing our name. Rather, we’re contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand.”

In other words, they aren’t changing their name. This is a marketing campaign.

I also went to Pizza Hut’s web site, and found a somewhat curt and, dare I say, vaguely exasperated-sounding press release from June 20:

“Pizza Hut is not changing its name. We are proud of our name and heritage and will continue to be Pizza Hut. We do use ‘The Hut’ in some of our marketing efforts,” said Brian Niccol, CMO, Pizza Hut, Inc.

In other words, they aren’t changing their name. This is a marketing campaign.

That we’re so quick to believe that these companies would throw away decades of brand equity for Google-hostile generics says something, surely, but I’m not sure exactly what it says, nor whom it says it about. But don’t be looking for them to be changing their signs any time soon.

Jack in the Box, though? “The Box.” Next month. You heard it here first.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

This makes lots more sense. After all, you cannot Trademark the words "Shack" and "Hut" because they are common english words. I've been stupified that any exec would let their company change their name to a word that could not be trademarked and ditch one that already was.

As for these campaigns, I have never called Radio Shack "the shack" or Pizza Hut "the hut". So it's wasted on me. Part of me wants to make a product and sell it under the "shack" name because there's nothing they can do except harrass me over it. You can just bet the chinese already have ships of "Shack" merchandise on the way over here now. Something tells me this fad won't last long.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, they may just be 25 years too late. In the '70s and '80s, Radio Shack was pretty much the de facto HQ for ham and CB radio enthusiasts and electronic hobbyists, and of course, TRS-80 computer owners. (People these days forget that the "Trash-80" was actually the best-selling computer on the market for a few years.) Back then, it had a pretty strong brand equity among electronics and computer nerds, but those days are long past, even among those of us who were actually TRS-80 owners. I still think of going down to a Radio Shack specifically when I'm looking for cables, but that's about it.

[raventail2.livejournal.com]

Ahhh...the good ol' TRS-80. One of the first computers my high school got was a Model 1 Level 2. Spent many an hour before school hacking away on that thing. Had a CoCo w/ a floppy drive at home, too. Later on I ended up getting a Model 4 which I still have. Still works, too.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Radio Shack is kind of a curiosity these days. Do they still have their 'Realistic' house brand? Lackluster home electronics which cost far more than anyone else's, and a few walls of parts. Kind of a weird hybrid of a neighborhood electronics store which hasn't heard about the big-box phenomenon yet, and electronics hobby shop. I don't know how they stay afloat... do they do it on the strength of cables and three-position switches alone?

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I don't follow RadioShack much anymore -- I used to really love those stores, back when they did more hobbyist electronics and computers, but now I'm only likely to go into them once in a blue moon for cables, as they still seem to have a wider selection than anybody else.

As far as I know, though, back when they lost the space in "RadioShack" they changed a lot of small things about the stores: they lost a lot of the hobbyist stuff and they dropped all of their house brands; either stuff is just labelled "RadioShack Brand" or it's being sold under the actual manufacturer's name. (A lot of the Realistic stereo components were made by Pioneer; the speakers were mostly made by RCA; etc.) They also became a pretty big cell phone reseller, and I believe a satellite TV reseller.

Realistically (no pun intended) whatever strategy they have seems to be working for them. They apparently made a conscious effort not to try to go head-to-head with the big box stores; that might prevent them from ever being a Best Buy, but it may also be preventing them from being a Circuit City.

[kynn.livejournal.com]

It's probably the same people who are still irrationally angry and hurt by SyFy's name change, right?

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

There's likely overlap there. That actually is a name change rather than a rumor of one, at least, although from all appearances it was made for pretty much the same reason that "The Hut" and "The Shack" are terrible brand names, i.e., "SyFy" can be trademarked but "SciFi" can't. I don't see any indication the programming on SyFy is going to change due to the name, though -- it's the same mix of original slightly (or more than slightly) silly serials, D-grade monster movies, expensive miniseries butchering classic genre novels, and inexplicably-placed wrestling shows it's been for years.

[palabrajot.livejournal.com]

My understanding of the SciFi/SyFy change, according to the press release I'd heard quoted, was to be more distinct to their prospective sponsors, since, as you noted, 'scifi' is a generic genre name in the public domain, and 'SyFy' is more distinct. And kind of dumb. So, perhaps it's fitting after all. ^.^

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, one wonders why they didn't pick something new and interesting instead of goofy, but I can imagine a very accountant-like answer to that. They may have concluded that they'd keep more of the existing brand recognition by picking a "new" name which is, when it comes down to it, actually the same name made trademarkable by virtue of deliberate misspelling.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Look, dude... it was either fart around with the branding, or spend enough money to produce shows that aren't legendarily bad. What were they supposed to do? :)

Despite their clever ploy, I suspect they will not arise phoenix-like in the same way that Coca-Cola did in the 80s.

[raventail2.livejournal.com]

Ahhh...the good ol' TRS-80. One of the first computers my high school got was a Model 1 Level 2. Spent many an hour before school hacking away on that thing. Had a CoCo w/ a floppy drive at home, too. Later on I ended up getting a Model 4 which I still have. Still works, too.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

I was the king of that goddamn TRS-80 in school. I was a frigging necromancer. No hard drive, OS running off a floppy disc... when you think of ekeing high performance out of laughably dated hardware or software, think of me.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I wasn't irrationally angry about it, more than I was irritated that they thought this was necessary in the first place. For 20 + years, the name was good enough. It described the channel and what could be seen on it to a tee. Suddenly, that name wasn't good enough.

The fact that the president of the network publically dislikes SciFi fans and disparages them frequently makes fans wonder why the h*** he's in charge in the first place. Why not just have a Vegetarian run a meat packing plant while you're at it?

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to say anything because you're just sort of proving my point here. :)

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Ah, but is it irrational? :)

[kynn.livejournal.com]

*sits on her hands, doesn't type*

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Aww. I was hoping to go to Pizza The Hut during my next con. :-p

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Or better yet, go as Pizza the Hut!

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Aww, but they're our friends! We trust them!

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

I'm amused because I've never heard it referred to as 'The Shack'. 'Rat Shack', yes. But never just 'The Shack'.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, Jack in the Box is just 'Jack,' or 'Jack in the Crack,' 'Chez Jacques,' etc.

[archai.livejournal.com]

When I was in college briefly, the best way to announce that one was making a Jack run was to say, in a very deliberate tone, "I am going to jack in the box." The name lends itself to inuendo so well that just saying it without running it together makes it funny.

[mordrul.livejournal.com]

I'm amused because I had absolutely no idea any of the things mentioned here were going on. I love not having a television.

Besides, I've been deliberately calling it "Radio Shed" for decades now.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard anything about these things on TV, actually, although presumably they'll affect television advertising down the road. This is all from talk on the internet -- and sort of a low-impact lesson on the pitfalls of what might be dubbed "high-speed citizen journalism." It's very easy for ideas that are factually wrong to get propagated very quickly to many places, and if it's a story that fits in with one of the place's narratives, confirmation bias greatly reduces the chances anyone's going to bother fact-checking. And in very short order, the idea has the appearance of a true fact: sure, it sounds a little odd, but there are all of these sources reporting it -- it must be true!

[kereminde.livejournal.com]

I was tolerably amused at the hype going up about the "name change" and tried not to snicker. I refer to Radio Shack as "that ex workplace" and really would only consider going there for parts/accessories. Since they usually have it.

AS far as Pizza Hut goes, the instant they give me less grief than Papa John's, I'll start ordering from them again.

SyFy/SciFi . . . well they stopped carrying all the shows I wanted to watch, so they can go under. No more Stargate, no Doctor Who, and Ghost Hunters seemed to stop being so skeptical. And the movies? Show me Dog Soldiers again . . .

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

I thought they were called, "They're still around?"