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

[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.