Name Game
Hey, i am not sure how many of us in India are familiar about brand names used in the USA and Europe!! , i guess of late we are better informed because of the media explosion …few years back i guess only those who frequently happened to travel or the ones who had relatives in those countries had a fortune to know about all those brands. My first visit to the USA (Courtesy IVLP) gave me lot of experiences and this is one of them, i happened to stay at Marriot Renaissance and i guess the lanes closer to it had lot of shops and i used to walk on those streets in the evenings in search of my dinner predominantly in a McDonalds. When i used to walk on those lanes i used to cross a particular store named Radio Shack… i never bothered to look at that store because the brand name of the store clearly suggested me that it is a radio store!? EXCUSE ME ( i can well imagine what you think) – i perceived that Radio shack is a store brand which might sell probably radio services. One of those days i happened to walk through those lanes in search of a digital camera and couple of my colleagues Mr Abdul Basir from Afghanistan and Mr Phil from USA suggested me to go to Radio shack and i was puzzled what?! Radio Shack!!!! Do they sell that?
We both went to the store and to my complete surprise they sold every damn electronic brand, i went round the store and it is an electronic store and they sell brands at unbelievable prizes, i was leaving the next day from Washington Dc and i wasn’t sure if i should curse myself or the one who named the BRAND. Why should a store selling all kinds of electronic products with a wide range of brands at an unbelievable price name them as RADIO ? SHACK! To those who haven’t heard about RADIO SHACK, it is a chain of electronic retail stores in USA, Europe, South America, North America and Africa. Radio Shack came into existence in 1921 two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, opened a one-store retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown Boston. They chose the name, “RadioShack,” which was a term for the small, wooden structure that housed a ship’s radio equipment. The Deutschmanns thought the name was appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as “ham” radio operators.
I used to think about this brand name and used to discuss about this in my lectures and class rooms and we always discuss and get convinced that Radio in the brand name RADIO Shack is confusing for those who haven’t heard of the brand name. What i discussed convincingly or unconvincingly has turned out to be a reality. Yes, very recently the Electronic conglomerate of USA Radio Shack has changed its brand name, henceforth it is SHACK. 
The brand owners like me might have felt radio in the radio shack might be limiting the brands growth. When a name is decided on a brand, think of the brands future!! It should never restrict a brands scope and growth. In spite of the brand changing its name but their website is registered decades back and overnight they cannot change it and they continue their new brand name SHACK to have the same web id…!
NAME is everything in a brand and naming is the most complicated process in branding, there are strategies but ensure have an eye on the future.
Now, Shack is it a perfect brand name!! Probably the company is emotionally attached with the name radio shack and they have been forced to change. I guess they are scared to drop their complete name and start it all over again. Folks, suggest me if SHACK is an interesting name.!!
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10 Responses to Name Game
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While working with BPO’s and servicing the american customer base, many over here felt the same of radio shack. Its only while going through the purchase items did we realize what Radio Shack actually was.
However, does “Shack” send out the right message in portraying itself as an electronic or gadget store?
Shack might now relate to a restaurant or a hangout, offcourse to the new travellers visiting
Thank you roshan..i never guessed about outsourcing ..u have given a wonderful idea to blog on. Thanks i enjoy your comments. Hope Thinketc.com is doing great.
it’s true The Shack doesn’t really say electronic gadgets but it sounds interesting…it definitely makes u give it a second thought(if u haven’t heard of it already) and isn that fundamentally what u want ur brand name 2 do?
Enormous to you! and other posts on this theme will be in the future?
The author clearly noticed all
I would say not interestingly, but it is reasonable
I hope, remaining records will prove to be the same interesting.!!
Thanks for the post.
I venture that Radio Shack doesn’t want to lose the equity it gained over years, especially since they were also affectionately known as ‘The Shack’, (like Merc is Mercedes and Bimmer is BMW) but they did want to lose the ‘Radio’ bit, as ‘radio’ is too evocative of a ‘radio only’ era. Proof in case is YOU – a educated, knowing, widely-traveled person, who legitimately concluded that the store sold only radioey stuff, while it has always stored everything under the electronic sun. I’d say they have tons of research, and reason to believe, that ‘The Shack’ does it for them.
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