I just had to say something when I read this:
RadioShack To Become ’The Shack’
Whatever happened to an established name being irreplaceable in the marketplace? Do they skip that section in business school nowadays?
I mean, England still has a store (a huge chain of them, actually) called Carphone Warehouse, for God's sake. They know what they're doing, silly as they may sound now, at least 15 years since anyone expressed an interest in buying "a car phone."
But then nothing says, "Come on in and browse around," quite like a place referred to as The Shack... Traditionally speaking, if your shack needs no modifiers to make people understand which shack is being referred to, it is most definitely a shack no sane person wants to get near.
You know who else felt comfortable hanging out in a shack filled with shelves of electronic odds and ends? The Unabomber.
This falls right in line with another development I'd read about, which I'll share with you in case you hadn't heard:
Pizza Hut Soon to be The Hut?
Now, they claim that they're only using this name on some new buildings, but it's clear to me they're just trying to soften up the market before the big switch at some point. Also, of course, they want attention. Mission accomplished, idiots!
The So-Called SyFy Channel: Honorable mention goes to whoever's in charge of the SciFi Channel. That person who decided that their channel, and indeed their job and very existence, wasn't stupid enough, so they should change the spelling of the channel to the uselessly cutesy "SyFy Channel".
All this just so you can own an otherwise generic word? All of your networks' shows are now subconsciously graded down one star in my mind before I even seen them. Just you wait a couple of decades for that to really mean something. I know I will!
9 comments:
The Shack and The Hut both make me think of really big guys.
Amen brother, amen.
I can understand changing Radio Shack to The Shack. I get it. Whatever.
What really gets me is the SciFi channel. Why? Just... why?
It's all about going green. Shorter names mean less raw materials are needed. Think of the conservation in signage and letterhead alone!
The possibilities are endless! I need to call Walmart (aka W-Mart) and Costco (aka Cc) and God (aka G) to tell them of this great opportunity to save the world.
Be on guard though: It might be a conspiracy by all of the texters out there (damn teenagers). Without being aware of the transition, I now prefer to walk around work saying things like OMG and WTF whenever given the chance. So, I can see that this whole shortening the name thing should really take off.
A little bit more of my faith in the future of this country just withered away and died at this. I wish I was kidding.
Only us SciFi nerds got bent about the whole spelling change thing. rofl
You know, KFC did sort of the same thing years ago, to get rid of the negative connotation off the word "fried". They even have grilled chicken now, and I noticed Long John Silver also has grilled fish. The times, they are a changin.
If I were to say "The Buy" and "The Mart" would you know what I was talking about?
It is quite possible one of the effects of living in a generation of texters. They have forgotten real words.
The same generation that adds extra letters to words that don't need them and takes letters away from words that do...
Laterzzzz
Im outt fo realll
-Chris
Weather Moooooooose
I can tell you from experience, ideas like this come down to who has the loudest mouth in the marketing meeting... and the volume doesn't equate to intelligence.
I never thought "The Dress Barn" was very flattering. Most women I know refuse to shop there. I imagine even less will if they cut it to just "Barn."
This post made me really hungry for KFC. Mmmmm. Love that new grilled C they have!
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