So if you haven’t heard, RadioShack will be changing its name to simply, "The Shack". This change will either increase brand awareness and breathe new life into the company, or go over like a lead zeppelin and do nothing for the company whatsoever.

When a company makes the huge decision to change its name, the public either accepts it or vehemently rejects it.

Two examples of this are Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yes, different type of business entirely, but both these companies tried to change their names and ultimately fell back. Burger King was briefly shortened to BK; Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC.

The only thing either of the name changes did was make for good domain name acquisitions. However KFC.com still says "Kentucky" right on the home page; they were never able to shake the original full name. BK.com, same deal.

Both companies must have lost a bundle and then some trying to convince people to call them by their shorter "cutesy" names. But it was all for nothing, particularly with Burger King. Nobody calls that place "BK". Ever. And nobody ever will. That’s what we call a complete marketing failure, because the market refused to accept it.

RadioShack in its decision to change the name to The Shack doesn’t exactly warm me over with confidence in the brand.

If I ask you, the PCMech audience, why do you go to RadioShack in the first place, what would your answer be?

Go ahead and comment with your answer, but I’m going to take a guess as to what you’d say:

• "Best place to buy and set up a cell phone."
• "I go there when I need a specialized battery for my watch/motherboard/hearing aid/etc."
• "I only go there whenever Wal-Mart didn’t have the electronic whatever-it-is I needed."

Am I right? Let me know. Post a comment on that.

Now let me ask you a second question. Does a name like The Shack sound like somewhere you’d go for electronics merchandise?

This name change may do more harm than good.

Over the years, RadioShack tried diligently to convince the public that it is not a electronics hobbyist’s store (which it was originally). That took years to do. And for all intents and purposes, RadioShack did it. They shifted the merchandise around, changed the store format a bunch of times until they found one that worked and more or less established themselves as an "upper" electronics store.

Here’s the problem with The Shack:

It denotes that old-time electronic hobbyist store feel. But isn’t this exactly what RadioShack has been trying to avoid with all these years of rebranding? Anybody who has been in a RadioShack recently knows this, especially if you know how they used to be.

The Shack doesn’t say, "quality electronics" whatsoever. In fact, it screams one word: Cheap. RadioShack, you’re not Wal-Mart and your patrons don’t want you to be.

RadioShack should have gone with simply RS. While KFC and BK didn’t work, RS as a shortened name for RadioShack would have. In fact it would have worked wonders. This is a brand that absolutely, totally would have worked as a replacement for RadioShack. And if RS wasn’t available, RS Outlet would have worked just as well. It’s not "radio" that RadioShack needs to drop, it’s "shack".

What do you think?

Will you be shopping at "The Shack"? Or will you always call it RadioShack like it’s always been?

I call it, "that place that charges $36 for a f***ing FireWire cable." That’s not a joke, by the way.

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