This article is by Paul Talbot, president of Southport Harbor, a boutique copywriting and marketing strategy consultancy.
In the wreckage of RadioShack, strewn among all the unsold batteries, USB cables, and radar detectors, we’re left with a handful of marketing truths, truths RadioShack ignored on its descent into bankruptcy.
Never Assume Business Strategy and Marketing Strategy Are Aligned
Bad marketing and bankruptcy are familiar stable mates. RadioShack marketing was bad because it failed to support business strategy.
If you listened in on the December 11, 2014 earnings call, you heard everything you needed to know about RadioShack’s marketing meltdown.
CEO Joseph C. Magnacca came across as misguided and misinformed. He told analysts RadioShack was revamping its marketing for “a more targeted spend.”
But significant elements of RadioShack’s media campaign were anything but targeted.
On Jan 4, 2015, it ran an ad on NFL FOX Sunday. Not exactly a tight, focused, “more targeted” audience. NFL TV audiences are as mass appeal as they come.
The execution of marketing to support a specific business objective remained flawed.
Systems and processes to prevent derailments like this are not difficult. Meaningful internal communication can be simple to implement. It can also be simple to overlook.
Stand For Something People Understand
RadioShack had at least two positioning cards to play. Convenience and dependability.
Consumers could find a store nearby and get what they needed immediately. No waiting for a plug or a cord or a gadget to be shipped. RadioShack had Amazon beat at this segment of the market.
If you were heading overseas, and you remembered at last minute you needed a voltage converter and you can’t wait for Amazon, there was always RadioShack.
Or was there?
One of the last TV ads it ran showed Weird Al Yankovic prancing around a RadioShack store selling toys. Confusion in the market was amplified.
The casual viewer could be forgiven for believing that RadioShack was no longer in the consumer electronics business.
Which leads us to wonder what business RadioShack thought it was in.
By 2014, none of us had a clue what RadioShack stood for. And a business that stands for nothing doesn’t stand a chance.
Names Matter
“The Shack” is what RadioShack decided to rename itself in 2009. But like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, the aged retailer couldn’t pull it off.
"We have an iconic American legacy brand," Lee Applbaum, then-CMO at RadioShack boasted in 2009 as he rolled out the new moniker.
It’s no mystery that “The Shack” brand never caught hold. The mystery is that it took more than five years to figure out it wasn’t working.
Name changes should be handled with extreme care. Names are emotional. The relationships consumers allow names to symbolize are steeped in irrational perceptions, and are difficult to research.
More than a few focus groups might be appropriate before jettisoning a brand that’s been around for 88 years.
The motivation for a name change can’t be driven by internal hunches and vague C-level discomfort in the absence of solid external data.
The Lack Of Discipline Is More Deadly Than Old Age
On the December, 2014 earnings call, Magnacca drove a stake into the heart of his brand.
“Last year our focus was on reestablishing the brand. This year, as our marketing plan evolved, we focused more heavily on driving traffic with promotional, and category specific advertising with less emphasis on brand building.”
It is tempting to get rid of branding budgets. Clearly, it can also be fatal.
