What Is Radio Shack?

The holiday week brought a ton of football watching, and with it came more commercials than any person should have to endure. I noticed one commercial in particular (though, not necessarily for the reasons the advertiser would want).

Radio Shack is dealing with two typical problems that enduring companies face. The first is how does one evolve a value proposition so that it maintains its meaning, and the second is how does one impart a compelling promise when it does not provide a core or total-solution offering. Their answer is a meaningless tagline – “Do Stuff” – and a meaningless message – “All the accessories you need for all the stuff you got” (apparently Radio Shack has a core value in opposition to good grammar).

I asked myself if Radio Shack has lost its relevance (and before you respond, I know that many marketing consultants believe they have). In thinking about this question, I realized that many firms provide the equivalent of an accessory to a core offering. If Radio Shack has lost its relevance, then so have these companies.

For this reason I answered that Radio Shack has not (necessarily) lost its relevance – it is just failing to focus on it or to communicate it effectively. “Do Stuff” sounds like someone mocking corporate America. As more offerings come into the market and more consumers buy more “stuff,” the needs of the consumer may become more nuanced, but not less meaningful. Radio Shack (and any other company providing a partial solution) needs to communicate more clearly and directly how its customers will be better off for having purchased its products or services.

The marketing campaign is proof that Radio Shack doesn’t know what its compelling offering is. Radio Shack, like most companies in America, needs to get back to the basics.
• Identify who its best clients are,
• Look at the world from the client’s eyes,
• Understand the problems the customers face,
• Determine how the company solves those problems,
• Communicate that promise clearly and directly, and
• Work like hell to deliver.

That’s a recipe for fast growth in 2008 or any other year.