20 brands that could use a shorter name

Thursday's re-branding event by Radio Shack to call itself "The Shack" comes just a month and a half after Pizza Hut began referring to its brand as "The Hut."

I smell a trend.

When a company starts branching off in directions other than what it began with, it makes sense. Apple did it back in 2007 when it dropped "Computer" from its name in favor of the colder, wider-reaching "Inc." But for Radio Shack it's a war cry. An attempt to distance itself from an image of aging technology, and one that makes people think twice about dismissing it when they need to buy a new phone or pick up that 15-foot HDMI cable on a weekend, and just can't wait for one off the Internet to get there.

But what about companies that could also drop a word or syllable from their names? There are plenty that come to mind. Twenty in fact, which we've listed in slide show form below.

Brand names that could be shortened

[veilx]

My goodness, these are Horrible!,your basically taking away one word from each company name, and adding "The", it just sounds so cheesey. Not to mention, adding "the" to some of the names makes it longer... Like TJ Maxx... Sorry, but this is just Fail.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I was going for satire in lieu of The Shack. Clearly this didn't work.

[ferricoxide]

Rather than "satire", it simply seemed like a "wow: must be a REALLY slow news day."

[d3bruts1d]

RadioShack isn't shortening their name for the heck of it... people refer to it as The Shack, so it makes more since to officially become that. Like ?veilx? said, you can?t just add "The" to the beginning of one word from the original name, that's dumb. General Mills as The General? Come on now... what about The General Car Insurance (www.thegeneral.com)? I won't even go into all the things that are wrong about "ManHouse" or "The Softy". And how the heck is changing UPS to "The Brown" a shorter name?? Seriously?? And people refer to Home Depot as "The Depot", not Office Depot. You really didn't put much thought into this article did you? What was it, you just needed a filler article for a slow news day? I have a suggestion; let's rename CNET News Web Crawler to The Fail.

[Roman1024A]

I don't know where you are getting your statistics from, but I don't know anybody who refers to RadioShack as The Shack, I never heard of it.

Seems like management is not able to analyze how to rationally improve their business so they are coming up with snake oil solutions like this one so they can justify for a little while longer their executive compensations - until they leave the ship.

[Jaie2009]

Guess it's an area thing, where I grew up and almost every place i've been we've all referred to it as "The Shack" even back in the days of Tandy... lol

[TheGoBetween]

Agreed with the previous two posters. Dropping the first word or syllable and replacing it with "The" doesn't rebrand a darn thing,

[sting7k]

Radio Shack isn't out of business yet?

[llungster]

agreed with previous comments. Pretty useless article. Names shortening is often done by the consumer, as is t he case with The Shack. Corporate America has no say on that; and that often takes time to manifest itself. Other times, it's an image thing like KFC which wanted to get rid of "fried" for healthful-sounding reasons.

[johnfordummies]

Agreed with all above. Very lame. I couldn't even make it through all 20, because I smelled a trend.

RadioShack is embracing a community given nickname, that's been around for ages. If Walmart did the same, it wouldn't be "The Mart", it'd be "Wally World".

[dbailey02]

Why don't you drop "Lowensohn" and just go by Josh? Thank you for wasting my time.

[dennisheadley]

that would be The Josh

[climberfoley]

That was like a bad car accident. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't look away.

[meh130]

Congratulations. This is the dumbest article I have ever read on News.com.

[ddesy]

I have never called Radio Shack "The Shack," I think it sounds awful.

Then again, the store barely resembles is former self.

[rec9140]

For you ADD 20 something "reporters" who can't stand reading an article you might have to scroll the screen for this makes sense... They can't be bothered to remember the names of places..

Pizza Hut... they lost the pizza battle years ago

Radio Shack - Has been going down hill for years, the fact that its still around is a miracle. Just close already. You serve no useful purpose in life now... For those lucky to have a Frys around they have a sub for RS... those of us not will just have to wait for shipping from other suppliers.

Oh... and I think you can continue your "article" as part 2:

20 ADD reporters who need shorter names.

1) The Josh
2) The J
3) The Lo
4) The JoshLo
5) The JLo although you may have to deal with Ms. Lopez on that one.

[Drazhna]

How about Syfy, they rebranded, albeit dropped letters as opposed to words.

[Phoenix_Knight005]

Mr. Lowensohn, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent article were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this site is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

[d3bruts1d]

Never before has a Billy Madison reference been more appropriate. Thank you, you have made my day.

[Hazel-roo]

These were some of the most idiotic renames I've ever heard. NOT ONE PERSON WOULD CALL MICROSOFT "THE SOFTY". You should probably be fired for writing this article. Ha.

[wolivere]

Wow can I have the past 5 minutes of my life back. What a Horrid article. Thank god this person is only a poor writer, and really is not into marketing.

[chamm3r]

Lamest. article. ever.

[Lord_Wheezy]

Are you mental? It's a good thing you don't make this kind of decisions, cause you'd be a company killer!

[Gasaraki]

The suggestions for the brands are so stupid. How long it take you to think those up? Adding 'The' in front of everything doesn't make it "cool".

[cvaldes1831]

This is what happens when a script kiddie thinks he's in marketing.

Oh, and UPS has three letters; Brown has five.