Marketing Strategy for Radio Shack
April 30, 2007
Our friend, and client, Hall Financial took a major stake in North Texas based Radio Shack a while back so we have been thinking of ways they could make that investment pay off. So when I read a post about the Sebastopol, CA Radio Shack showcasing Make: Magazine I wanted to point it out to our friends at Hall and Radio Shack.
If Radio Shack has not approached Make officially (i.e. assuming this was a one store thing) I would recommend figuring out how to more tightly integrate the two brands. Imagine if Radio Shack could coordinate their stock with the release of the magazine? They could have all of the parts needed to build various projects in the magazine to coinside with the release of each issue. I love Make and have always enjoyed browsing through the parts at Radio Shack (i just needed an excuse to buy a resitor or transciever ~ MAKE might just be that excuse).
What is Make:? Wikipedia explains: Make (or MAKE) is a quarterly magazine published by O’Reilly Media which focuses on do it yourself (DIY) projects involving computers, electronics, robotics, metalworking, woodworking and other disciplines. The magazine is marketed to people who enjoy "making" things and features complex projects which can often be completed with cheap materials, including household items.
Update: doing a little digging I noticed Make already sends business to Radio Shack as evidenced by a post titled, "HOW TO - Make a Radio Shack optical Theremin." Imagine if the two worked together a bit more. It seems like Radio Shack might need the help as John Moore points out that even Julian Day, the company’s new CEO "admitted he has “no idea” how the company makes money." Evidently I am not the only person who came up with the Make/Radio Shack idea. Piers Fawkes asked the same question last week in a post titled, "Will MAKE Magazine Save RadioShack?"
