branding Domain Name to Sell for $20+ Million?

Psht.. $20 million.. Let me cash in my change. I got this.

Uh, "name and intellectual property" != domain name

Really, what a misleading subject line!!!!!
Not a word about any domain....
Or maybe David been on the wrong side of the Pacific so long he thinks everything is a domain name?

back in the day, I worked for a unit of Tandy Corp, the owner of Radio Shack and met many times with the owner, Charles Tandy.

I'm sure the domain would be included, but the total price would not / could not be itemized. We are talking about a brand, along with assorted trademarks etc.

David, are you a ham? Interesting article..If anyone has been in the States long enough they've probably seen or been to a Radio Shack at least once. That price sounds fair for their brand name...If they're worth $20Mill right now I can't imagine what they must have been worth back in the day...

I do not believe that this is a domain name only for $20mm. Nor, was it supposed to lead you to believe that, once you read the entire article, and the news piece.

I'm not off my rocker, as all would suggest here.

However, the chain's name, mark and other intellectual property is being sold separately from the actual retail outlets. It is almost a guarantee that the domain name is a part of that deal. Though, there is uncertainty around that aspect, hence the tailing question mark.

Having said that, this may end up dwarfing other "most expensive domain names" that ended up selling the content, or a business along with it.

It was constructed to illustrate a point that branding your business may essential to your longevity. This is because even 20 years later, I remember the RadioShack brand for what it once was, a hobbyist store.

Of course, RadioShack has since changed for different demographics over the years, but it goes to show that a 94-year old brand can be still engraved in so many.

Circuit City which was a great brand when they were healthy sold for 14 million after bankruptcy. That was for the entire brand and domain. Radio Shack should easily fetch similar numbers.

I like Radio Shack. They don't have the best prices but they have a crazy number of electronic gadgets. Unfortunately, they were beat by the online retailers, Amazon being #1. Even Best Buy's future doesn't look too rosy these days.

Perhaps the name itself is a bit antiquated...

Radio: this isn't the 1940s
Shack: impressive!

NameYourself said:

Perhaps the name itself is a bit antiquated...

Radio: this isn't the 1940s
Shack: impressive!

Click to expand...

You must examine two key elements in this: the history of marketing and generic products.

It wasn't until the 1880s when we saw early examples of trademarks and branding. To further this, it was 1905 when formal education in marketing took place.

To jump to the year 1922, when radio advertisements commence in an attempt for exposure, we must look at a generic product manufactured by a company in 1921 first:

They chose the name "Radio Shack", which was the term for a small, wooden structure that housed a ship's radio equipment.

Click to expand...

These go hand in hand when we examine marketing and branding, that made this term easily recognizable at that time as being a generic product as well as a brand.

It had two things going for it. I think they nailed it.

Prior to television advertising in 1941, RadioShack made the move for print advertising in 1932. This is already nearly two decades of a company in the making, far exceeding today's numbers of making or breaking a company in a time span of thriving. They made a brand, off of a generic product. And, it became a household name, much like earlier brands that are still around.

Can you think of any generic product or service phrases that are multi-million dollar companies today? It's hard to count them all. Because of this, it's evident that brands can be made on products to this day.

While we may yawn at Radio + Shack today, it was a product then, which later became a brand. Not going to toss free advertising to Radio + or + Shack names, but I just went through several, all appearing to be small businesses or parked, but they may still earning nonetheless. In other words, you can't rule the combination of the two words alone to make it a boring brand name to not want to shop there with its long history and trust factor.

In my opinion, they were unable to succeed with the rapidly changing times, which led to their demise; something that @Acroplex already brought to the discussion.