Landscape and Irrigation is read by decision makers throughout the landscape and irrigation markets — including contractors, landscape architects, professional grounds managers, and irrigation and water mgmt companies and reaches the entire spetrum.
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TREE CARE BY BRANDON M. GALLAGHER WATSON A homeowner decides one day they need the service of a tree care company. ey go to their computer and begin searching. "Local tree care." "Best tree care." "Affordable tree service." "Insured tree service." ey scan the results looking for the company that speaks to them and the type of company they are looking to hire. What are they looking for, and how will they know when they're found it? No consumer takes the time to read every potential company's biography and check references. So, how does a consumer decide quickly which companies they are interested in having come out for an estimate? Whether consciously or not, the potential customer is evaluating these company's brands. In just a few quick glances they learn everything they need to know about the company's values, skill level, and hiring potential. In those quick few seconds, would they hire you? What does your brand say about you? Does it fit the client you are trying to reach? Branding started off as a way for sellers to differentiate their products from those of others. Especially as products became mass produced and globally distributed, producers created ways to make their goods consistently recognizable. ere are as many definitions of branding as there are branding agencies these days, but most contain some version of "a brand is any mark, symbol, or feature that differentiates one seller's products from those of others." As this definition is alluding, we oen think of branding in terms of something you can see — the creative design like logos, colors, and graphic design. Partly this is because, well, those aspects are the easiest to see, and also because, if done correctly, the creative design should tell you much of what the company wants to convey. If the company wants to be known for its old-timey values, longevity, and traditions, they would have a logo that speaks to its venerable history. If a company wants to let you know it is on the forefront of technology and innovations they would opt for a modern design that conveyed "newness" and progress. Branding has evolved far past being simply a visual communication. In fact, if you were to hire a branding agency to revamp your company's brand, they would spend most of the time trying to understand your values and what characteristics define your ideal customer. e last step would be designing a brand identity to convey those values to your ideal customer. A corporate logo is a part of that brand identity, but it also includes every other consumer touch point you can think of. Business cards, letterheads, proposals, invoices, envelopes, vehicles, vehicle graphics, fact sheets, employee uniforms, ads, website, fonts, and images all make up your visual identity. Your brand is also defined by non-visual touches, such as how your employees speak to customers about your products and services. We tend to think of branding as something only the "big" companies do. Multi-billion dollar organizations such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Target, and McDonalds are all frequently cited as companies that understand how branding differentiates them from other companies providing similar products. While these big guys spend more on a single ad campaign than most companies in our industry make in five years, that doesn't mean small business shouldn't concern themselves with branding. In fact, it is oen more important for us to have consistent brand messaging, as we lack the resources to get messages in front of consumers as many times as large companies can. Even hiring a brand consultant is oen out of the price range for many small businesses. But there are some easy steps that can be taken to use branding to your advantage. The first step for using branding to differentiate you from your competitors is to define what differentiates you from your competitors. Here's a quick exercise that can help visualize where you stand within your market: make a simple graph with "price" along the x-axis and "value/ quality" up the y-axis. Now start plotting all the companies offering tree services in your market on the graph. The companies that claim "expert service" and charge premium pricing go toward the upper right quadrant, while the companies pretty much offering chain saws and low cost go into the lower left quadrant. There may be companies you know are expensive but don't do the best work, they go into the lower right. Now plot where you think your company is on this graph. If you are in a cluster with many other companies you may want to find something other than price and quality by which to differentiate yourself. You could brand around your company's safety record, your number of Why Branding Matters 26 July/August 2015 Landscape and Irrigation www.landscapeirrigation.com ALL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY RAINBOW TREECARE SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENTS A brand identity should be consistence across all the touch-points that reach cus- tomers Plotting you and your competitors can help you understand what customers you are competing for.