Building a Brand Name

If you think you're too small to build a powerful brand name for your company, think again, stressed Ahron Katz, founder of A-abc Appliance and Air Conditioning, Dallas, at The Winner's Circle's 2002 Business Boot Camp in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Investing in a brand name can be done when companies are small and have a limited budget, Katz stressed, sharing his own story.

In his Yellow Page ads, instead of focusing on the company name, he instead blew up the words "Same Day Service." "It worked well," Katz said. "People called and they got service very fast. They didn't care what the name of the company was."

Katz's next step was to make sure he stood out from the competition. To accomplish this task he hired a graphic artist to create some unique designs for his trucks. Then, he chose and modified the final design.

His next step was to choose a truck color. "It would have been easy for me to stick with the accepted practice of the day - white trucks," Katz said. "Then I asked myself, 'Is it just custom for nobody else to be doing it that way, or is there a valid business reason?' Also, I did a cost/benefit analysis to help decide if doing something differently was worth the risk. My only outlay at the time was the money, time and energy spent working with the graphic artist."

Katz decided to go with candy-apple red trucks instead - a color that "stands out and shouts to be noticed," he said.

Today, A-abc Appliance and Air Conditioning, known in print and radio ads as "the company with the little red trucks," has a recognition factor in the Dallas market of approximately 50 percent, Katz said. "When I meet someone and tell them I founded A-abc Appliance and Air Conditioning, I might get a blank look," he explained. "But when I follow it up with, 'We're the company with the little red trucks,' the answer is invariably, 'Oh, yeah, I know your company.'"