How to stand out in a crowded market

Landscape companies can often start to all look the same to customers. White trucks with green lettering. Red trucks with white lettering. And names that follow a standard convention – owner’s name plus landscaping or lawn care – can be limiting when a company wants to expand into hardscaping, snow removal or other services. 

That was the problem facing Josh Sherman in the spring of 2015. Sherman started Great Lawns as a high school student and grew the Lexington, Kentucky-based company to a $600,000 maintenance and installation business with 30 employees. 

But after 16 years, the company was in need of a change. It was struggling to attract enough talented employees and to stand out from its competitors. So, Sherman hired his longtime friend Keller Ross as a partner and operations manager, and the two decided to rebrand the company. 

“We knew if we wanted to be in this game with all the players … we had to do something. Great Lawns would disappear in that (market),” Ross says. “We thought about it, but didn’t think about it long. If we were going to invest in something, we were going to invest in this.”

Will Coffman, partner at Bullhorn Creative, Lexington, helped the team at Great Lawns turn the company into Plot. Here’s his advice on evaluating your own brand, and what you should consider when thinking about changing it.   “Your brand should express what’s truest about you – your values, how you do business,” he says. The process usually begins with Coffman and his team asking clients their favorite brand outside the landscape industry.  “Are you Ford or Cadillac? Are you Rolex or Casio?” Coffman said. “People can get tunnel vision in their industry. We challenge assumptions with what they can and can’t be in their industry and get them as far out of their comfort zone as possible.”  In the green industry where so many companies can blend together – similar-looking trucks, similar-looking equipment, similar-sounding names – find where you can stand out, whether that’s your business name, colors or the services you provide. Coffman especially recommends using a rebrand to connect with your local business community, increase your volunteering, etc.  “Residential landscaping is aesthetic and can be intimate. To put a personality with the work rather than having it be a turnkey thing that happens at night or without thinking about it, that’s a natural next step,” he says. “Being part of the business community – that helps grow your brand.” But Coffman cautions against changing a name just for the sake of changing it. A rebrand should be the first step toward something new – a growing company, a new direction or combining multiple brands into an umbrella organization.  “You have to have that internal reason for the branding really to work,” he says. “It has to be catalyzed internally. It’s not a vanity play.”

How it worked. Ross and Sherman met with Bullhorn Creative, a marketing company in Lexington, to develop their new name and brand. In fact, Bullhorn’s partner, Will Coffman, helped start Great Lawns with Sherman all those years ago, so he knew a little bit about the business. 

The process, Ross says, involved talking a lot about what Great Lawns was, and what he and Sherman wanted the company to be – what it stood for, where it was going. Then the marketing firm came back with a list of about 150 names that they voted down (including Vale and Ground). Eventually, they settled on the new name – Plot – and the company colors – purple and white. Keller says he wasn’t sure the crews would like it, but he liked the simple name, and that it was different than anything else in their market. 

“We wanted to become something different than anyone else in town. We wanted to become the destination company for employees and the destination company for clients,” Ross says. “We wanted to become something more general – and just that, a brand.” 

On a Friday afternoon last June, Ross and Sherman held a party after work, brought in a food truck and announced the company would now offer a 401(k), life insurance and a better health insurance program. They also had a local shoe store come out and gave every employee a new pair of boots. Then, they walked the team out back to show them the new trucks and pass out new uniforms. 
 
“One day we weren’t Plot and the next day we were,” Ross says. “Our website changed overnight. We decaled trucks in one weekend.

The rebranding process meant a new logo, uniforms, truck decals and website, but it went beyond the cosmetic. It signaled an investment in the company’s employees and served as an outward sign to the industry that it was focused on growth. 

“It was unbelievable. They stand up clapping in the end. Just looking at the guys, they loved it,” Ross says. “They go home and tell their wives, ‘We’re in good shape.’” 

After the launch, Ross says, he noticed a change in the employees right away. They were more focused and productive, and injuries dropped. 

“They started coming in earlier. They were shaving. They were getting haircuts more often,” Ross says. “It’s crazy, a culture change just like that. They’re proud of the logo, they’re proud of the company.” 

And the change was noticed by people outside the company, too. A few days after the announcement, Ross says, eight people showed up from Plot’s competitors to ask if they could get a job at the company. 

“They had heard we were investing in the company and our employees. They wanted to come to the new cool company in the town,” Ross says. “They were coming from the top-tier companies. They were knocking on our front door saying, ‘We want to be part of this now.’” 

Coffman, at Bullhorn, says Great Lawns’ transition to Plot was a success because it was an external manifestation of lots of internal changes the company was going through. 

“Branding is about what you want your business to become. Part is what’s intrinsic, what it is right now, but also what will the business become,” he says. “They wanted to build something successful and forward leaning – a dynamic thing, not static.”

Client response. The Plot team was unsure how their clients – typically older and conservative – would respond to the new name and look, so a few days before the rebranding announcement, Plot sent a letter to its clients to let them know about the change, and announce Ross joining the company. Overall, Ross says, they were happy with the change. They asked if Sherman was remaining with the firm (he is) and many wrote back to say they liked the new, professional look.  

Plot posted about $600,000 in revenue this year, and the costs for the rebranding – time spent with the marketing company, new paint for the trucks, uniforms, etc. – were about $65,000. Ross and Sherman began the process in May and it was completed in June. 

“We microwaved it because we wanted to get it out. Especially in summer, we wanted to make a splash. We wanted people to go, ‘Wow, they’re doing it now.’ It’s one more thing to talk about.”

Advice. Ultimately, Plot hired two of those eight guys who showed up, and will need to hire even more in the spring to handle its planned growth. 

Ross says the new name and focus have been a boon to the company, and recommends that landscapers considering a similar change keep an open mind.  

“Most business owners are control freaks naturally, and have not worked with people who are good with branding,” he says. “Josh just let down his whole guard. He let people say Great Lawns maybe isn’t a good name. A lot of companies would say, ‘That’s my name. You don’t tell me my colors need to change, my trucks need to change.’ It’s been the best decision we’ve ever made.”