🪨 Marketing Strategies - BRANDING
Finding ways to get your name out there is KEY. We live in a new world with social media. Never before have you been able to get your brand in front of so many people for $0 - but sometimes free comes at a cost. When something is free it by definition is also less valuable. Your competitors are probably posting in the same places. Doing mostly the same thing. Remember - while there is a skill and difference between drivers and companies, if your potential customer ONLY sees a picture of a dumpster in the driveway, then there is 0 difference between what you do from the next guy. That is where BRAND comes in to play. Lets imagine 2 separate companies competing for attention in the same market. Company A and B both post a picture of the dumpster they just dropped every day. What sets them apart? Does one have a generic white truck and the other has a highly branded wrapped one? Does one wear uniforms and the other doesn't? Does one have a driver with a huge smile having fun while he works while the other is a heavy set grumpy looking man with ketchup in his beard? The answer is obvious - you can compete on PRICE or you can compete on VALUE. If it's price then you can be the generic truck, non uniformed, heavy set grumpy man with ketchup in his beard and it won't matter. If on the other hand you want to make a PROFIT, then I would highly suggest you focus on the brand differentiator. BRAND is the thing that can 2x, 3x, 4, 5x, your ad spend. BRAND is the thing that changes your phone calls from "How much?" to "When can you be here?" I good brand does the heavy lifting for you. Once it's well established everything becomes a bit easier. So what is BRAND? How does one create a brand? Is it colors on a uniform? Is it stickers on a truck? The word brand comes from the cattle industry. It is the hot iron seared into the skin of cattle to identify which ranch they belong to. I can't speak from everyone, but I am grateful that I don't need a hot iron pressed into my skin to do "branding" for my company in 2025.