What's Your Angle?

Building your brand has a lasting impact

Author

Casey McDaniel
October 17, 2024

When I talk about branding I am not talking about all of these PE companies buying rollups, mashing them together, and then getting a cartoon character logo that they can wrap their brand new vans with. I’m talking about what drives your company, how you determine your pricing, and what value your service provides.

There are as many ways to brand as there are to run your company. In my opinion, the four most common and prevalent in our industry (and a lot of industries for that matter) are these: Local, Ecofriendly, Premium, and Discount.

If you are starting a business soon, recently started, or are struggling to gain market share, I would recommend really leaning into one of these four ideas.

Local

I am sure you have seen local competitors websites that have a picture of themselves, their kids, or their family right on the front page. This is done to give the impression that they truly run a small, family owned operation. They are trying to tug at your heartstrings and painting the image that every hard earned dollar you spend with them puts food on their table and goes straight to sweet little Suzie’s college fund.

This is a great angle to leverage - especially if this is true, if you plan to run a single location operation, and if you plan on being an owner operator working hard days in the field and being around customers long term.

These companies usually charge a bit more than the market average because they can play the world’s smallest violin and tell customers “we are just a small, local company. If you want the cheapest price go call a national company.” And guess what?! It works! These little guys generally do very well for their families.

However, there are several cons to this branding strategy. If you ever want to remove yourself from the company and hire out all of the labor, customers will begin to see that and lose loyalty. They hire you because they want to deal with YOU. As soon as some random employee comes around for a few consecutive quarters, customers will start looking for a new small guy to support.

If you stay in the business forever, customers will be loyal forever as long as you keep providing a high quality service. As soon as you go to sell, customers will drop off. Sophisticated buyers know this and will not offer top dollar to buy you out. Unless you sell to a competitor in your market, you might not have a business to sell at all.

Ecofriendly

In pest control, this branding us huge. For decades this industry has been seen as “dangerous” because products used to be much more toxic and harsh and overall much less regulated. Today, most companies are using pretty tame chemicals, applying them correctly, and posing very little risk to humans and the environment.

All companies use the same rounds of products. It comes down to how well trained the technician is and how much experience he has if he can solve your problem. So where’s the opportunity? It’s really a blown opportunity. Too many companies make it appear as if they are spraying toxic pesticides that will kill anything in their path. Some make their customers leave their homes for hours at a time when there is no need.

Simply say you are safer than the next guy and you will close sales that he cannot. Boom. It’s really that easy. This is the branding that our company has gone with.

Now, we do go to great lengths to make sure everything we use is applied as the label directs and that customers will be out of harms way. We close a lot of sales because people see our ads and know that their dog will be safe and their bugs will be gone.

Premium

This one is really simple. Charge more money than your competitors.

How can this possibly work?

Offer commensurate value for the price you charge. Throw in small freebies, use the best products and equipment, and have a warranty or guarantee. Do not charge more than the next guy and show up in a rusted out, beat up 1994 Ford Ranger.

Spend the money on new vehicles, a good CRM, and a clean brand. Make sure your truck is always washed and you look the most professional in your market.

A lot of people have big budgets and won’t be pinching every penny. They want to pay someone who will do the job well and do the job right. They don’t care what the cost is. Unless you’re charging like 5x market rate. Don’t overcharge just for the sake of being premium.

Word will get out that you do a good job and stand behind your word. The highest paying (and generally least picky) customer will seek out your services and you will grow.

Discount

On the flipside, you can be at the bottom of the market. When customers call in you let them know you can get them in right away, it a quick service, and they are getting the bare minimum. A lot of customers don’t care of you knock down their cob webs and wasp nests around the house. They just don’t want ants in the kitchen. If you show up, spray outside and inside and leave in 10 minutes, you can put together a lengthy customer lif you charge half of what the premium guy does.

This will, of course, absolutely piss off the premium guy and he will talk bad about you in facebook groups. That’s part of the game. Be the high volume guy.

The cons to this path are that the lowest paying customers are often the worst. They often do expect the most and want to pay the least. They will call every company in town and be a total tire kicker. You want to raise prices? Cool, they have no problem calling every company in town again to see where they can save $5 a year. If you are going to offer a low quality service, you can do well but you will deal with low quality people.

As far as pricing, you just want to avoid being in the middle of the pack. If you are in the middle, it becomes so hard to differentiate your service from the next guys. You are more expensive than the discount guy but don’t have the margin the provide a service like the premium guy. This is no man’s land. You are stuck with the rest of the middle guys and have to hope and pray that customers just happen to choose you.

If you find yourself in the middle, I would highly recommend you increase or decrease your prices to get into another category and/or lean heavily into being ecofriendy, hyperlocal, or leverage something else but it must set you apart from the rest.

There are a lot of different ways to brand your company. There’s really no right or wrong way. Just remember that whatever path you choose, that is where you will stay forever. It takes a lot of time, money, energy, money, resources, and did I mention money to rebrand and change the public’s view of what your company offers.

Choose wisely.

Pest control is believed to be a highly recession resistant industry. It held up very well in 2008 and is holding up well this year, actually growing, despite consumer discretionary spending dropping. It’s a good day to be a bug guy.

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