[My Biggest Mistake] Branding is about action, not just words

Editor’s Note: “My Biggest Mistake” is a column that provides PMPs’ first-hand accounts of what they’ve done wrong in their business — and how they fixed it. Want to share your story? E-mail jdorsch@giemedia.com to be considered for a future issue.

First impressions are important in the pest control industry. Something important happens to all of us right away, even before we get the opportunity to reveal our responsiveness, professionalism and expertise for the first time to new customers.They see our company names.

That was an issue for me in the early 1980s, when I bought a business based in Mandeville, La., called Fischer Exterminating. I detested the word “Exterminating,” because it connoted an overly aggressive firm that sprayed pesticide first and asked questions later. I wondered if prospective clients assumed our goal was to kill pests by any means necessary, rather than to prevent and correct each pest problem in the most efficient, economical and harmless way possible.

With that in mind, I changed the company’s name in 1987 to Fischer Termite & Pest Control. Not only did the new name seem less destructive — “control” versus “exterminating” — but it also signaled to people that we offered termite services in addition to conventional pest control, which they already knew we provided.

To help promote our newly named firm, I bought a quarter-page ad in several editions of the Yellow Pages. Immediately — without changing a single thing about the company’s strategic direction — something interesting occurred: Our termite leads quickly doubled. I was pleased that the name change was paying off, though I was surprised that simply adding the name “Termite” could make such a noticeable difference to the way our company was perceived.

That rebranding effort was fresh in my mind in 1994, when I wondered if another company name change was in order. Fischer Termite & Pest Control had consistently grown its sales and geographical reach, and I wanted to more effectively target residential and commercial customers in affluent areas north of New Orleans and around the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In those areas, environmentalism was (and still is) a chief concern for many communities and businesses.

Hoping to gain more business in that targeted area, I changed the company name again, this time to Fischer Environmental.

My biggest mistake was relying too heavily on the power of words, and not enough on the power of living out those words through actions. It’s one thing to simply change your name, logo or tagline and call it “rebranding.” As we would soon learn, a more effective strategy — one that builds credibility, not just hype — is to embody what your name, logo or tagline communicates.

Although a name change can quickly alert customers to a change in direction, a new product line or more, it’s more important to represent that change rather than simply label it. I began to realize that truth soon after people began asking, “So, what does Fisher Environmental do?” (Some wondered if we were in the oil well business.) The message we wanted to get across was the same one many companies seek to convey today — that our guiding principle as a pest control company was respect for the environment, and that all our treatments make use of the most technologically advanced methods available. The emotion we wanted clients to feel was peace of mind for their families, pets, employees and customers.

Today, Fisher Environmental takes time to show clients and prospects how and why we strive to be a leader in understanding the health, safety and environmental effects of the products and methods we use as a company. We stay abreast of scientific research and new product development. We offer full-care lawn and horticulture service, which helps us communicate to clients about environmental issues and pest control. And we invest in ongoing employee training about IPM, the environment, quality control, and more.

In addition, we changed our marketing efforts to reflect our environmental focus. We post short, informative tips and insights about pests and environmental issues on our Twitter and Facebook pages, and we upload brief videos on the company’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/FischerPestcontrol).

That hard work has helped us turn our mission into milestones. In 2004, we won a Champion of the Environment award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, and became a gold-tiered member of that program in March 2010. Also, the National Pest Management Association recently awarded Fischer Environmental with its “GreenPro” designation, reflecting our commitment to cultivating an environmentally responsible business.

If I had to do it over again, I probably would have kept the name Fischer Termite & Pest Control and added the tagline “Your Environmental Services Company,” because our line of work would have been clearer to prospects. Maybe we would have landed even more business.

But I’ve learned a priceless truth: Rebranding is more about your mission than your moniker.
 

Robert Kunst is president and CEO of Fischer Environmental. Visit the company’s website at www.fischerenv.com.

—As told to Darin Painter