Out of the Box

A large truck was making a delivery of food products to a Brooklyn store when a shopper looked up: “Oh how filthy!” The truck was in obvious need of a good washing. But that was not the only thing that was amiss on the truck. The logo of some of the brands that the truck delivers to seemed faded and a slogan that once said “Proud to serve only the best to your family” actually read “oud to serve ly the best to your fam.” But it’s only a truck, right? Wrong!

National companies like FedEx and UPS know that all the advertising in the world does not replace the visibility of their trucks and personnel on the streets of cities and even villages. They take great pain to keep their fleet in impeccable condition and their workers in clean uniforms.

There are many marketing studies that prove the value of this rather casual way of marketing. Impressions are made on consumers even if the marketing is not in your face, the studies point out. People tend to factor in such casual items as trucks and workers in their overall impressions of a company. Businesses like FedEx, DHL and UPS know that.

Of late, this concept has expanded to sponsoring sections of highways and roads. The logos of major corporations and local businesses appear on highways and oddly enough even the cleanliness of that stretch of road can rub off on the image of a company. In many markets businesses sponsor waste baskets on city streets.

But trucks have an even greater value than the other types of branding vehicles that we mentioned. Trucks are mobile and each truck is exposed to large numbers of customers. This fact places an enormous responsibility on the company that its branding, in the form of what the message is on the truck, should be a good representation of the company.

A food company that delivered its product through a small fleet of its own trucks asked me how much should actually be written on the truck. They actually market at least seven different brands, all of which are on the truck. In addition, the company added its slogan, Web site and contact information, In short, once all of the information was on the truck, there was little white space. It was to say the least confusing to anyone who tried to make out what the message was and most people would never know what the main brand was.

As in all advertising, space should be used carefully so that the central message of the ad is not lost in a clutter of logos and messages. No one is impressed with the multitude of logos other than the company that feels good that it has so many different lines of products. Instead, they should borrow from the FedExes and UPS’s of the world, who basically highlight their logos, slogans, and Web site in a very clean and effective background.

Marketing experts say that uniforms on employees play a big part in forming customer opinions about a brand. A shirt with a logo and a button stressing good service can go a long way in leaving a great impression. As big as FedEx might be, the appearance of an employee at the doorstep of a home or an office is tantamount to having the company as a whole present itself to the household or business about to receive the delivery. The experts say that while the customer may not articulate their feelings about the way the employee presented himself, it is very much embedded in the consciousness of the consumer in forming an opinion about the brand.

A large franchise hardware store in a small town in Florida obviously had the advantage in that it had no competition. Yet it took every step to brand itself with a beautiful awning, trucks that had paintings of lush green gardens, flower pots in front of the store with the logo of the store, a bench with the company slogan, and two bus shelters with their paintings and logos.

The owner explained that although he had no competition at the moment, his actions were designed to “ward off any future attempts to compete with us.” He added: “We want to be so far ahead in projecting a positive image so that no one will ever venture onto our turf and secondly, we do want our customers to feel good about us.” But here too, a great deal of emphasis went into the trucks. The same is the case with a Miami Beach dry cleaner whose main business is pick-up and delivery. The fleet of vans features the dark blue color of the company with a bold logo and the contact information.

Many businesses pay little attention to items like their trucks and the way drivers and employees are dressed. They focus on the product and getting it to market. Consumer behavior is part of the psychology of the customer in making choices. It is interesting to watch how consumers will pick one product over another although the two are identical. There is simply the hidden and unexplained that leads a customer to make the choice. Marketing experts believe that there is a reason for the choice and it very well may be a truck.

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.

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