BUSINESS 15
Week of June 27 – July 3, 2014
Dirty. Difficult. Done. The Story of a Local Brand Transformation.
by Theresa Agresta for Saratoga TODAY SOUTH GLENS FALLS — The series Dirty Jobs was fascinating. It’s creator and star, Mike Rowe, called it the “most honest show on television” and over the course of its eight year run on Discovery we liked to wrinkle our noses and wring our hands as we admired the gumption of real life heroes and the stories that run beneath the fabric of modern life. Here in South Glens Falls, we have our own unsung heroes climbing through ductwork and onto roofs, transforming factory floors and office interiors, cleaning industrial equipment of every size and shape and keeping us safe. In the 28 years since Mark Miller opened his one-man power washing business, almost everything about it had changed. It had grown to a team of almost 30 handling the dirtiest and most complex industrial cleaning and painting jobs for manufacturers, hospitals, colleges, grocery chains, casinos and more. He needed a new way to tell his story. At the heart of the problem was the name of his business. Americlean was often mistaken for a residential house painter, an office janitorial service or a dry cleaner. In fact, the confusion ran so deep that earlier this year, they were voted runner-up for carpet cleaning in a local “Best Of ” contest! Still, the name Americlean did have equity. The company’s outstanding reputation amongst customers made it difficult to consider a change. For the benefits to outweigh the costs, a new name would need to capture the underlying emotional needs of customers and prospects and align them with a single story that would strike the right chord to move the company forward, much like Dirty Jobs inspired its viewers in the stories it aired every week. Today, the company’s brand has undergone a transformation. Relaunched as Performance Industrial in April, it has tapped into the essence of what it delivers and sports a new tagline, “The frontrunner behind the scenes,” that describes the role staff plays in improving facilities at businesses from the North Country to the Capital Region and
Central New York. Getting there was a collaborative effort, with the branding team at Allegory Studios in Saratoga Springs leading Miller and his company through a process to uncover the unwritten rules of engagement that drive their success. StoryCode, an online cultural analysis administered by Allegory, revealed several story patterns at play. The strongest, the Hero, was brought to life through new brand messages such as “dirty, difficult, done,” and “the one-stop-shop for your industrial cleaning and painting needs.” “Sunday or sundown, we work to meet your schedule and exceed your expectations,” is a new belief statement that shares the lengths to which the company goes to deliver on its promises. The sentiment of “conducting a seamless performance” was echoed in research Allegory undertook with customers who shared what they had come to expect from this leading vendor that does not have to have its hand held through the most challenging jobs. And in fact, the concept of a performance runs through the coaching Miller uses to motivate staff, comparing the field crews to those on the “front stage” at customer sites, and the office staff to the “back stage” crews working to ensure everything goes off without a hitch. It’s one of the key things that differentiates the company from competitors, and, thanks to the new brand, they now have an easy way to talk
about it. Digging into the culture of an organization is the quickest, most effective way to bring a brand to life. There are certain things employees just know and customers come to expect. Where do you find these nuggets? They are in the stories people tell about their experiences; in the passion
the owner and staff bring to the job; the drive that gets them out of bed in the morning; and even in the worries that keep them up at night. New services or locations, a merger, an important anniversary or goals for growth; these are all times to reconsider your brand. A strong brand story, crafted through
a name, tagline, logo design and brand messages, helps paint a picture that sticks in people’s minds and creates an emotional tie that will be remembered when the time is right. For more information about brand development or the transformation of Performance Industrial, visit allegorystudios.com.