The Biggest Mistake Starting From Day One

When I asked Dan what local businesses are doing wrong with branding, he didn't hold back. The problems start before they even launch.

"Naming is probably one of the biggest things we see many home service companies get wrong literally from day one," Dan explained.

They don't understand what goes into creating a name that's sticky, memorable, and delivers a brand promise. Then they don't invest in branding and don't understand the role it plays in anchoring their marketing.

As someone who does digital marketing for pest control companies, this hit home. When I work with a company that has a great brand, the ROI compounds. People know them, like them, and trust them. But when the brand is weak and nobody's heard of them, even when they show up for a paid ad, people think "I never heard of this company" and skip right past.

"If the consumer is familiar with the brand and they've seen it, they recognized it and they associate a promise with it, that's typically how you win, especially online and how you can really make the marketing dollars go a lot further," Dan said.

Initial-Based Names Are The Worst Thing You Can Do

Dan told me Kickcharge renamed about 50 to 60 home service companies last year, ranging from a few hundred thousand to five million in revenue. The smaller companies are more nimble and easier to change, but regardless of size, certain naming mistakes kill your chances of being memorable.

Initial-based brand names are the absolute worst. TJS Pest Control? Terrible idea. There's no promise you can associate with it. There's no visual you can connect with it.

Compare that to Viking Pest Control. As soon as you hear "Viking Pest Control" and close your eyes, you can probably imagine what that logo might look like. But with initials or a last name? Nothing.

"The lack of visuals mean it typically is less memorable," Dan explained. "So a lot of times there's many successful home service companies with a last name brand. It just takes a much longer amount of time for people to associate that last name with a specific promise."

If you're starting up, you don't have the luxury of waiting 10 years for people to understand why your last name means something. Wouldn't it be better if as soon as you said the name, they thought of a visual, a promise, and believed they'd get a better job from you?

This is actually the biggest chapter in Dan's book because he sees so many people getting it wrong. He wishes more people would read it before registering their LLC.

Why Mascots and Visuals Stick in People's Minds

I asked Dan why so many of the companies he works with have mascots - Vikings, dinosaurs, walruses, all kinds of animals and characters. He explained it doesn't necessarily have to be mascot-based, but it has to be a name that makes you think of something positive or processes a visual.

Take Grasshopper, an HVAC company in Albany that Kickcharge named. Even if you've never seen their logo, you can probably guess what it might look like. That name is significantly easier to remember than what they used to be called: PCM Mechanical.

"What image comes to mind when you say PCM mechanical? Well, nothing really. Maybe red and blue arrows if you really want to try to drill down to it," Dan said. "So now I might know what you do, but I don't know who you are."

Those visual aids make a brand sticky. They help consumers recall them later, which is critical because 95 to 97% of people who see your truck wrap don't actually need your service at that moment.

The objective is renting space in their mind so they can recall that brand name later. Instead of searching "pest control company near me," they remember your actual name and type that in. That's significantly less expensive to acquire.

The Data That Proves Brand Impact

This is where Dan shared something that blew my mind as a digital marketer. He had a company that does digital marketing for home service businesses run numbers comparing 25 Kickcharge brands versus 25 non-Kickcharge brands.

The results were staggering.

Kickcharge clients were returning over 550 branded keyword searches per month versus 50 for non-Kickcharge companies. That's almost 10x.

"You can attribute that to a number of things besides just the branding. But that visibility in the community is meaning people are typing in their names when they need service instead of air conditioning repair near me or something like that," Dan explained.

Then they looked at conversion rates. When people came to the website, how many actually booked a call?

Kickcharge branded sites converted at 12% versus 6% for non-Kickcharge brands. Double the conversions. Combined with 10 times the inbound traffic going directly to the site, that's about 50 more leads per month for a Kickcharge brand.

This is exactly what I see in the SEO data for my clients. Companies with strong brands and lots of brand searches make my job easy. Google recognizes them as a clear entity. Their homepage performs no matter what because they have that recurring traffic. Companies with weak brands? Everything costs more.

What Actually Makes a Great Truck Wrap

I wanted to get tactical about truck wraps since that's such a visible part of branding. Dan was direct: most truck wraps today aren't delivering the ROI they could be.

"The biggest issue you see with most truck wraps today, most of them are not delivering the ROI that they could be delivering. And it's mainly again because foundational deficiencies, meaning that the brand that they're trying to promote on that truck wrap isn't a good brand to begin with," Dan explained.

You'll never design an effective truck wrap unless you have a great foundation and a great brand to start with. Beyond that, the common mistakes are putting way too much content on the truck, too many visuals, too many things that distract from your branding instead of accentuating it.

In pest control specifically, Dan sees companies putting dead bugs, rats, pictures of mice all over their trucks. He goes in a completely different direction.

"We want to keep it very positive. We want to keep it not scare tactic. Like I don't know if my neighbor would love seeing this van parked on my driveway showing pictures of dead animals and dead bugs and cockroaches," Dan said.

You can communicate pest control without showing dead bugs on your truck. Keep it about your brand so it delivers that promise, looks high-end, looks premium, looks like a company people expect to pay a higher average ticket for.

A lot of trucks miss the mark by assaulting viewers with too much information. You need good fundamentals - foreground and background, making sure your brand sits in the foreground with elements in the background just supporting it, not taking away from it.

The Female Buyer You're Probably Ignoring

One thing Dan emphasized that completely shifted my perspective: you have to appeal to women. They're the biggest buyers in the market.

Over 85% of home purchasing decisions are initiated by women. Does the brand help her feel comfortable with who's showing up at her house? Does it make her feel like the company will be professional, honest, trustworthy? Can she let them in her home without worrying?

"You see a lot of errors where people brand or if it's a male owner, they brand it so that they like it. Maybe they've got a muscled superhero guy on there or something that feels cool to them but maybe is a little disarming to a female demographic," Dan explained.

Kickcharge always thinks about her as their primary objective. If she knew nothing else about this company but saw this van parked on her neighbor's driveway, what does she think that company's getting? How does it make her feel? How does it connect to her emotionally?

That's why in pest control, brands focused on bugs and scary imagery aren't something she wants to connect with. How can you have a brand that feels positive, polished, makes her feel at ease about who's coming to her home?

All homeowners have bias against contractors. The branding needs to speak specifically to that bias and help dispel it.

Perception Is Reality

Dan shared something that's stuck with me since this conversation: perception is reality.

"At the end of the day, branding is helping a consumer feel something about your company before you get to deliver that service," Dan explained. "All good brands are trying to do through truck wraps, all your touch points, your digital marketing, is trying to have her feel something about the experience before you actually get to deliver the experience."

Before you ring the doorbell, before she calls the call center and books the appointment, what if you can have her believe something about that experience that makes your company feel different than everyone else's?

This is why people think it's cooler to drive a BMW than a Hyundai. They both get you where you want to go, but what's the emotional connection with BMW that makes you believe that experience will be better?

It's the same with home service brands. What makes someone feel like they're going to get something better from you? And because of that, they're willing to pay a higher premium.

Dan tells every company he rebrands to raise their prices 20% on day one. He guarantees they won't lose a single customer because people will feel like there's a reason to pay a premium for their service.

"The same thing, one of the things that we see quite often is just average tickets really go up post rebrand because they look a thousand times better than they did previously," Dan said.

They were running into the obstacle of why no one would support them at that higher price point. The answer? They didn't look like a company that deserves to be paid what they're asking.

Branding Affects Way More Than You Think

What surprised me was how branding impacts areas I'd never considered, like hiring. Dan's actually adding a section about recruitment to the second edition of his book because of this.

I hear from my clients all the time that hiring is the hardest part of their job. They can't find good people, nobody wants to work for them. But sometimes when you look at their branding, their trucks, their uniforms, their website - of course nobody wants to work for them.

"It doesn't look like a company that I would want to work for," Dan explained. "What are you doing to attract A players to your business? What about the brand is going to make them feel proud to put on a uniform and to work for you?"

When a company rebrands, there's often a cultural shift internally. Existing employees recognize that leadership is reinvesting in the company. Why are they rebranding? Because they're trying to grow, create better opportunities for their people.

The word that kept ringing in my mind during our conversation was "proud." People are proud to be a customer. Proud to be an employee. Proud to be in the C-suite. Proud to drive the truck. Proud to wear the uniform. That's the foundation of company culture, and it might be impossible to have amazing culture without a great brand.

The Tommy Mello Story That Changed Everything

I had to ask Dan about Tommy Mello's rebrand because it's legendary in the home service space. Tommy was doing $30 to $40 million in revenue with A1 Garage - already substantial - when he decided to completely rebrand.

Most people at that level would say everything they've done is the reason to keep doing it. But Tommy knew the brand didn't represent where he wanted to go or the level of service he was actually providing.

"His truck wraps were really awful there. It was really hard to even tell what they did as a company. The colors weren't good. It was basically black and red. Colors that are not really super friendly, colors that don't really connect with women," Dan explained.

Dan kept Tommy as part of the brand since he'd become a fixture in his advertising. But instead of black and red, they introduced brown and ivory to warm the brand, make it more approachable, more premium.

That was about four and a half years ago. Tommy was at $30 to $40 million then. Now? He's at $300 million in revenue.

"Tommy talks about the power of branding. Since we did his brand, we've probably done 40 or 50 garage door brands since then because he just started talking to people within that industry," Dan said.

That's the Tommy Mello effect - people hearing him talk about how important branding was to A1's journey.

Dan points out you don't see a lot of people at that level say they're going to rebrand. They look at their success as the reason to keep everything the same. But Dan sees the opposite.

"I can't believe what you've built with this brand. That's freaking amazing. That tells me that you're doing very well operationally, that you have good systems in place. Now we could torch this thing, give it legs, give it a great brand," Dan explained.

The companies that hire Kickcharge are doing well operationally. They just don't look like they're doing well operationally if you judge them by their brand.

What Rebranding Actually Costs

I knew everyone would want to know the real numbers, so I asked Dan what rebranding actually costs.

You need to consider it's not just the cost of a new logo and truck wrap design. That alone runs anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 depending on who you work with. Then you've got to wrap a truck - another $4,000. Adjust your website, reskin it with new branding. New uniforms. New marketing materials, business cards.

"You have to go into it understanding that this is a big change. This investment in this infrastructure, first of all, in most instances, it's obviously a one-time investment," Dan said.

Year one is where it costs the most. But immediately is when you start seeing dividends - lowered cost per acquisition, higher booking rates, better close rates, higher average tickets.

For companies under a million in revenue, it's a harder investment to make. That's why Kickcharge started offering extended payments about a year ago - 50% down, then floating the remaining balance over 12 to 18 months.

"I believe in what we're selling. I believe you're going to be successful. I believe I'm not going to have a problem collecting $1,000 a month for 12 months from you," Dan explained.

About 50 companies signed up. So far, knock on wood, not a single client has failed to make their monthly payment.

The Most Expensive Logo Is The Cheapest One

Dan said something in his book that perfectly captures the false economy of cheap branding: the most expensive logo you'll ever buy is the one you paid the least for because it's going to cost you in so many other areas.

People are okay paying Google $1,000 or $2,000 a month on PPC, but investing in branding? No, they'll just go on Fiverr and get a logo for cheap.

"You're okay with being a slave to Google for the rest of your life basically instead of actually doing something that would be memorable, sticky, delivering brand promise, something that would help your average tickets, your booking rates, your close rates," Dan said.

The people who say branding isn't important are the same people who've never experienced what a true brand can do for their business. The people who go through the process become evangelists because they've experienced it.

What blows Dan's mind is how dependent companies become on paid leads instead of doing the work to become visible in the community they serve. Going to home shows, sponsoring little leagues - these things build your brand. Just throwing money at LSA and PPC every month? That's paying for leads, not building a brand.

The Competitive Analysis That Changes Everything

One process Dan always follows is looking at what competitors are doing and making sure the new brand is completely different.

"Go on the top five to 10 of your competitors websites, find pictures of their truck wraps, print them all out, put them on a screen or put them on the wall, and identify what colors are not being used," Dan explained.

What color can you own in your market? So every time people see apple green and blue, they're only thinking about your brand, not all these other similar companies.

This is why Kickcharge isn't huge on red, white, and blue brands. In HVAC, almost everybody uses those colors. Why would consumers remember your red, white, and blue when everyone else is using it?

When they did Tommy's rebrand with red, brown, and ivory, there wasn't a single company in the garage door space using those colors. They knew it wouldn't be confused with anyone else.

In pest control, Orkin has dominated red and black. So no pest control company should use red because Orkin is by far the biggest and everyone knows them.

Less Than 5% Have It Right

I asked Dan how big of an opportunity branding is. How many companies actually have awesome brands?

"I still think it's probably less than 5% of home service companies have a good brand. Maybe it's a little bit more, but I mean, you could drive down the road and you could look at these truck wraps and I would still say less than 5% of the truck wraps you see on the road today are well executed," Dan said.

Even when Kickcharge does competitive analysis for new clients, it's rare to have a well-branded company they're competing against. Dan loves it when he sees the top 10 competitors and their brands are terrible.

"These guys are 10 million. Oh my god. I love it that their brand is so shitty. We're going to crush these guys because we're going to do something that's so much better than what they have," Dan explained.

The way bigger companies with weak brands overcome it? They overspend on marketing because they have a brand nobody cares about.

There's massive opportunity for people who embrace branding, and still not many people really understand it yet.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest lesson from talking to Dan is that branding isn't optional if you want to grow efficiently. It's the foundation everything else sits on.

I've spent my career focused on digital marketing - driving traffic, optimizing conversions, improving rankings. But Dan showed me that when the brand is weak, all of that costs 10 times more. You're fighting an uphill battle.

Kickcharge brands get 550 branded keyword searches per month versus 50 for non-branded companies. They convert at 12% versus 6%. That's 50 more leads per month from the same marketing spend, and those leads already know, like, and trust you before you ever talk to them.

Perception is reality. If people perceive you as the high-level, go-to company, they'll pay premium prices. If your brand looks cheap, you'll be stuck competing on price forever no matter how good your service actually is.

The most expensive logo you'll ever buy is the one you paid the least for because it costs you in average tickets, booking rates, close rates, cost per acquisition, and employee recruitment. You become a slave to paid advertising instead of building real brand equity in your community.

Tommy Melo understood this at $40 million in revenue. He had the guts to completely rebrand, and now he's at $300 million. That's the power of getting it right.

For home service companies doing a million or more, the question isn't whether you can afford to rebrand. It's whether you can afford not to. Because while you're hesitating, your marketing dollars are working 10 times harder than they need to, and you're leaving millions on the table.

If you want to dive deeper into Dan's branding philosophy and see more examples of transformative rebrands, definitely check out the complete episode.

Want to learn more from Dan? Visit kickcharge.com to see their work, read "Branded Not Blanded" on Amazon, and follow Dan Antonelli on Facebook. If you're considering a rebrand, Dan's always happy to help even if you don't become a client - the trades have been amazing to him and his team, and he gives back however he can.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of Dan's insights on branding, truck wrap design, and why the best time to rebrand is today, not tomorrow.