Years ago, Paul Lawson made a business decision to make his customers see red. He’s never regretted the choice.
Today, his company, Executive Plumbing in Boise, Idaho, is known throughout Ada and Canyon counties as the company with the big red vans. It’s a well-executed branding strategy that definitely leaves an impression on customers.
“I started out with white vans, but I really wanted them to stand out more from the competition,” Lawson says. “It’s hard to spend money painting a brand-new white Dodge Sprinter, but it’s necessary if we want to brand ourselves.”
The fire engine-red Sprinters are prominently displayed on the company’s Web site and all other marketing materials, and the “big red trucks” slogan is the focal point of a one-year ad campaign on a local radio station.
Evoking tradition
“We get a lot of comments on the vans,” Lawson says. “Quite a few people call and say they saw our big red trucks, so we believe the branding is working.” It’s not the color alone that attracts attention, however. The vans’ sleek shape itself commands attention, and the logo showing an old-fashioned plumber is eye-catching, too.
“The logo is a symbol of tradition,” says Lawson, who started the business in 2000. Some people tell him the company slogan, “A Symbol of Excellence,” makes the firm sound expensive. “But I don’t want to be the cheapest plumber in town,” Lawson says. “You can’t afford to be if you provide the kind of service that I firmly believe in.
“There’s a cost to being able to drive a vehicle like this, equip it and have well-trained employees drive it.”
One of the vans is devoted strictly to drain cleaning and plumbing. It carries about $8,000 in repair parts in a custom storage system Lawson built himself. Standard on-board equipment includes a GO 68HD mainline drain cleaner and a GO 380/250 combination drain cleaner, both by Gorlitz Sewer & Drain Inc. A RIDGID SeeSnake camera is also on-board.
Easy on technicians
“Our technicians love the Sprinters because they can stand up inside them, and there’s easy access to all their tools and equipment,” Lawson notes. “There’s enough room to carry a toilet and a water heater, which means less trips back and forth. The truck also has a Dayton winch (made by Dayton Electric Manufacturing Co.) bolted to the bed of the van; it pulls the drain cleaners up a ramp and into the truck through the side door.”
The van’s length offers another advantage: the ability to carry 20-foot pipes (stored inside tubes) and a 24-foot extension ladder. With features like that, Executive technicians must enjoy seeing red as much as the company’s customers.
