What "Two Men and a Truck" taught me about marketing
We recently moved into a shiny new office at Keystone at the Crossing and we are thrilled with our new location. It's a great building located in the heart of the North side business and shopping district and is very accessible from pretty much anywhere.
We decided to use movers to help us get everything moved over since we have some pretty heavy desks and conference tables. When I decided to choose a moving company, "Two Men and a Truck" immediately popped into my head and this is who we ended up hiring. Aside from a little bit of barely noticable damage to one of our desks, they did a good job and got us moved in pretty quickly.
During the process of hiring them, I found it interesting how good Two Men and a Truck is at marketing. You're probably saying "huh?" right about now. It's true... I wouldn't normally use a moving company like this one as a typical example of good marketing but I was actually pretty impressed as I thought about it a little more.
So how is Two Men and a Truck good at marketing and what we can, as a digital agency, learn from it? Here is what I learned.
1. Brand awareness actually works.
I occasionally hear controversy around the concept of "brand awareness". It seems like some marketers scoff at this concept and rally around the battle cry of "metrics, metrics, and more metrics!" and dismiss tactics that rely on good old fashioned visibility. Metrics are great, but sometimes doing something as simple as slapping your name and logo on every truck you own gets the message out in a huge, hard-to-measure, but super-effective way.
How can you apply brand awareness to your marketing? I don't remember seeing any other moving trucks in my head but I remember the ones from Two Men and a Truck. Which leads me to my next point...
2. Embrace simplicity.
Does Two Men and a Truck have a great logo and really flashy graphics? Nope. The company's logo is this ugly, amatuerish hand-sketched picture of a truck with two guys in it. It's sketched in black and applied to solid white trucks. The typeface is almost comical and silly. The result is this big, ugly, black and white sign that you can't possibly miss when passing one of the trucks.
But guess what? It cuts right through to the heart of the message. When you need stuff moved from one place to another, you want two men and a truck. Nothing else is really all that important so why complicate it? Are there ways you can simplify your message down the heart of the solution?
3. Follow up on web inquiries quickly.
When I started looking for movers, I went to Two Men and a Truck's website and filled out the quote request form. I fully intended to check out a couple of other movers, but within 20 minutes I had received a voicemail from a Two Men and a Truck rep with a clear, detailed, friendly message confirming my interest and asking for a call back to finalize some information.
I called back, confirmed a few details, and before I knew it, I was set. I didn't even get a chance to contact other movers. Had they waited hours or even a day to get back to me, I may have already gotten other quotes a maybe even a lower price but since they followed up promptly and professionally, it became unimportant to look for anyone else. After all, I was busy and just wanted a good moving company.
I take pride in the fact that Adam Weber, our Director of Business Development, takes the same approach to following up on leads. If at all possible, he makes every effort to call web leads within minutes after they are submitted. This has impressed more than one prospect and led to many successful sales.
Obervations
In general, Two Men and a Truck has an ugly brand, mediocre website, and anemic social media presence (the company's corporate blog is hosted on Blogspot for crying our loud!). However, they have focused on a few core elements that are very effective: brand awareness, simple messaging, and rapid followup.
Could they do more using digital tools? Sure... I would like to see them create a program that makes it easier for their customers to refer them and share success stories using social media and video. I would also love to see them set up a proper blog that is used more effectively. But overall, I think a lot can be learned from this "simple" moving company and if anyone asked for my recommendation on movers, my first suggestion will be "Google Two Men and a Truck."
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