Why Most Home Service Brands Look the Same (And Lose Customers Because of It)

Welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Phil Risher, and on today's episode, we're talking about how home service businesses can stand out in crowded markets through branding and customer psychology with Sergio Silva. Thanks so much for joining us today, man.

Thanks, Phil. It's always a pleasure, you know, to come and talk about what we're passionate about, which is branding. So there's no better person that I would think of to talk about share that with you and obviously with everyone that is watching and listening, right?

Yeah. Awesome. So I know from talking with you before, you've probably done over 400 brands at this point. You're one of the experts in this. So can you give us a quick 2, 3 minutes, like how'd you get into this, who you are, what you do, that kind of stuff?

Absolutely. You know, I always get the question, especially when they read the Bananas, you know, like what is this Bananas all about? And what I tell or explain every single client that we, that we talk to is like, we just want to be 100% memorable, right? I want people to remember the name and there's something that they just click and, and said, we have to lead by example. And the way we started these was definitely, you know, like just like that. And, and we wanted a name that, that people, you know, Bananas has absolutely nothing to do with logos, websites or or vehicle wraps, but people remember, right? So that's the whole point. And that's what we preach about with every single brand that we touch. And like you said, with over 400 companies that we have done, I mean, I think we know one thing or two about how to reach the perfect client or target clientele for our customers. It doesn't matter what type of industry you're in, in the home services, we understand exactly that. Anybody that comes to a house and provide you with a service. That's exactly what we also are aiming for, you know, like plumbers, electricians, HVAC, window cleaners. So, so that's basically what we do here. Okay, cool.

I want to ask you, like, what makes you qualified to do this? Like, how did you learn this stuff? Like, were you at a home service business? Were you a creative guy? Were you just like, hey, you need it? Like, how did this come about? I'm just really curious.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's a great question. So I'm a graphic designer, portray myself. So I went to university for, for these. My passion has been and always will be design, right? Initially, I wanted to, to be a car designer. I wanted to design, you know, like for Audi, for BMW, for Mercedes. And, and I'm originally from Mexico, as you can hear my accent, you know, like now living in Canada for almost 20 years. And, you know, like obviously when I went to university, I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to start my, my own business. And when I saw the opportunity that, or maybe, you know, like, let me just rewind a little bit. When I wanted to be a core designer, the first thing that I noticed in my country is like, well, there's no work in here to, in order to, to reach out that, that career. So I said, I have to go to a country like the United States, Germany. And I said, I will never leave my country. No, I, I can't afford it. I, I, I don't, I cannot expect, you know, going there if I cannot even envision that with, with not having the, the resources, right? So I decided to go a different direction and, and, and go and, and, and study graphic design, which I said eventually I want to be my, my own boss. I want to open my own agency and and make a difference and a statement with a lot of businesses. So anyways, long story short, I had the opportunity to move to Canada at some point. And yeah, the rest is a long story, right? But that's basically— yeah, my background is definitely graphic design, and we wanted to specialize on that specific niche that we see that the value for a lot of guys that— and I said this with all respect, you know, a lot of guys in the trade, in the trades, have really no clue how to market themselves. So, so we really want to get in there and help them out to, to stand out. Yeah.

Awesome. So usually people that listen to this show are going to be established businesses. I mean, $1 to $10 million is like our bread and butter, but they might be smaller than that or bigger than that. How would you go about how do you, how do you go about coaching them to like, yes, you should rebrand or no, you shouldn't rebrand? Because it's a big process to come to that decision. How would you talk to someone and say like, maybe you should think about doing a rebrand or do they come to that themselves? Can you walk me through like how you come to that decision with them or what they should be thinking about if they've ever contemplated this?

Absolutely. Yes. So we have worked with, with a number of actually bigger clients or companies that have been established for over 25 years, 30 years, 50 years. You know, I just had a great conversation with a plumber that the company has been out there for 92 years, right?

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

So imagine, you know, like generational companies. So the biggest hesitation is definitely how can we change something that's already established, right? And the reality and what I tell every single client, doesn't matter if it's small, big, or been in business for so long, is that you always, you know, people come to us and say, hey, Sergio, I mean, we're really busy. We don't really need to rebrand. We don't really need this. And, and when I tell people all the time, it's like, it's not about where you are today, is where you see yourself in the next 5 years, right? So you want to stay stagnant with where you are right now and be comfortable, or you want to double up or triple that, that the company, right? You're going to be a $5 million company, you want to be a $50 million company, right? So in order to get there, we definitely entertain the idea and promote the fact that they need to understand what branding is. A lot of people feel that by having a logo, say, I already have a brand, and this is how we have built for many years, right? So the way we guide them through is like, is that educational piece that is like, no, logo is not your brand or branding. Right? Logo is just basically the core of everything else that goes around it, right? Your, your website, your vehicles, your uniforms, you know, at the end of the day, brand is, it's everything that we, that we do with all those things. And when, when they realize like, okay, well, yeah, my uniforms look one way, my website looks with a different color, or that an older logo, you know, we have seen companies, especially with, with 30 years in business, they have probably gone in a transition of 3, 4, 5 different logos. Yeah. So, and then they use one again for the uniforms, and then they use another one for, you know, for the website, for the vehicles. So that's what people have to understand about, like, the biggest word that I use, which is consistency, right? In order to build a brand, you need that consistency throughout. In order for you to look not only bigger than what you are, but to have that recognition and memorability with the end consumer. At the end of the day, like I said, no, doesn't matter if it's a small starting or established company. You have to remember that this brand or branding is not for yourself. It's for the end consumer, right? It's for the people that you're targeting to. So if those people can remember your company, doesn't matter how many years are you in business, of course it's going to be hard and people still need to Google, you know, like plumber near me or window washing in my area, right? So we want to make sure that that brand is so powerful enough that people see that vehicle or that vehicle on the road or they heard of you somewhere and they definitely remember that visual.

So Yeah, I love it. My home service business was in business for 25 years and we had two different logos. We had one that was the original, which was like a greenish blue, and then the owner rebranded and it was like a bluish black, black. And then it was like some things were this, some things were that. And then it was a little bit of a mess, to be honest, just trying to clean everything up and different logos on different websites and everything. So just going through it and making sure that everything is cohesive is good. I do want to ask you about this though, for for companies that are established, maybe you don't do this, but do you ever recommend changing the name altogether?

100%. Yes. So actually, with this company, 92 years in business, their name is— and I'm just going to put it out there anyways, but the name is Castroville, right? So that's basically named after the area that they serve. And that's one of the what we call like one of the big no-nos in branding to— not necessarily because it's right or wrong or it's bad or it's good, right? But at the end of the day, we don't recommend, we don't suggest that because you limit yourself to a certain area, right? A certain region. And if your plan is to grow and expand, maybe, you know, like move to a different state or expand to a franchise possibility, Of course, if you have a name that is just attached to that specific region, it's going to be very hard to grow that into a different state. Right. So I do definitely recommend to change the name if we see something like that. Mainly what we have seen, the biggest mistake is with companies that are called like JBI Contracting. Right. So, yeah, right. I always tell them, hey, with all due respect, when you leave the office or when we finish this meeting, I will never remember if your company was JBI, BIJ, JIB Contracting. And contracting doesn't tell me anything about what you do. Exactly. When I had a company like exactly with that name, I said, what do you do for a living? And they said, well, we do lawn care and snow removal. I said, right. I said, well, how do you expect me or how do you expect, not me, how do you expect the end consumer, Mrs. Williams, to look at it, you know, Mrs. Richard, to to look at that van that says JVI Contracting and immediately remember what you do for a living, right? There's no way. There's no way. So there is specific cases that we definitely go through that process of naming, which is one of the main things for branding, for sure.

Yeah, it's also— and for Google, it's one of their big 3 things for actually ranking your Google Business Profile is having your service in your name. And In lawn care, it happens all the time. Most business, like a lot of business, they just random things. They think it's cute or clever, but it's like, that's— you don't want to be cute or clever. You want it— the association, like you want Google to trust you just like you want Miss Risher to trust you.

That's right. And one, one of the most important things, Phil, with naming, more, more than anything, especially what, what we— when we go through the process. So every time that we, that we meet with a client, I always ask, where did the name come from? How did you come up with this name? And you have— your mind will be blown when you hear like the answers, right? It's like, oh, well, I name it after my wife's initials or my daughter's, or, you know, I don't know, I was in the parking lot and I saw the street name and I just named it after the street, right? So at the end of the day, all those pieces, the memorability that I'm talking about, has to make sense, has to have a backstory behind so people also relate to it, right? When you have a very meaningful name in terms of not only the service that you provide, but the service that you— that the consumer is expecting to receive, right? Sometimes is that brand promises is very important to communicate for people to feel that trust and and call you, right? If your JVI doesn't— yeah, doesn't give me anything, right? But if you're like Very Best Plumbing, it's like, oh, well, they're, you know, they're the best, right? I'm going to— I'm going to hire those guys. So those key points, a lot of people don't— don't realize. So we go through that process and helping them. Hey, we chose that name for you not only to be unique, but also has a meaning behind, right?

Yeah, very good. You mentioned some branding no-nos. Any other branding no-nos that are like top of mind for you? That's like, oh, just please don't do that.

You know, colors. Colors is one of the biggest ones, especially with when we work with a lot of plumbers or even exterior cleaning companies like window washing, pressure washing, house washing. I like to do this experiment and I'm meeting for the first time with them. And of course, you know, like 99% of the time that they already have a logo. They have been in business for a while and I see the logo and of course, you know, like they have either the pressure— sorry, the wand, right? The pressure wand or the squeegee. They have like a little window, like a little house, right? So, and guess what the color is? Blue, right? And I tell them, so let me go, let's do an experiment. So let's open a browser. And let's Google, you know, window cleaning companies in Maryland, right? Yeah. And then, you know, obviously I add the word logo to it. And when I show them, it's like, now can you tell me what is the common denominator here? And they see their logo and they see any other logo and it's like, oh, they're all blue. Or, you know, at least 90% of them, right? And I said, exactly. And I said, and why? And I said, I know why. I said, the main reason why they're all blue is because it's the easiest and safest way to communicate two things, clean and water, right? Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. But at the end of the day, if all of them look blue, we go back to the end consumer. How do you want Mrs. Risher to go and is like, oh, you know, how am I going to pick that company if they all look the same? I'm not going to remember them. They all look blue, right? So nobody tells you— there's no rule that you can be disruptive and be purple, pink, yellow, right, to be branded as a window cleaning company. So that's one of the big no-nos, you know, like to pick the right color scheme. Obviously, we already talked about the right name and The biggest thing on branding, what we have seen, especially with mobile billboards like the vehicle wraps, another big no-no on that is it's all these vehicles flooded with information, services, QR codes, right?

Like phone numbers and websites and everything is the whole brochure.

That's right. It's a whole brochure on wheels that nobody has time to read, right?

Let me get my phone out real quick. Wait, come back.

I know, you know, you need at least a minute to record the whole thing, right? So no, that's definitely a big no-no. And you'll see it in our work, right? We're very simplistic for a reason, right? We have like, we have to communicate a clear message. You have 2.5 to 3 seconds in a mobile billboard to communicate who you are, what you do, and how to contact you in 3 seconds. So imagine if I add services, QR code, you know, your Yelp reviews, your Google reviews, and BBB, right? Like all these things, nobody has time to, to see this, right? You have to be very clear with the name, right? Very clear with the description of what you do, heating and cooling. And obviously the contact information could be the website or the phone number, which at the same time, now we encourage people, it's like, hey, even if we don't put the phone number, we want people to Google your name, your name, Exactly, because they're going to remember, right? You have no idea how many times. Obviously, we have 3 branded vehicles for Bananas. And that's why I like to say that we lead by example, because then I'm driving and then I pull into a traffic light and there's a bus stop, right? And I see people immediately. I cannot hear what people say, but I can read lips. And the first thing they see like, they look at the vehicle and it's like bananas, right? And what is the next thing that they, that they do? They grab their phone, of course, and they Google, right? It's like, who are these guys? Bananas. What do they do? What? There's a freaking monkey driving around, right? So that's exactly what we want for every single one of our clients. When they see that brand, when they see those colors, it's like, and we have heard, like, we have amazing stories from our clients. It's like, yeah, they, they just like, I'm driving and it's like, I'm breaking next day, just turn around and they just see, they want to know who they are and what do they do. And not only that, whenever they need that service, they will remember that brand and they can call.

Yeah, I love it. Really good no-nos there for people listening, like, if you're starting out or you have something that you're like, I think if someone's thinking about, hey, maybe my name's JBL Contracting and I have generic stuff, then maybe think about doing a rebrand and not just changing your name, but doing a whole rebrand. I think that would be some steps that you could go through. I do want to ask you about how you— I'm sure you have some secret formulas or something, but how do you actually come up with this stuff? Because obviously you're probably mind racing with a bunch of ideas all the time. But yeah, how do you like take someone and then figure out what it's going to be? The color, of course, the picture, the look, the character. It looks like you probably have characters for all them.

Yeah. So if you ask Anastasia, my wife, she would tell you that I come up with these ideas in the shower. But, you know, that's only, only one, one aspect of it. But no, we, we definitely— and a lot of people also feel that I wake up in the mornings like, oh, what do I do for, for Phil? Oh, maybe, you know, a penguin. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and with sunglasses, you know, holding a pipe wrench. Well, no, it doesn't work that way. We go through very strict and extensive research. Once we obviously meet up with you, we know a little bit about your company. We definitely send a questionnaire to gather some information about the competition, your target clientele, and your preferences as well. And with that information that we, that we get, we definitely go through, like I said, that extensive research to, to analyze the competition, right? To see what is out there around your, your area, around the state in general, right? Around the whole country to make sure that not only you have a unique name that is not overused, so that absolutely nobody else, nobody else has. The color scheme is very important. Right. We want to make sure that if there's already another, like I said, the exterior cleaning company, there's already another 5 or 10 companies using yellow. Well, of course we're not going to give you yellow, right? And for the mascot, you know, we have clients say, hey, I'm not into that cartoonish thing. What is, what is this googly-eyed Disney-looking mascot? I said, well, at the end of the day, mascot is not a mandatory thing, right? I know it's a thing that is trending a lot and The main reason why we use a mascot is for memorability, right? Makes, makes a brand 10 times more memorable because now kids point, point at it, right? Like, I love when, when my kids see, see some of our work on the road and it's like, Daddy, do you design that? Like, that's bananas, right? And, and again, it's about like kids pointing, pointing at it and moment that are going to be like, oh, who's that penguin? Oh, it's a plumber. Oh, you know, when I need a plumber, I call that, that Penguin, right? So, so that's, that's basically how we, how we decide or how we come up with all these clever ideas or unique ideas for our clients. It's definitely way far beyond just like waking up and choosing an animal or a character for you. We do the research and we want to make sure that nobody else has something similar around the area.

Yeah. Okay.

Very cool.

Could you walk me through, like, if someone's going to do a rebrand, what are the things that they like?

The—

how do you say it? Obviously they get a logo, but then they need like yard sign and door hangers. Like, what are, what are all those things that they need to rebrand so that they have them? I'm sure you probably have like some packages or whatever, but like, what would like be a whole extensive thing? Like, website, yard sign, polos? Is there any other wrap, vehicle wraps? I kind of like—

Yeah, of course. So like you mentioned, we definitely have some packages from like startup package, you know, sometimes it's a budget part, you know, and we have like the fully loaded, which we call the banana bunch, or, you know, the banana startup, like we have names for our packages, or we have the banana shake, right? So Like you said, usually, especially when, when a company is hesitant or they're either, you know, rebranding, they don't, they don't want to go like full on until they see, okay, I want to, I want to see what you come up with. Right. So, but the, the main thing that we advise is to, when we rebrand or we're going to roll out a new brand, is to have 3 things. So one is obviously the branding, which is like you said, the logo, which is the main thing, right? The, the second thing is the vehicle wrap, which is your main source of advertising, right? Is your mobile billboard out there. And then the third thing is obviously the website. Why the website? Because at the end of the day, if you have a mobile billboard driving around, what is the second action or the next move of the potential client? Well, they see the mobile billboard, I'm going to go to your website to check out your services, your pricing, or to book you, right? So we want to, we want to make sure that you have those 3 things into place in order to achieve the best results. Anything else coming after the fact, we call it like secondary. Obviously, it is important, but it's not like something that, that you must have like from the beginning. A lot of people say, hey, Sergio, I do want to make sure that we have our team and everyone wearing proper uniforms. We want maybe a door tag or door hangers to go on every neighborhood that we touch. We want to go on and hand some indoors, right? Some people say, hey, we're ready for a trade show, you know. So obviously we come up with trade show materials, pull up banners, tablecloths, like you name it, right? We do stuff even like, like these, you know, like, oh, wow. Like, we do any marketing thing that we do stuffies, you know, plush animals that, that people, people love. To me, this is what, what we call the, the next level of marketing, right? So when you have a mascot that you can exploit as much as you, as you want, or as much as you can, when you have a plush toy So you have to remember that all these guys that are in home services, they go visit the house, right? And the technician is the best one to know if that house that they're visiting is a house with a family. And if you see a family and they have kids, obviously the first thing is like, hey, you know, I have these plush toys for your kid. And I don't know if you have kids, but I have 2 kids. And if somebody will give anything to my kid, I will be like, wow, you know, these guys were above and beyond what they had to do, you know, just out of the way to give this to my kid. And guess what? The kid is going to grab this plushie, is going to take it to school, is going to take it to the neighbor, is going to sleep with it. And when anybody asks, hey, you know, who's, you know, Wastewave? Who's this Sturgeon Plumbing? You know, who is my plumber, right? Like, that's where we get all the plumbing. And it's like, oh, perfect. I'm going to give them a call, right? If they actually give you something or something for your kid, you know, that speaks highly of them. So I'm going to give them a call, right? So all these tiny things, we definitely help you with these marketing strategies and marketing ideas to evolve this brand. Yeah.

I'm so glad that I asked you that question because I've never seen the stuffed animals of the actual mascots, and that's really, really cool. At my home service business, we made coloring books for the gift to the kids with like our equipment and then like word searches and stuff. But I love the mascot idea. That's really cool.

So yeah, the potential that we have also with not only with the mascot, but with with the branding in general, there is— it's endless, right? And the creativity also comes into place. And we like to advise all these things to our clients. To give you a quick example, we recently branded a company or rebranded a company that is— their name used to be just like one of those JVI contracting, you know, RES Plumbing, and meant nothing to the client, but P.J.S.A.R.E.S. We rebranded to a name like Hive5 and Hive because obviously the mascot is, as you probably imagine, it's a bee, right? A bee plumber. But Hive5, if you see the bee, the bee is actually lifting his arm or the hand, like giving you a high five, right? Because of the sound. And it doesn't end there. If you think of what is the meaning behind the 5, is because of a 5-star service. Right? So now you have a very meaningful name behind the brand. And one of the marketing ideas that I proposed to, to, to Dima, which is the owner of Hi5, I said, Dima, what I want you to do is every time that you go to visit a house, said, forget about obviously the stuff is a great idea, stickers, tattoos, right, for kids, But I said, I want you to do one thing. I want you to get some tiny jars of honey. You're going to put your sticker with your brand and every whole house that you visit, I wanted to give it to them. Right? What is going to happen is with that family, you know, or sorry, with that client has family over or friends and they're going to have coffee. You know, they're going to take that jar of honey out to sweeten their coffee. And guess what? They're gonna be like, oh, who is this Hi-Fi Plumbing? Oh, you know, it's my plumber. Oh, you know, that's great. They give you these. Yeah, they left these behind. And guess what? Now is the never-ending promotion and it costs you next to nothing. And if you get 1 to 10 clients out of it, it's paid off, right?

So good.

So that's for us. That's what branding is more than more than the logo, more than the colors, more than changing your name. It's everything that you do with that. And that's why I show you that. I wanted to show you the plushies.

Yeah, I love it. I think people think of branding as just a logo. Maybe they think of it as a mobile billboard wrap, but they don't think of it fully as just like ingrained inside of their culture and their day-to-day and like how can they transfer the culture and the brand to another person, like those strategies. So I love that. All right, well, this is great. Sergio, where should people go if they're like contemplating a brand or want to do a rebrand, or what's the next steps that they should do?

Yeah, absolutely. For anybody that wants to even see more of our work, obviously we have our portfolio, portfolio in our website, bananascreative.ca. The best way also to get a hold of us is in the contact page. You can fill the form, you know, tell all the details and we'll reach out back to you. Pretty much right away, or we try to do it immediately. And you can check out also our Instagram, Banaz Creative, just all lowercase, one word. And that's where you're going to see most of our, our work, you know, testimonials. We love to, to do— we do vehicle wraps in-house as well. So we like to, to see the reactions. So when people see that vehicle wrap on paper, you know, it's definitely not the same that when they see it coming to life and in person. So we love to capture every single reaction and moment and happiness when people come and pick up that vehicle. It's, again, it's not about just the van or that sticker put on. It's about what makes you feel, especially as a business owner, when you see these growing, when you see these happening and you see these coming to life, that's the best feeling on earth.

Yeah, I love it. Well, Sergio, thanks so much, man. I appreciate you sharing all that wisdom with us and would definitely recommend reaching out to Sergio if you're thinking about a rebrand and figuring things out. Clearly he knows what he's doing and he would gladly help you. So thanks again, man. Look forward to continuing the conversation.

Thanks, Phil. I appreciate the invite. And yeah, this is the first of many.