Signs of the Times - April 2020 - 22

VEHICLES + VINYL

graphics" or large visuals on truck
wraps, were not widely used, but he
was confident this rebrand presented
a great opportunity.

KickCharge Creative's rebranded logo, mascot and wrap design for Timo's
Air Conditioning & Heating (top) and Timo's previous branding (below).
on the web caught the eye of Joey
Timo. At the time, Joey was a service
technician for Timo's; he's now its
president. "[Joey's] dad was initially
resistant to the idea [of a rebrand],
since they had been relatively successful with their current logo," Dan
said. "But Joey was looking to take
the company in a new direction
and felt it was time to update their
image."
Timo's original branding was
derived from clip art: "Forgettable,
and not really delivering anything
22

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

APRIL 2020

unique in terms of a story, or feeling,"
as Dan described it. The running
man was amateurish and the simple, cut-lettering on white vans
looked like everyone else. "We call
that 'blanding' and it's a pervasive
disease afflicting the vast majority of
small businesses."
Soon after getting to know his client,
Dan settled on themes of family and
nostalgia to help create the type of
mascot his company has become
famous for - not to mention influential.
At the time, Dan recalled, "super

GATHERING THE DATA
"Timo's [sales revenue] was around
$750K/year at the time we rebranded,"
Dan reported. "Since then, we've helped
spearhead all their marketing efforts
for almost 10 years - creating their
collateral, ads, billboards, social media
and websites," elevating Timo's to
one of the largest HVAC contractors
in Palm Springs. While it's natural to
expect a clearly successful company to
be willing to share certain revenue
information, Dan maintained there's
more to it than that. "I don't view
our clients as customers; we're more
partners in their marketing. Truthfully, most are just so genuinely
grateful for our efforts, they are
happy to try and help."
When it comes to your shop
collecting this information from
your clients, Dan suggested that you
explain how you want to use their
revenue growth for your own marketing. "Some were more than happy to
share revenue and dollar amounts,
but others were more open to the
idea of percentages," he said. To keep
KickCharge's marketing of this data
consistent, Dan uses percentages for
everyone. And this type of marketing
shares the focus of his firm's design
prowess with the revenue growth it
delivers for his customers.
"A very common error with signshop marketing is making it all about
yourself or your shop," Dan said,
since this doesn't directly address the
needs of a potential customer. "At the
end of the day, we've won hundreds
of awards, written books, published
articles, etc. It's all great. But the
bigger question is, how does all that
stuff help [the customer]? Make your
marketing answer those questions,
and it will connect."
Signs of the Times - April 2020

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