After years of explosive growth within our DUCTZ air duct cleaning franchise, we saw revenue begin to level off in specific markets, particularly when the recession hit. We identified a synergistic service in kitchen hood cleaning, which fit many criteria including technical expertise and administrative support.
However, adding the new service would present a challenge in positioning, as the customer base was exclusively commercial and geared toward fire prevention, whereas DUCTZ services commercial and residential focused on indoor air quality. We decided to launch HOODZ as a separate brand, giving franchisees the option to represent both brands. HOODZ actually lent itself to the existing marketing treatment of DUCTZ and, although complementary, it was different enough to warrant its own brand.
We revisited the DUCTZ service offerings to establish a comprehensive solution for our customers. Because a significant benefit of duct cleaning is improved indoor air quality, we sought other services that would do the same.
We found that, second to ductwork, carpet and upholstery cleaning greatly improves indoor air quality. Carpet cleaning alone is a competitive field so it wouldn’t have made sense to launch a new brand, plus we needed to establish a point of differentiation. As the nation’s largest indoor air quality company, we added the service as the DUCTZ Total Care offering, adopting the marketing position, “Improving indoor air quality from the ground up.”
Once you’ve gone through a similar checklist and process and identified parallels and strategic marketing initiatives, ask yourself one more thing, ‘Is it going to be strategic?’ In this case, I would define strategic as accomplishing at least one of the following: increasing your customer base, increasing value-added services to your existing customer base or increasing purchasing frequency from your existing customer base.
John Rotche is the president of Ann Arbor-based BELFOR Franchise Group Inc., a multiconcept franchise system. The company’s two franchise concepts, DUCTZ and HOODZ, center on the compliance and proper maintenance of commercial kitchen hoods and residential and commercial air duct, carpet and upholstery cleaning services. For more information, visit www.belforfranchisegroup.com.
