MANSFIELD, Ohio – It can be easy for consumers to become bored with everyday business practices when living in today’s over-stimulated world.
Therefore, more businesses have tried borrowing methods from the entertainment world to stand out from the crowd.
Dressing employees to fit the brand, similar to costuming, is one facet of building a strong company identity. For the employees of Garbage Guys Who Care, that means one color: pink.
“We do have pink shirts, but that didn’t work out so well with the guys,” said owner Steve Cobb with a laugh. “We switched to brown because pink was really showing the dirt a lot.”
The color is well represented with the company’s four pink garbage trucks and a pink dump truck. In addition, there are close to 4,000 distinctive pink garbage carts lining the streets of Mansfield and Ontario.
“We don’t really advertise because most new customers come from seeing the pink trucks and carts,” Cobb said. “A friend of mine keeps telling me I need billboards, and I tell him I’ve got 4,000 of them on every street.”
The idea of bright pink garbage trucks first came to Cobb as a way to make his garbage company distinctively different. He soon realized it only made sense for his company to partner with the Pat Kracker Breast Cancer Fund.
“The pink theme is a win-win-win,” Cobb said. “We win because we’re distinctively different, customers win because we give good service and part of their contribution goes to the Pat Kracker fund. The Pat Kracker fund and its constituents win because there’s more funding and more awareness. It’s a perfect combination.”
Cobb said a portion of the cash flow from Garbage Guys Who Care is donated to the Pat Kracker fund every year. This year, the business is donating more than $20,000 to the fund.
“We get customers who say they’re getting treated for breast cancer, and they get help from the Pat Kracker fund,” said Cobb. “We’re proud and humbled and happy to partner with them.”
A strong front theme and back story is crucial to weaving a story into a customer’s experience. This was an easy and natural step for Jim and Cathy Smith, owners of Mansfield’s oldest operating restaurant, Coney Island Diner.
According to its website, Coney Island Diner was first opened by Greek immigrant Ioanious Georgeopolus in 1919 then moved to its current location in 1936. The restaurant has been a tradition for as long as many Mansfield natives can remember.
“We have a lot of tradition, and the restaurant had so much history,” Cathy Smith said. “Even if you take the menu and go someplace else, it would not be the same because it has to be here. Every day we hear stories of people who used to come in when they were kids.”
The Smiths made every effort to restore the restaurant to it’s original, classic diner decor. Most of the fixtures are originals or restored, and the lights are replicas of the originals — the original neon sign advertising Coneys for five cents still hangs in the diner to this day.
“That sign was one of the first neon signs in Mansfield in 1936,” Jim Smith said. “We didn’t change any of the core of the restaurant.”
Even the food at Coney Island Diner ties into the restaurant’s back story. The menu is still American diner classic, focusing on the famous Coney with its secret sauce from 1919. In addition, the Smiths brought the famous pea salad from their prior establishment, Smitty’s Underground Restaurant.
“Sometimes people get in arguments about their taste,” Jim Smith said. “We try to make it as close as possible, and we sell more Coneys in a day than when we first bought this place.”
“It seems like it’s a place that people, when they come back to Mansfield, have to stop here because it was part of their childhood,” added Cathy Smith.
Finally, the “set” of a business is vital to creating an atmosphere that supports a brand. Sometimes construction of such an environment is required. Other times, like with The Phoenix Brewing Company in downtown Mansfield, it’s just a matter of renovation.
The Phoenix Brewing Company is located in the former Schroer Mortuary on 131 North Diamond Street. What was formerly the chapel of the mortuary is now the tasting room, and the original windows were retained.
“The Phoenix name hits on so many notes, especially the mortuary and rising out of the ashes,” said co-owner Steve Zigmund. “When we took over possession of our building it was literally in ruins. It was a full restoration from top to bottom that took a little over a year.
“It’s also a rebirth of brewing back in Mansfield. We used to be a huge brewing town, but this city hadn’t had a brewery in over a decade. I hope to see more breweries in Mansfield.”
Zigmund said the founders of the brewing company went through more than 100 names before landing on The Phoenix, even hiring a marketing company during the brainstorming process.
“We actually had several different concepts when looking for a name,” Zigmund said. “We knew getting the name right was very important, you get one chance to do it right.”
The Phoenix theme plays out through large decals on the outside of the building, apparel and glassware all branded with the logo. The tasting room even hosts Charles the skeleton to tie in with the mortuary history.
Zigmund said consistency has been crucial with marketing and branding of the Phoenix.
“Everything we do you see that Phoenix bird,” he said. “Now we’ve done such a good job at getting the word out, when people think ‘Phoenix’ they think about getting a beer, so that tells me we’ve done something right.”
