POSITIONING A POOL COMPANY
After working part time at a pool services company, I realized that the owner could have increased market share dramatically if he simply positioned the company against our nearby competition.
The owner, soon to retire, was content with current operations and didn't want to make any serious changes, so I took it upon myself to develop a hypothetical marketing strategy.
This is what the current logo looks like. As you can see, it's so plain as to be nearly invisible!
BRINGING IT BACK TO THE ROOTS
The idea was to differentiate the brand by emphasizing our workforce.
In the pool service industry, we're called "Pool Boys", a name that has garnered one or two sexual stereotypes from back in the day. Today, this occupation has seemed to have lost its identity, and is regarded as an ordinary blue collar job.
Obviously, the goal is not to scare our primarily customers (husbands) away, but in a sense, I want to exploit the predisposed connotation of the 'alpha' pool boy of the 70's-90's. I wanted Solaris to take pride in having a young, capable staff.
By hiring fun and outgoing athletes in high school/college, the company would position itself as a true "Pool Boy" company. Employees would ditch the traditional company polo and jeans for orange tanktops and Hawaiian swimming trunks, gaining instant notoriety against the competition.
Below is the first logo draft I came up with. While it's a far cry nicer than the current logo, the design didn't inject the same sense of youth that I wanted our customers to feel. It simply didn't mesh with the new positioning strategy.
A NEW IDENTITY
It was clear that Solaris Pool Cleaners sounded exactly like every other pool service company in the state. Even if the operational strategy I envisioned worked, how would customers know what we stood for when filing though the generic names in the Yellowpages?
Something had to be done... Something drastic.
Solaris needed a new name!
And thus, Solaris Pool Boys was born.
This is the first design I made under the new name, but although it got the purpose of who Solaris Pool Boys was, it wasn't fun enough, for lack of a better word.
Finally, I created something with purpose.
Not only is this new logo eye catching, but the design gets across what the brand stands for, alluding to beauty, pool cleaning, and playful danger. It instantly separates our company from the horde of other monotonous pool service companies.
And, as an added bonus, it would look really cool on tanktops!
And on the side of a car!
