Jonathan:
This is the shortest question I’ve gotten in awhile, which is awesome. I don’t even really need to read it to you. So regarding painting your trucks, what’s the best color. I did make some notes, so I am going to look at this just so I don’t forget anything. You know the way I think about this is if you’re … I’m a car guy, so if you’re into cars or anything, and you think about Lamborghini’s the perfect model to think of. Like what color does Lamborghini use on their cars? They use yellow, they use this really bright green, orange. And now granted white and black, you’ll see those out there as well, but Lamborghini is very much about bold, in your face colors.
So kind of imagine Lamborghini. That’s an awesome color for your trucks. Sort of how I ended up with my yellow trucks. Yellow’s my favorite color, but it’s probably my favorite color because I like yellow exotic sports cars. And on top of that, so it was probably the first thing that came to mind, but also back in the day, HDL, like Fed Ex, USPS, or UPS, there was a company called HDL, I’m sure you’ve seen or remembered them. I believe they were acquired. They used to have these bright yellow trucks. And I liked that. I have owned sports cars that are that exact color. And so I decided that would be a great color that stands out. Because of case in point, if you’re out at a racing event, and you’re on a track in a car that’s bright yellow like that, and you’re going around the track and there are 40 other cars in the race, your yellow car stands out.
The yellow car catches your eye, and so I thought that’s a great color for trucks. That’s how I ended up with yellow. Now, the dilemma is that in my market, there are more and more yellow trucks popping up all the time. Back when I went with that color, I can’t remember too many. In fact, I can’t really remember any. There was one other commercial company that used a version of yellow, but I don’t remember anybody else that had yellow trucks. So one thing that will happen to you is if you’re big and successful, and your trucks are everywhere, you’ll get copied by a lot of people. I have no exclusivity on yellow. I’m not saying that. But others will start to mimic the company that they see everywhere. And they’ll copy naming, they’ll copy your marketing, they’ll copy your guarantees, they’ll copy your truck color. They’ll copy everything.
And it’s just how people work, and it’s how we all do it. We all look around for inspiration and ideas. And so one idea for you might be to use a color that will be less likely to be copied but will still be very successful. Pink, as an example. I know several guys that have been in Academy, I think there’s a couple guys that have done this from Academy that have gone with pink trucks. Academy is a … Service Autopilot Academy is what I’m referring to. And they’ve gone with pink trucks. Could be green trucks. It could be bright blue. It could be baby blue. I don’t care what the color is, but one interesting idea might be if you go with a color that is a little scarier to go with, like pink, there’s a higher probability that as you become really successful, you’ll be less likely to be copied.
I’ve always thought hot pink and black would make for really cool trucks. So I would think about what do you see on exotic sports cars? Ferrari, Ferrari tends to mainly be red and yellow, and then toned down colors. Blues are becoming one of their most popular colors now. Lamborghini’s tends to be a really in your face colors. McLaren is like a burnt orange and then a lighter orange. And then those are their big colors. But if you think about a few of the big brands out there, what are the big, bold colors they use that sort of go along with really fast cars. Not that you’re in any way communicating fast, or that’s not the messaging to the client, but these car manufacturers are using these big, bold colors.
Think about those colors, and then just imagine any other bright color that would catch the eye of the individual driving down the road. So your trucks are going this way, cars are going that way, you want, whenever they catch yellow, blue, green, whatever the color is in their subconscious eventually, after they see you over, and over, and over again, to think of you. Think of you, even if they didn’t read all the lettering, they saw the yellow truck and they think of your company. They saw the pink truck, they think of your company. So that’s one thing I’d think about. I don’t know if there’s any relevance to this.
What I’m about to say is if you’re residential, think about who your buyer is. Your buyer is women. The women are making decisions, especially when women get, I think it’s like over 40, maybe it’s 35 and over, women start just like running the show. They start making the buying decisions for the household. They’re the biggest spenders of money. And I don’t mean that in like a negative way. I mean that as they’re making the household decisions for the kids, schooling, all these different factors inside the home, the service providers. So even if you get a guy calling you on the phone, he’s saying like, “Hey, I need you to mow my lawn. I need this thing done.”
There’s a good chance that there was a woman behind the scenes, a spouse going, “Get this thing done, dude. Please call them. Get this thing done. When are you going to get that thing done? Have you called them yet?” Like just, “Hey, here’s a couple companies. Call them for me please.” That’s not always the case, but just imagine that that’s probably what’s happening because all the stats and data prove out the case that women are running the show. They’re the buyers, they’re the consumers, they’re making the decisions. They’re like running the families. And so this is the point, I don’t know if there’s real relevance to this, but back to my pink example. Would a pink or certain colors resonate more with women?
My wife’s not into pink. She wouldn’t be turned off to pink. She’d be no more … She wouldn’t be negative to pink, but positive on yellow. So is there even a color that’s bright that might speak better to women? Because at the end of the day, they’re the buyers. They’re really who you should be thinking about in most cases. I said that and gave that example to just make some points so you can kind of think through this stuff. And that’s really the biggest … That’s my point. What’s going to be seen? What’s going to be a little less likely to be copied by your competitors? Go with that. And then weave that color scheme through all of your branding over time. I’d keep it as simple as that. But I recommend you paint the trucks.
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