Branded Hard Hats & Trucks
One of the biggest mistakes (or at least missed opportunities) I see in construction marketing is forgetting to brand the construction site. Think about it, the construction companies that mark the construction barrels with their name are household names in your city. I know they probably mark them to prevent them from being stolen, but it still gets their name out nonetheless.
What can you brand? Hard hats are an easy one and yes, they have colors besides white. We even have hard hats with our logo and the ABC member logo for our team when we do photo shoots & construction site visits. I must say, our clients are impressed when we show up with our own hard hats and the black & orange colors stick out (in a good way). I will warn you about one thing, switching out your field workers hard hats is not always an easy task. Many workers, especially some of the old timers, are partial to their hat and will refuse to stop wearing their “lucky hat”. You will need to work with the management team to get the enforcement from the top down or develop a program where certain senior team members wear a different hat. Try a sticker on their existing hat with your new logo. I’m always impressed when someone is with a company for 25+ years and I don’t want to be the one responsible for his injury because he was superstitious about the hard hat.
Next up on the construction site is your trucks. Your trucks hauling materials to and from the site are moving billboards (think U-Haul). Even your project managers’ pickup trucks are great to have branded. Even if you don’t do a full wrap, having the company logo and website address will build brand name recognition.
I have not seen a company brand their equipment any better than the Demo Diva here in New Orleans (even better than the polka dotted cement truck). If you drive around the city, you can’t help but notice the bright pink excavators [on right] and dumpsters [below]. The company has grown from a residential demolition company following Hurricane Katrina into a small powerhouse, building a reputation in the commercial arena. Demo Diva is obviously woman owned and proud of it. Yes, men do work there, they wear black shirts with pink lettering. And no, guys do not have a problem with it, just ask Tank their senior equipment coordinator who is regularly mentioned on the Demo Diva Facebook page.
Now, how are you going to brand your construction site?