Case Study: DC Elevator
Challenge
Founded in 1977 by Danny and Charlie Breaden, the company set out to provide its customer base with skilled technicians and prompt service at a competitive price. Four decades later, they are the largest independent elevator company with five branch offices, serving 2,000+ clients in five states with over 80 employees. Blessed with continuous growth, the company needed to match the visual brand and messaging to their service quality and scale of performance. It had outgrown the beloved but dated identity and was ready to embrace the structure and organizational representation of a market leader, utilizing 21st Century corporate communications.
Solution
Analyzing company and brand and setting the strategic direction, employing our 10-week 360-degree strategic positioning program, we worked with the DC Elevator leadership in 2016 to plot a course for their company’s success. We developed until July 2017, launched a strong and influential brand, and a state-of-the-art website. In August of 2016, DC Elevator reached out to us and inquired about an update of their website. As we reviewed site and brand, they decided that the 40th company anniversary be an excellent time to usher the brand into the 21st Century and offer their audiences a more extensive range of information on company, products, and services. In a two-day on-site workshop with leadership and key employees, we captured the status quo of the company, worked through a range of proprietary analytical models, and discussed goals, needs, and expectations. We interviewed the surviving founder of the company and the current president in detail to learn more about the firm’s history, the ‘DNA’ of the business and how employees and clients interact. The result of the ten-week process was a booklet with a complete analysis and strategic recommendations, which after two years still serves as a guidebook, reference manual, and inspirational origin story, influencing messaging and long-term goal setting. Using another proprietary process, we developed the company’s new brand. It involved more than just a visual update to a contemporary standard – it redefined everything from corporate communication to the company name. Please meet DC Elevator! We hired expert Louisville developer Net Tango to work with us to create a streamlined and easy-to-navigate design featuring flexible case studies, a custom interactive location map, bold typography, and a more user-focused navigation structure. Rick Lee, an experienced Charleston photographer, captured the essence of critical employees and shot beautiful stills of the tools and building blocks of the business. We wrote over 47 individual web pages and described the company in detail with no less than 92,000 words. WordPress offers the flexibility of plugins to add any functionality as needed and is technically already an excellent platform for SEO, right out of the box. The Yoast plugin we utilize is written to improve the site’s SEO on all needed aspects. Certification in the use of the #1 SEO plugin enables us to go the extra mile, to take care of all the technical optimizations, and to write better content. The optimized pages have higher relevancy in Google searches. We measure, optimize, and validate our SEO with Google Analytics and the Google Search Console, continuously. We designed over 30 data sheets, a set of rack cards outlining the main areas of business, a custom folder, localized stationery for the headquarters and five branch offices, specialty labels, and a range of additional deliverables to communicate the new brand to all audiences. Employees and clients alike cheered the look and feel, highly visible and instantly familiar. The visual brand was applied to over 200 vehicles throughout the company’s service area, communicating the URL, vehicle number, and the company’s ESOP status. We worked closely with a Kentucky service provider, keeping the proofing and application process smooth and within budget. Keep your eyes peeled; you might see a DC Elevator truck today or tomorrow! We continue to develop new content for the company, who was recently nominated by their industry for Elevator World Magazine’s Ellies Award in the category Best Contractor Southeast. Our work includes communicating the brand to audiences and employees, alike, working closely with the Charleston Marketing Department, developing marketing goals, creating deliverables, and carefully evaluating the impact of our efforts, following the Made in Germany marketing process.
Results
The impact our strategy, branding, and content services provided since 2016 is measurable indeed – in 2017 the DC Elevator leadership confirmed an 80% increase in revenue, attributed to brand perception gained. As the company has outgrown the Small Business Enterprise Size Standards as defined by the SBA, they now officially have attained the status of a large business. We are excited with them and proud to have contributed to their growth.
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