Rebrand away from modular manufacturing, why?
When I started at Eastern Style Builders, which was then doing business as ESB Modular Manufacturing, I quickly recognized the need for a rebrand.
Have you ever wondered why companies rebrand themselves? In some cases, it helps emphasize a new moral standpoint, such as the pro-health position taken by CVS when it chose to no longer sell tobacco products. In others, a new label is adopted to try to separate an existing product from a limiting or negative stigma. Two examples of this type of rebrand that have different moral implications include Old Spice and high fructose corn syrup. Old Spice brought humor and youth to its messaging, in the form of Isaiah Mustafa on a white horse, to escape the hygiene products’ limiting association with the smell of grandparents or, in general, people in older generations. On the other side of the moral fence, perhaps in an effort to mislead customers, the trending vilification of high fructose corn syrup due to its health consequences led to its rebrand by the corn industry as “corn sugar.” For some companies, a rebrand could be the best option to capture the attention of a new market based on different cultural or industrial attitudes, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon’s branding its beer as Blue Ribbon 1844 in China. ESB’s rebrand from ESB Modular Manufacturing to ESB Design+Build was motivated by a business objective similar to Old Spice.
Eastern Style Builders, Inc. (ESB) did business under the trade name ESB Modular Manufacturing from 1991 to 2015. With a well-established reputation in a niche that understands the benefits of a modular, offsite approach to construction and the virtually endless aesthetic and functional possibilities of a factory-built, modular building, the company faces a new and exciting challenge: differentiating itself from the limiting stigma associated with the term “modular building.”
Speaking with members of the general public and with potential customers beyond our existing segments, people often associate the term “modular building” with “a box on wheels,” which is accompanied by the implication of cheap and low quality products – an association entirely mismatched with the products and services ESB provides. The Wikipedia article on modular buildings echoes this feedback. Recognition of this misalignment and the limitation it presents prompted the philosophical question: what does ESB really do in the minds of our customers? Sure, we have a modular approach to construction (also referred to more specifically as offsite construction), we build factory-built buildings, but that isn’t what retains our loyal customer base and enables us to continuously grow our business organically via word-of-mouth and repeat customers. We offer quality, integrity, a streamlined, expedited construction process and personal care in our interactions with each customer. We can, and most often do, complete turnkey projects for our customers, which leads me to the Design+Build portion of the new trade name.
None of the modular buildings ESB builds are the stigmatized low quality , drab looking modular building. In fact, most of the projects ESB builds are slab-on-grade and look nothing like what many people envision when they imagine a modular building. So what is the best messaging that encourages prospective ESB customers to associate our aforementioned offerings – quality, integrity, a streamlined, expedited construction process and personal care in our customer interactions – with ESB’s brand? Drop the trade name that emphasizes the company’s construction methodology – Modular Manufacturing – and replace it with one that emphasizes the deliverable: design services and building and site construction services – Design+Build. The new trade name, ESB Design+Build, in no way limits ESB’s ability to bid projects that are already designed for modular execution, but it opens up a world of possibilities in the Design-Build market, including alternative delivery Construction Manager At Risk projects. ESB Design+Build continues to serve its existing, valuable customer segment and presents the owners of projects whose scopes include design and construction services with a different, and likely advantageous, approach to construction.
