Brand identity for trades companies

What brand identity covers for a trades company

The answer is everything a customer can see with your name on it. In practice that means:

• Logo and wordmark, in versions that work at the size of a hat badge and the size of a cube-van side panel.
• Colour and type rules, so the website, quote template and social posts look like the same company.
• Vehicle wraps and decals, laid out for legibility at road speed: name, trade, phone number and web address, nothing more.
• Uniforms and workwear, with placement guidance for embroidery and print.
• Print: business cards, door hangers, yard signs, quote and invoice templates.
• Social profile graphics, sized for each platform.

We hand over the files and a short brand guide. The physical items come from your suppliers. Trades.Agency is a marketing firm, and we don't operate a print shop or wrap bay.

Who it is for

Brand identity work pays off most for companies at a turning point. Typical examples:

• A sole operator hiring a second and third crew and adding vehicles.
• Two companies merging, or a buyer taking over an established business.
• A plumbing company adding drain or HVAC service and outgrowing a narrow name.
• A company whose trucks, website and profiles were all designed at different times by different people.

If you have one truck and no plan to add more, a clean logo and a consistent Google profile may be all you need for now.

How the project runs

1. Discovery. We look at your competitors in each town you serve, your current assets and where customers first see you.
2. Direction. Two or three distinct options, each explained in plain terms.
3. Refinement. One direction developed into the full system.
4. Roll-out plan. A sensible order for replacing assets, usually vehicles and the website first, because they carry the most impressions.
5. Handover. Print-ready files, a brand guide and supplier briefs.

A worked example: what a wrap is worth

A wrapped van parked on a residential street or moving through a busy town is seen by many local drivers every week. Suppose a full wrap costs your installer's quoted price and lasts several years. If it produces even two extra jobs a year at a $1,500 average ticket, it returns $3,000 a year in revenue before you count the referrals and recognition it supports. The maths only works if the van is legible: a phone number nobody can read at 50 km/h earns nothing.

How results are measured

Brand work is harder to measure than ads, so we measure what we can:

• Branded searches for your company name, tracked month over month.
• Calls to a tracking number shown only on vehicles or signs.
• How often new customers say "I saw your truck" when asked how they heard of you.

We pair branding with the local search and website work so the new look shows up consistently everywhere a customer checks.

Mistakes to avoid

• Clever over clear. A logo that needs explaining fails on a moving vehicle.
• Too much on the wrap. List the trade, name, number and web address. A list of twelve services is unreadable.
• Rolling out half a rebrand. Old trucks and new shirts confuse customers. Plan the order.
• Forgetting the Google profile. The name on your profile, signage and website should match exactly.

The creative side of this work also has its own studio site, Trades.Studio, if you want to see the focus in more depth. To discuss your own brand, see the contact page or the pricing page.