Brand Review: Kim’s Dead Stock
This image or file is a work of a United States Department of Agriculture employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
As my family was traveling along a crowded stretch of highway, we came across a most interesting brand. My first impression was shock and a bit of disgust… not reactions I’d normally associate with good marketing. But it worked.
The name of the business was “Kim’s Dead Stock”, and, to the uninitiated city dweller at least, dead livestock removal is a shocking and disgusting business. The logo—a cartoon-like picture of a dead cow—was on the back of a very clean and shiny white trailer. The tagline below the logo was—hold your nose— “No cow too ripe.”
We followed the trailer for a good long time and the longer I looked at this brand, the more impressed I became. My initial reaction was shock. This got my attention on a busy road, confirming that my surprise served a purpose. Then came the gross-out phase, as I thought about “ripe” cows. After that, I contemplated the profession of dead stock removal in general and realized, well, someone has to do it.
I also realized that if I had to call someone for dead stock removal, then Kim’s Dead Stock would be my first choice. I would contact Kim’s not just because they’re the only dead stock removal company I know of, but because they had effectively established their brand for me as I passed by on a crowded highway.
How did this brand work?
With their business name, they told me exactly what they did—“dead stock”. Then, with their tagline, they defined the boundaries of their business—“no cow too ripe.” I would feel good about calling this business if I had the misfortune to need someone in their line of work. I wouldn’t need to feel guilty or apologetic about calling to ask them to remove a carcass that had been around for a while—they had already normalized that for me. Putting a person’s first name in the company name also made me—as an imagined customer—feel at ease when I contemplated contacting them. In effect, the brand took the social stigma and “ick” factor of dead stock removal and made it work to the company’s advantage.
Missed opportunities
My only critique of this brand is that after I came back to my office and tried to look up the company, I could not find it listed anywhere. I noticed when I saw the brand that there wasn’t any contact information associated with the logo or tagline. Someone wouldn’t really see Kim’s trailer and think, “Oh, great, we have that dead cow out in the yard, I’d better write down that phone number.” Potential clients were more likely to identify with the brand and then search for it online when they had a need for the service. But there was no website, and I couldn’t even find the company’s phone number listed on www.canada411.ca. I would imagine some good key words for a business like this would be ‘dead stock’ or ‘stock removal’. I searched for a domain name and found www.kimsdeadstock.com is available. The branding worked. Now, how do I find them?
If someone sees your brand and likes what you do, can they find you?
