On January 1st I will officially be changing the name of my Euless pet sitting business. It has been a decision that I have been wrangling with for about a year - ever since I discovered that I am not able to Trademark my current name - Claws Paws & Jaws Professional Pet Sitters. There is another pet sitting company in California who uses a very similar name ( make sure you do a good search before naming your business!). A couple of months ago I attended the Brand Power intensive to come up with a new name - and decided on Protecting Max - Your Pet Sitting Partners.
I have already had customers asking me the significance of my new name.
As pet sitters we are effectively the temporary guardians of our customers pets. Another name for a guardian is a protector - hence “Protecting” Max. I chose Max because I was looking for a name that is very commonly used as both a name for a dog or a name for a cat. I found that Max is the most popular dog name in the US and is also a popular cat name. The “Pet Sitting Partners” is especially significant for me as I believe that part of my job as a pet guardian is to work with my customers as their partner in the care of their pets. It is my job to ensure that the quality of life of the pet is continued even though the pet owner is not there to take care of the pets.
I have always been intrigued by the eye catching fully “wrapped” vehicles that I see on the highway. So .. I decided that with the change of name - it was a perfect time to try this marketing method out myself. Voila! - The Max Mobile was born. Here it is!
I have been driving this around town for a few weeks now and it certainly gets a lot of looks and I saw a guy outside the bank the other day get out a pen and jot down something while he was standing in front of the car! So I hope that the bold statement will help to spread the word quickly and get me some instant brand recognition.
Of course I am awaret that there is a lot of debate about the use of car signs between pet sitters. Here are the most common opinions:
1) On one side of the debate are pet sitters that believe that car sign alerts potential burglars that the home owners are out of town.
2) On the other side are pet sitters who believe that burglars will actually be discouraged from entering a home if they know that the pet sitter may return unexpectedly.
I can see both sides of this debate so I have made the decision not to regularly use this vehicle when I am visiting homes for pet sitting visits. Luckily, we have a second car and myself and my husband can trade out.
I let my customers know that they may see me around town in the car - but that we won’t be turning up at their house to do pet sitting visits in this vehicle. I sent out this news in a letter to my existing clients with my Christmas cards and also let them know about some other changes to our services that they will see in the next year.
You don’t have to go the Full Monty and get your car wrapped like mine. There are several other less expensive options. You can get magnetic signs made with your business name and contact numbers or have some lettering added to your back window. The guys at 360wraps who did my car can also just give the same treatment to just a single section of the car (they were designing just a back wrap of a car for a lady with a beauty spa while I was visiting their office). If you search online or look in your local yellow pages I’m sure that you will find that there are many sign companies in your area that can quote on a partial wrap or window sign.