Local competitor had their van wrapped similar to mine...REALLY!!!

[Mark Saiger]

Heading to a large job last night and saw my competitions new vinyl wrapped van. At first I thought it was one of my vans and I was wondering when my son in law got ahead of me and stopped at this store.

I couldn't believe it when I saw it. This company has been Black in the past. This is now the only unit that looks like this of theirs. It is their carpet cleaning van.

They have the water theme (up top vs down low) the other blue color is down low (vs up top) and a similar swoop on the side to separate the 2 colors.
The back has a bit of yellow (which I have the yellow flames in the front)

Color Block of their name is different than any of their other vans (bit similar to mine)

I really don't know what to say....we are a small town. Is this deception towards my client base? I did have a client tell me they saw me cleaning at a house the other day in their neighborhood they thought.... until they went up closer and saw it wasn't our vans.....

I just don't even know what to say. I am hoping maybe someone will have enough courage locally to maybe post something on Facebook about it....

For now, I just am flabbergasted!

Here is their van:



Here are my vans:

 

[Chris A]

Dunno, but the name of their company is filthy clean, so I'd say you have nothing to worry about!

 

[Mark Saiger]

Dunno, but the name of their company is filthy clean, so I'd say you have nothing to worry about![/QUOTE

Wish they would have just stuck to their past colors of Black....made them more Filthy!


Mark Saiger
Saiger's Steam Clean

"Poorly imitated....but never Duplicated!"

 

[Lee Stockwell]

No one rips off a failure.

 

[Mikey P]

Can't imagine a higher end client wanting that van/name in their drive way.

 

[Desk Jockey]

That's not only ugly but a terrible name for their company!

 

[Jim Martin]

I had a guy steal my logo...name..website...taglines...everything but my wife and kids....some people here on the board brought it to my attention....
I have also had people take parts and piece of things here and there....sad but true...just the way it is in this industry..some of them I worry about and some I don't...I am all about helping people out..and most the time if you just ask I normally don't have a problem.....But there has been a few that I have had to take the steps and get corrected before it got to far out of hand....

I don't see where you need to lose to much sleep over this...
I just can't see where it resembles you enough to worry about it....and I am more then sure with your company and your good reputation this will not effect you.......

 

[kingjoelking]

Personally I would not confuse their truck with yours. Theirs is ugly. Allthough I do agree they made a failed attempt at trying to copy. Besides their name screems craigslist cleaner.

 

[Becker]

My eyes must be going.


We've got no room for boring.

 

[ruff]

Looks nothing like yours Mark. If they tried to copy yours they bungled it big time.

Just keep doing what you've been doing so far and you'll leave them in the mist

 

[curt johnson]

Mark, I feel your pain. I started my business in our little area in 2002. My biz name is Healthy Clean. We now have Squeaky Clean and Clean Green. One has exact same colors too. For years this has bothered me, but no one listens to me complain!!! By the way, your vans look so nice, I wouldn't worry, your van wraps are as good as I've seen.

 

[bob vawter]

Mark.. you got a class act going there....no worries!

 

[ruff]

Don't tell Mark not to worry Bob!

I bet being worried is what keeps him constantly busy improving his business.

 

[Becker]

Worst I had it was a guy opened up. Platinum carpet cleaning about 20 miles south of me. A real slime ball. When confronted he mentioned we dont serve the same areas.

He did big time telemarketing. Funny when a client of mine got a call from his company.

Then because he was not listed I got all his complaint calls. Asking to be removed from calling list.

He was gone as quick as he came.



We've got no room for boring.

 

[your_good_sons]

I don't see the similarity. Then again, there's 100's of CC and WD vans all over the country that look like both. Wrappers work from templates. The cheap set of templates probably has less than 5 from out industry. There is no such thing as originality. They didn't rip you off, they just went to the same hack.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

You have branded your name a long time ago Mark. This sort of thing is upsetting, but my guess is that no one will begin to confuse the two of you.

If it weren't that it bothered you so much, I'd be having a good laugh over the name this guy chose to use. I've seen some bad ones, some I can't even post here because the double entendre is just too gross and obvious, but this might still be the worst outside of those.

 

[FB7777]

Dude , they don't look very similar at all

Just another opportunity to post pics of your trucks,,,
You're awesome Saiger we all get it

Fricken attention whore

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

We don't cut corners, we clean them! - They are planning on taking you out with that tag line Mark

 

[Becker]

Yes. Unless the 2 vans parked together are from different companies I don't see it either.




We've got no room for boring.

 

[Mark Saiger]

I don't see the similarity. Then again, there's 100's of CC and WD vans all over the country that look like both. Wrappers work from templates. The cheap set of templates probably has less than 5 from out industry. There is no such thing as originality. They didn't rip you off, they just went to the same hack.

They actually went out of town I understand, because our local graphic people recognized the similarities and did not want to do it.

My wrap was created from templates and combinations, but we did sit down and actually hand create the entire concept.

But, in my small town, I am just getting ready for some slack thrown their way from my clients.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yours looks so much better. No one will get them confused. Yours is clean theirs is muddled. I wouldn't sweat it.

Talk to bawb about the friendly competitors roofing nails trick. j/k

 

[Mark Saiger]

The company has been around since about 2000.

I actually didn't know about the van until people started telling me about it....then I saw it last night.

A few local people in our community have started talking about it, so hopefully something will happen to help us think about how to make our Brand stronger yet.

For some of our clients (elderly especially) we are hoping they don't get confused seeing the vans.

Anyway, appreciate all the input.

Thanks for all the kind and supportive words everyone!

Time to get busy and think of a stronger branding strategy!

Now to go clean a few corners....and then take on the centers!


Mark

 

[Mark Saiger]

Yours looks so much better. No one will get them confused. Yours is clean theirs is muddled. I wouldn't sweat it.

Talk to bawb about the friendly competitors roofing nails trick. j/k

This is the company I was sending some people to for restoration work when we wouldn't take them....

My wife just said, we are done referring anyone!

Now where was that bucket of nails....

 

[Jim Pemberton]

<DT>Living well is the best revenge. <DD class=author>George Herbert
English clergyman & metaphysical poet (1593 - 1633) </DD>
Of course my spiritual adviser Terje Brevik "Petroviking" (or "The Engineer Formerly known as Odin") has always recommended a handful of hissing cockroaches in their mail slot

 

[Moser Brothers]

Hope they don't have bubble machines and advertise bring on the blue with kids in power wheels


....

 

[GCCLee]

Mr Bubbles will fix their next job.




Get a big bottle : )


Sent from da parking garage of dee detention center

 

[your_good_sons]

Saiger" data-source="post: 4288263" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

They actually went out of town I understand, because our local graphic people recognized the similarities and did not want to do it.

My wrap was created from templates and combinations, but we did sit down and actually hand create the entire concept.

But, in my small town, I am just getting ready for some slack thrown their way from my clients.

I still think you are reading way too much into this. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, I'd say your success and having a strong presence looks like an 8.5-9 in your market, in other words, you are all over it.
My market, I'd personally give myself a 5 at best, more like a 4. 25-35 miles to my south, where the market is larger, but just outside the NYC market, I'd give myself a 1.5-2 and that has to change or I'm finished.

Do I worry about my competition? You bet! Too much? Not as much as before, but still too much. I put more and more efforts into making something of myself, not what others are up to. I think that advice has been tossed around a few times here and elsewhere.

 

[your_good_sons]

As someone who came from about 20 years in the printing industry, your font choices are poor. Serif fonts are hard to read in headlines, but they flow great in body text. Sans-serif fonts, bolded, make much better headlines. Italics are hard to read as anything other than subheads. Now I am not a great designer, or I'd still be one, but personally, your font choices seem very awkward to me. Not trying to insult you, not trying to tell you what to do, because ultimately its your business, but the fonts you chose, would never be my choices. This is coming from a hack designer who has perhaps 2,500 newpaper ads and fliers under his belt, so take it for what it is worth.

 

[PrimaDonna]

What a shame that they spent a good amount of money with a graphic designer (and possibly even a marketing company) to get started and no one along the line suggested that they rethink that name? It's worse oxymoron ever! Not a good first impression. Guess they don't know that their "market" is primarily women and this will not speak to them.

 

[Shorty]

Mark, imitation is the greatest compliment they could give you.

Saiger's is a family name which is respectably well known in your area.

It is not a filthy name that even the elderly may be confused with.

When people call, they either have your name or look for the name Saiger's on the computer or in smellow yellow.

I guarantee that when the filthy people answer their phone, they don't answer with "thank you for calling Saiger's".

So they have a blue van, big deal, my colors have been green & gold for 30 years, then another major competitor decided to go the same colors for their vehicles and uniforms.

But when asked if Shorty was there, they had a bit of talking to do.

It's never bothered me, most of my work is repeat or W.O.M. customers apart from the 'net.

I recently went without any paid advertising, or signs on my van, for over four years, with no negative results.

Actions speak for themselves.