Crack Team USA. No discussion about unconventional approaches to growth would be complete without mentioning the incredible success of a St. Louis-based company whose business is basement repair. It's hard to imagine a more mundane, commodity business than fixing cracks in concrete. Realizing this, the company's president, Bob Kodner, got the idea that maybe a little comic relief would help sell his ostensibly dull product.
As reported by Gwendolyn Bounds in The Wall Street Journal, Bob "imagined a logo featuring a cartoonish, smiling gray piece of cement with feet and hands and a crack running down his head." He had his cousin design the logo, which he dubbed "Mr. Happy Crack," and proceeded to plaster it on 34 St. Louis buses. Suddenly, the phones started ringing with people wanting to know if they could get a T-Shirt or a hat with "Mr. Happy Crack" on it.
Today, Bob's company has ten offices in eight states and is tracking to have 25 by the end of 2005 and projects 150 in North American by the end of 2007. He credits his logo with winning over potential franchisees, and his franchisees credit the logo with winning over customers. Revenues from the sales of T-shirts and other paraphernalia alone accounts for about 5 percent of the company's revenues, which now totals $10 million.
The common denominator among all these companies is that they thought about, and then re-ignited, on what it is their consumers truly want. Just like the GMDC study said. They also share one more thing, which is so often overlooked but is inevitably the most important thing. That is, the courage to transcend what used to work and cut a new path. Just like Mike Shinall said.
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