Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Is it a good idea to change the name of a float center after buying it from someone else? As the industry gets older, more and more people are going to have to answer this question.
Branding is definitely part of the equity of a business and you purchase everything that comes with it. But can you put a price on being happy with your business and making it feel like your own?
Derek and Graham tackle these questions while Ashkahn is away for the Conference.
Show Resources
Information of the Float Conference (which has taken Ashkahn away from us) including tickets, events, and where to stay at FloatConference.com
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Okay.
Derek: All right.
Graham: Welcome everybody to Medieval Daily Solutions Podcast.
Derek: It’s pretty Medieval.
Graham: This is Medieval Graham over here.
Derek: This is Medieval Derek.
Graham: And Ashkahn is gone once more to plan for the conference. Thanks for joining us in the studio, Derek.
Derek: You’re welcome. Absolutely.
Graham: We’re gonna have some fun talking about marketing today. Derek is one of our marketing experts, if not the marketing expert behind Float On.
Derek: I don’t want that responsibility.
Graham: Should’ve thought about that before you came on board.
Derek: Oh, okay.
Graham: Today’s question is, “I’m buying a float center that’s been around for a couple years. I’m definitely going to make some changes and upgrades when I take it over, and I’m thinking about changing the name.”
Derek: Bum-bum-bum.
Graham: “Do you think it’s better to keep the old name or go with a new one for a new ownership?”
Derek: Seeing as we don’t know why they’re buying it or any history of the old float center-
Graham: Let’s assume that they’re not hated, they were running good floats-
Derek: They have good reviews.
Graham: Yeah, exactly.
Derek: A good brand name, a person just decided to sell because they wanted to go live in Tahiti.
Graham: Sure. And Float On has bright yellow walls and blue fabrics. If someone came in and wanted to kind of have a little more professional vibe, I could see them changing the name, for example, you know. Make it more like Float Medical or Float White Walls or something.
Derek: Float Off.
Graham: Float Off. Yeah. It’s like if someone wanted to come in, rebrand as Float Off.
Derek: Okay. The business was doing well, it’s got a good reputation, ’cause anything other than if like it had a bad reputation and people didn’t like it and bad reviews, yeah. Definitely change the name. Give it all-
Graham: Three stars on Yelp or something, yeah. Ditch that and move on to something better.
Derek: The first question, since it’s now your business, are you happy with the name? To me, I feel like it’s important to have a business that I’m happy calling that name. If I wasn’t too attached to the name personally, I probably would change it. If I’m indifferent about the name and the name seems to kind of have a good vibe around the time, you can probably keep a name and change the décor. They can still be Float On and not be blue and yellow anymore.
Graham: Sure, yeah. Absolutely.
Derek: So, there is some brand equity to the name, especially if that center’s been around and the word of mouth. If let’s say somebody decides, if Float On goes out of business and somebody’s still talking about Float On and they go to Google Float On and they can’t find it now and they have to decide all over again what center to choose, kind of you’re starting all over again. But you do have some, I guess, brand equity in that name that maybe you should keep it, but then make other parts of the business yours.
Graham: Yeah, I guess, at the risk of sounding redundant with many other episodes, it really kind of depends on the context.
Derek: Yes and no.
Graham: So, let’s just try to argue both sides.
Derek: Okay.
Graham: For keeping the name, the arguments for not changing the name.
Derek: You start.
Graham: All right. Well one, you’re buying a business, which means in part, you’re paying for their branding. Presumably they have signs, they have brochures, they have a website that’s already branded with all of their stuff, they have a logo. So, you’re giving, you’re already pitching money in towards getting everything associated with their brand. So, rebranding not only costs you more money to do, it also costs you all the things that you’re losing along the way that you would’ve just gotten tossed in.
Derek: Right. If you change the name, you have to repay for all the signage and all the pamphlets and brochures, and everything. Internal signage, external signage. External signs are really expensive, so that’s something that-
Graham: T-shirts. Any branding that’s out there in the world that you can’t just change like a website where it updates. You can’t do like a t-shirt update and all of a sudden your logo changes on all the t-shirts that people are wearing around.
Derek: Right.
Graham: You kind of lose all of that. That’s one of the main things, monetarily, definitely. Another one is just name recognition. If people have been talking about this certain float center around, like Float On, and all of a sudden it just turns into like Weightless Cloud Float Center or something like that.
Derek: Float Off.
Graham: Float Off is still a more just thinking of a total change. It’s Weightless Cloud now. Or Atlantis, Atlantis Float Center, and now people are like, “Oh, have you heard of Atlantis Float Center?” And everyone who has heard of Float On over the last eight years is like, “No. Who are they?” So, it’s only two years, so maybe that’s not a good, it would be like Float On at two years old or something.
Derek: Right.
Graham: What else? All of your SEO for the website, you’re losing, ’cause presumably you’re getting a new web domain, ’cause you don’t want-
Derek: You can probably do some redirects and say this old domain, since you’re owning the domain, you can say it’s a new domain. That’s a way you can kind of help some of your Google juice. But it’s hard-
Graham: You’re gonna lose some. You’re gonna lose some.
Derek: All the third party reviews and everything on platforms you can’t control, I mean try to get blogs written about you two years ago to change the name on there. Might not even be active anymore.
Graham: Yeah, so just the extra time, extra money. You lose everything that’s out there in the world already. It’s essentially like starting a new center from scratch, but you do have a giant email mailing list. You have people who have, they know your location. You can email a lot of people and let them know you’re just changing your name, so at least your most valuable customers, all your members will totally understand what’s going on and help spread word of mouth. But you’re kind of putting yourself a little bit at a disadvantage. So, those are the downsides that I see. I don’t know if you had something to add.
Derek: I’m pretty much in line with you there. I’m trying to think of examples where businesses have changed their name but kept everything else the same and it tanked the business, and I think that might go back to maybe just the operations of the new owners. “Under New Management” isn’t always a good thing.
Graham: Yeah. Okay. So, arguments for changing the name, which there are definitely some on that side, too.
Derek: Go for it.
Graham: Okay. Number one, just being happy with it. Honestly, separate from anything else, money, time, all of this stuff, it’s your business and a certain part of being a small business owner is doing things that make you happy and making your business your own. If you’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even a little less purchasing this business, making sure it’s what you want it to be and you have the sense of ownership and it is your baby, I think is important. So, in that sense, it totally makes sense. There’s a certain point at which you can’t even put a dollar amount on that, just being happy and feeling ownership over your small business.
Derek: Right. That goes back to my original point, you should be happy about everything in your business and if the name’s not one of them, change it.
Graham: Yeah, exactly. That’s one. Another one is just if you have a very different feel. If you’re taking over a place called like The Floating Buddha Float Center or something like that-
Derek: We’re trying to make fake names up. We’re gonna come up with a real name here really soon.
Graham: I know. I’m really trying hard. I’m’ just trying to add on.
Derek: Cloud Ten Float Center.
Graham: The Floating Buddha Float Center has some very serious connotations along with it. That’s not a neutral name, necessarily, so you might just want to be pulling in different clientele or want a totally different vibe, and if a name is strongly enough in one direction, it might just be that you can’t even get close to really what you want your float center to represent without changing Floating Buddha to something else.
Derek: Right. If it’s Floating Buddha and it’s white walls and very clinical, there’s a disconnect.
Graham: Yeah. Other arguments for changing the name? I guess it’s not … All said, it’s not too hard to rebrand. A couple years in the scheme of things, I mean, hopefully your business is around for a couple decades at least, and hopefully it carries on even after that. And it’s amazing, even being in year eight now, the things that we did at year two feels so long ago. Six years ago feels so long ago in the lifespan of Float On. I can imagine a world where we started as a completely different company and then rebranded and I would barely even remember what things it started with.
Derek: At year two, we were still a four tank center.
Graham: Yeah. We were still, we were just about to upgrade to six tanks.
Derek: So, we were even a different center back then. It’s kind of like we’re under new ownership.
Graham: Yeah, totally. Well, kind of. We just have a couple new tanks and everything else stayed as weird as it always was.
Derek: That’s true.
Graham: So yeah, I honestly think there’s a lot of reasons why it’s not quite as scary to upgrade. I know places that have changed their name, and for a while there’s still just remnants of old stuff that had the old name laying around, just a slow process of upgrading as you get money and time, and you still just catch some. It’ll be like a year later and you’re like, “What? That one site still calls us by this name? Okay.” And you find more stuff to change. But in the end, it’s doable. You’re not talking about $100,000 here to change all the branding. You’re talking about if you have to redo signs and everything else, tens of thousands or something like that, and a little bit of time. And over the course of, again, a decade, that can absolutely pay off if what you decide is you really want this new one.
I guess I have less reasons why it’s necessary to rebrand and more like if this is something you really want to do, encouragements, or reasons why you shouldn’t totally rule it out.
Derek: Right. And I think goes back to, just to kind of summarize, do what’s consistent with your brand. Do what you’re happy with. And I would argue do what your customers are also gonna be happy with, too. I think if they’re super attached to the name, then really reconsider it, but I highly doubt people are attached to your name. They’re attached to your service, the tanks. It’s not really the name, it’s what you provide. So, kind of keep that in mind, too.
Graham: Yeah. So yeah, if you want to, don’t let the headache ahead of you stop you. But do keep in mind it is gonna be a little bit of a hassle, a little bit of a headache. You’ll be starting a little bit behind. I guess just knowing that going into it, hopefully that helps you make a little more informed decision.
Derek: Sounds good to me.
Graham: And if you want anymore of our advice, just go to FloatTankSolutions.com/podcast and you can send us any crazy questions you want there.
Derek: Or not so crazy.
Graham: Or sane. We accept sane questions, although it might not be immediately obvious. Sorry. No offense to people who ask questions, I love all of the questions and the questions askers equally.
Derek: Didn’t I say always make fun of the questions?
Graham: Okay, goodbye everyone. Goodbye everyone.
Derek: Take care. We’re gonna handle this offline.
Graham: We love you.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Are Tankless Water Heaters the Best? – DSP 270
Graham and Jake take on talking about Tankless or “On Demand” water heaters today. They break down a lot of the benefits of them compared to storage water heaters like the fact that they provide a nearly limitless source of hot water, require less energy consumption, etc. They’re not perfect though, and any float center considering one should look closely on how best to implement them. Jake shares some of the pitfalls of them as well as how to maximize their usefulness.
Should Float Centers use Light or Heavy Gauge Studs? – DSP 269
Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.
Jake and Graham are on the scene though to answer construction questions, though. Even the straight forward ones, like today. Jake informs us which to choose when doing construction, light or heavy gauge studs when constructing a float center, while getting a little sidetracked when comparing wooden and metal studs.
Construction to Make Your Life Easier – DSP 268
Graham and Jake cover a wide range of construction tips to make running a float center easier. Everything from making sure you have extra storage to installing mop closets with sinks in them for dealing with heavy duty chemicals.
The advice is pretty much a shotgun approach of tips, tricks, and hard lessons learned throughout the years.
Draining Float Tanks into Septic Systems – DSP 267
Graham and Jake tackle the difficulties of draining float tanks and how that process can differ based on different municipalities, different water treatment systems, or whether you’re using a septic system or not.
Water treatment typically involves whole contained ecosystems and highly concentrated epsom salt water can impact that pretty drastically. The guys provide good tips for each type of system and what to be prepared for if you’re operating in a rural area with a septic system.
The Difference Between STC and Decibels – DSP 266
Post-Conference Ashkahn is still out of the recording studio, but fortunately Jake is keeping Graham company in there.
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Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #28
Home sweet home! After so many months on the road, it was strange being back here in Portland. We were exhausted, excited, and a little travel weary. The first night back, I slept in my own bed for the first time in three months and the world just melted away.
Having travelled across the United States, I’m reminded of how insular Portland is. We are aggressively fixated on keeping things local. Local beer, ketchup, bikes, pet food, pillows, phone cases… it’s part of our charm. We want to reward people for living here and being a part of the community. It’s so pervasive that, after living here for so long, I kind of forgot that Secret Aardvark hot-sauce isn’t available everywhere, and that most cities don’t even recycle, let alone compost.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #27
Our northern neighbor – a sister city, of sorts – Seattle is the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the land of Microsoft and Kurt Cobain, and the culture here embraces both simultaneously. It’s tech business professional in the front and rock n’ roll grunge in the back. This blend creates a perfect storm of high energy business life and high energy nightlife, making relaxation a valuable commodity. Floating helps fill the void left by nightmarish traffic and overcrowded restaurants.
Given that it’s so close to home, the float centers in Seattle are a lot more familiar to us. Our visits here were more like a high school reunion than they were like the first day of school. During some of our visits, we were picking up conversations right where we left them.
The Float Tour Blog Issue #26
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, and third largest on the West Coast. It’s a major hub for international trade, with one of the largest ports in the world, giving it a large migrant population, mainly from Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. It’s also been a long-time home to the Canadian film industry, and has even been nicknamed “North Hollywood.” Dozens of film and television productions from major studios film here every year.
Vancouver is very much an international city. It has large boroughs dedicated to varying cultures, including one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. The society here is more receptive to new ideas, always looking for the next big thing; it’s not surprising that floating has blown up in Vancouver as much as it has.
In the last 3 years, 10 float centers have opened up, most of them being larger 4–6 tank centers. The really interesting thing is how they all opened within the same short amount of time about 1 ½ to 2 years ago, within months of each other.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #25
We finally made it back to the West Coast! We went through the Canadian Rockies and were overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. We drove through hours and hours of winding mountain roads, fertile valleys, and tiny towns so picturesque they looked like movie sets. It was so captivating, in fact, I suspect Graham and Ashkahn may have secretly replaced themselves with robotic doppelgängers to hike throughout Banff.
This post will focus on the smaller communities in B.C. that are bringing floating to new people every day. We also get to visit Canadian manufacturer Pro Float. They’re relatively new to the scene, just opening up earlier this year – another exciting sign of the growth in the industry.
