Laundromat Branding 101 - Corinna & Theresa’s 2 Cents

Corinna and Theresa Williams own a Brooklyn-based, eco-friendly laundromat called Celsious. They founded the company in 2017 with the goal to make doing laundry a more enjoyable and sustainable experience. Their visual identity, which features a bright and modern color scheme and playful typography, expertly stands out from the competition. By offering a range of eco-friendly services and a welcoming environment, the sisters have established a brand that emphasizes sustainability, customer experience, and innovation in an outdated industry. In this blog post, they’ll cover their top tips to achieve serious branding success!

Boost your laundromat's brand without breaking the bank. Download our guide on 5 Ways to Market Your Laundromat Without Spending a Dime and discover cost-effective strategies to attract and retain customers.

What is branding?

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity and look for your laundromat that sets you apart from your competitors. It includes everything from your business name, logo, color scheme, and fonts to your mission and values. It’s not just about marketing, but also about nurturing a relationship with your laundry customers and building a positive experience.

Why branding is important for your laundry business

Branding is important for any type of business, but it’s arguably more important for ambitious laundromat owners. The laundromat industry has been slow to embrace technological advancements and modern business practices, which has resulted in some aspects of the industry being stuck in the past, including branding.

With nearly 30,000 laundromats in the U.S., it’s essential that you cut through the noise and make a concerted effort to distinguish yourself from your local competitors. This requires you to be unique and build a brand your customers can rally behind. If you're able to create a strong brand, you’ll have something that customers can connect with and become loyal to.

Investing in branding is absolutely worth it for laundromat businesses. By working with professionals like product designers or graphic designers, businesses can create a unique visual identity that represents their values and mission. Branding also allows a laundromat business to showcase what makes them unique. Whether it's a location in a unique setting, special services offered, or a focus on sustainability, a strong brand identity can help communicate those unique selling points to potential customers.

Costs and considerations of branding

Let’s get down to brass tacks. When it comes to your branding efforts, there’s a wide range of options available, with costs varying from low to high. At the lower end of the spectrum, laundromat owners can opt for a DIY approach like designing a logo and business cards in Canva and creating a website yourselves using a WordPress theme. These can be done inexpensively using online design tools and print services, with costs ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Another cost-effective branding option is to create a social media presence for your laundromat, such as a Facebook page or an Instagram account. This is totally free—unless you choose to run ads—and can help increase the visibility of the laundromat among local residents and potential customers.

On the other end of the spectrum, laundromat owners can invest in more extensive branding efforts, such as hiring a professional branding agency or graphic designer to create a comprehensive strategy. This can involve developing a unique brand identity, designing a custom website, creating branded merchandise, and implementing a targeted advertising campaign. The costs for such can range from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the scope and complexity of the branding strategy.

While extensive branding efforts can be expensive, they can also pay off big time in the long run. No matter your budget, it’s important that you invest something, anything, into your brand, even if it’s a small sum of money and your own time. Laundromats that differentiate themselves in a competitive market stand to profit and thrive!

How to brand a laundromat

Establishing a strong brand identity is crucial for any business, especially laundromats! Here are some important steps to create an unmistakably strong brand identity that resonates with customers:

1. Look at your local market: Start by researching your local market and identifying what sets your laundromat apart from others in the area. What unique services do you offer? Use this information to guide your branding efforts.

2. Identify your strengths: Consider what unique benefits you can offer to your customers, such as convenience, affordability, or a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. Use these strengths as a starting point for developing your brand messaging.

3. Take a bold approach to branding: Don't be afraid to take a bold and creative approach to your branding efforts. Consider using eye-catching visuals, unique taglines, and memorable marketing campaigns that will make your laundromat stand out from the competition.

4. Clearly define your mission and values: Establish a clear mission statement and set of values that guide your business practices. This will help customers understand what your laundromat stands for and what they can expect when they use your services.

5. Give your business a face (Your Face!): Consider using your own image or personality to help establish your laundromat's brand identity. This can help create a personal connection with customers and make your business feel more approachable.

6. Treat your laundromat as an investment: Invest in quality equipment and maintenance to create a clean and comfortable environment for customers. This will help reinforce your brand messaging of providing high-quality services.

7. Stick with your vision and refresh as needed: Once you've established your brand identity, stick with it and ensure that all of your business practices align with your brand messaging. However, be open to making changes or adjustments as needed to better serve your customers or adapt to changes in the market.

The importance of customer experience in building a successful brand

Creating a positive customer experience is crucial to building a successful laundromat brand. In fact, many successful laundromat businesses have built their entire business model around providing exceptional customer service. Here are some reasons why customer experience is so important in building a successful laundromat brand:

• Word of mouth is powerful: Happy customers are more likely to recommend your business to friends and family, and positive reviews can go a long way in building a strong brand reputation.

• Leverage your customers as marketers: Encourage your customers to share their positive experiences on social media or leave reviews on Google My Business and Yelp. This can help attract new customers and build a positive reputation for your brand.

• Dedicated front-of-house team: Having a dedicated front-of-house team can ensure that attendants are focused on providing excellent customer service and helping customers with any questions or concerns they may have.

• Hire friendly and reliable staff: Hiring staff members who are happy to be at work and are friendly and personable can help create a welcoming environment for customers.

• Be accessible and responsive: Providing customer support through channels like chatbots can help ensure that customers can reach out to your business with any questions or concerns around the clock.

• Prioritize regular customers: Most customers at a laundromat are likely to be regulars, making it even more important to prioritize customer experience and build relationships with your customers.

How to use social media to build and promote a strong laundromat brand

Social media is an essential tool for building and promoting a strong laundromat brand. Here are some tips for effectively using social media to engage with customers and promote your business:

• Make sure the names you're considering are available: Before creating social media profiles for your laundromat, make sure the usernames and handles you're considering are available across all platforms. This will make it much easier for customers to find and follow your accounts.

• Keep all platforms up-to-date with ALL relevant information: Ensure that all of your social media profiles are complete with all the necessary information, including your business hours, location, contact information, and website link. Make it as easy as possible for customers to find you!

• Create value-add content: Create content that provides value to your customers, such as stain treatment tips, how-to guides, or sustainability content. This will help establish your laundromat as an authority in the industry and provide customers with a reason to follow your accounts.

• Give your brand a personality: Social media is a place where you can be more casual and authentic, so don't be afraid to inject some personality into your posts. Share behind-the-scenes photos or videos, introduce your staff, or post funny memes related to laundry.

• Engage with your customers in a fun way: Respond to comments and messages in a timely and friendly manner, and consider running social media contests or giveaways to keep your followers engaged. This will help build a sense of community around your laundromat and keep customers coming back.

How to measure success in your branding efforts

Measuring success in branding efforts can be challenging, but there are several ways to track progress and ensure that your efforts are paying off. Here are some tips:

• Collect qualitative data: While branding is primarily about creating feelings and emotions, you can still collect qualitative data to gauge the effectiveness of your branding efforts. This can include anecdotal feedback from customers or staff members.

• Use promo codes: By creating individual promo codes for each marketing campaign, you can directly measure the success of your branding and marketing efforts. This allows you to track the number of customers who redeem the code and the resulting revenue generated from each campaign.

• Run campaigns on social media: While it can be challenging to track the success of social media campaigns unless you have a robust set of marketing tools, you can still use engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares to gauge the effectiveness of your branding efforts.

Common branding mistakes by laundromat owners

Branding is crucial but it’s not always easy! There are several common mistakes that laundromat owners make when it comes to branding. Here are a few examples:

• Generic visuals: Using generic or stock visuals can make your brand look unoriginal and unmemorable. You should invest in high-quality visuals that accurately represent your brand and set you apart from competitors.

• Tired colors: Choosing outdated or overused color schemes can make your brand feel stale and unappealing. Consider using unique color combinations that help your brand stand out and create a memorable visual identity.

• Not investing in branding: Branding is more than just marketing and advertising, and it's important to invest in establishing a strong brand identity from the beginning. This may include hiring a professional designer, creating a comprehensive branding strategy, or investing in high-quality equipment to create a comfortable and inviting environment for customers.

• Launching before establishing an identity: Make sure to establish a clear brand identity before launching your laundromat business. This includes defining your mission and values, creating a strong visual identity, and establishing your brand's unique voice and tone.

• Letting perfect get in the way of the good: While it's important to strive for excellence in your branding efforts, it's also important to recognize that perfection is rarely achievable. Don't let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of launching your branding strategy and making progress toward your goals.

• Not viewing your business as a brand: You must recognize that your laundromat is not just a business, but also a brand. This means creating a unique and memorable identity that resonates with customers and sets you apart from competitors.

Final words of wisdom for laundromat owners just starting

If you're a new laundromat business owner looking to establish your brand identity, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel! Here are the three top tips for forward-thinking laundromat owners who are ready to tackle the world of branding:

1. Don't be afraid to stand out with your brand identity.

2. Make sure your branding can exist on all channels without infringement.

3. Look to other industries for inspiration and communicate with a creative person to help realize your vision.

Boost your laundromat's brand without breaking the bank. Download our guide on 5 Ways to Market Your Laundromat Without Spending a Dime and discover cost-effective strategies to attract and retain customers.