i run a B2B shop (we do commercial vehicle graphics), so i see a ton of different company logos roll through my bay every week.

Over the last year I’ve noticed a huge trend where classic local plumbing or HVAC shops decide to do a massive rebrand. They strip the family owner’s name off the trucks, get rid of the old school character logos, and replace it with some super sterile, minimalist tech-company branding that says something like “Apex Solutions” or “Vanguard Services”.

Had a residential contractor in the shop yesterday who did that exact thing six months ago and he was actually super bummed out. He told me his long-time repeat customers started hesitating to call because they assumed the local owner sold out to a massive Private Equity firm and that prices were gonna double. He swore that trying to look like a $100M corporation actually killed his local neighborhood trust factor.

For those of you running residential service outfits, what’s your take on this? Does looking slick and corporate actually help close bids nowadays, or do homeowners still prefer hiring a company that clearly looks like a local family operation? Trying to figure out if ultra-clean corporate branding is actually backfiring in the blue-collar space right now tbh.