Rod Menzel is the founder and co-owner of GreatWay Roofing Inc. in Moorpark, Calif. After attending the Roofing Contractor Best of Success conference in 2007, he implemented several ideas that revolutionized his business, and he shared his experience with this year’s attendees in a session titled “Rebranding: Expect a Great Experience.”

“We’re all looking to find ways to make our business better,” he said. “That’s why we’re all here at Best of Success.” In 2007, Menzel’s goals were to increase the number of sales leads, increase profit margins, and better satisfy customers. After listening to Ted Jorve of Seattle-based Jorve Roofing speak on the Blue Ocean Strategy, a book by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, a light bulb went off. Menzel realized he had to rebrand his entire company, complete with a new name and a new logo.

He shared his personal story to give attendees an overview of branding and its power and offered tips designed to help them “stand out from the crowd.”

“A brand is not a company’s logo or advertising,” he said. “Those things are controlled by the company. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. It’s like your reputation, and it lies outside of your control. It’s not what you say it is; it’s what they say it is.”

Menzel defines branding as a company’s effort to build lasting value by delighting customers. “The goal of branding is to delight customers so that more people by more things for more years at a higher price,” he said.

One key is to stand out from competitors in a crowded marketplace. For Menzel, this was the reason he changed his company’s name and logo — at the time they were too similar to others in the market. He urged attendees to compare their logos to others in the market and define exactly what it is that makes their company unique.

“Clutter makes it hard to brand,” he said. “Don’t offer more — offer different. The key is radical differentiation. When they zig, you zag.”