Merchants Leasing is one of the largest vehicle-leasing companies in the United States, with a national sales team that serves a variety of industries. Merchants commissioned Stackpole&Partners to re-evaluate their strategy and position their Fleet Maintenance services to help expand their business opportunity beyond their installed customer base.
Because Fleet Maintenance services were being offered under the Merchants Leasing brand, there was a perception that a “vehicle lease” contract with Merchants was a prerequisite to contracting Fleet Maintenance services. So for those companies who own their vehicles and were looking to outsource Fleet Maintenance services, Merchants Leasing wasn’t making it onto the consideration list.
The strategy was to create a sub-brand, called Fleet Solutions, to promote these services to non-customers. By un-tethering these services from the concept of the “total fleet leasing solutions” sales proposition from Merchants Leasing, we created an opportunity to sell them a-la-carte.
Building from the established brand identity standards for Merchants Leasing, we created a unique logo and drew on the expanded color palette to distinguish the brand as a stand alone, while tying back to the “Merchants” brand heritage to reinforce the expertise and experience in this space. A separate web site was built and was the call-to-action for all the initiatives within an integrated online advertising and SEM program.