BusinessTN

What’s the big deal about changing from a bluish-violet “Averitt Express” to a gray “Averitt”? Only that it signifies the Cookeville trucking company’s critical repositioning amid a maelstrom of narrowing profit margins, consolidations, soaring fuel costs and increasingly complex supply chains buffeting the nation’s trucking and logistics industry.

Since 1969, Averitt Express has focused on establishing itself as a leading less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, and it has grown to be Tennessee’s third largest trucking company and the 28th largest in the country. But as FTN Midwest trucking analyst Mark Davis says, shippers are losing interest in super-regional LTL carriers, favoring instead big national carriers with established service records. Fortunately for Averitt, president and owner Gary Sasser saw it coming.

"Gary Sasser had a vision 10 years ago that as we grow geographically,” says Averitt sales and marketing vice president Phil Pierce, “we ought to grow vertically with our customers, so we began to layer in more services.” And he wasn’t talking merely about adding other traditional trucking services. “We are doing things that are very nontraditional for a provider like Averitt—like warehousing, global importing and exporting services,” Pierce says.

Yet the changes that were so obvious, even revolutionary, to some Averitt insiders were a well-kept secret in the outside world. “We were struggling to get that message out,” Pierce says. To communicate the broadened services, Averitt hired Nashville marketing agency RedPepper three years ago to do market research and develop a new logo for the company. “We thought a new logo would give us a prime opportunity to have people ask us, “What’s going on at Averitt?” Pierce says. RedPepper’s work confirmed the ample goodwill the Averitt name already enjoyed in the marketplace, so early on it was decided to retain the corporate name as the centerpiece of the brand.

Starting in June, trucks emblazoned with the Averitt logo introduced the new branding campaign. Bolstered by the accompanying tagline, “Think Red Instead,” the logo will be featured in advertisements in industry magazines that celebrate some of Averitt’s top Fortune 500 relationships. Beyond that, a comprehensive overhaul of internal communications, in addition to the external makeover, has been embraced by Averitt’s 6,000 employees, notes Averitt marketing and communications team leader Brad Brown.

The creative elements of Averitt’s campaign appear “well thought-out,” observes Stan Pippin, who directs creative services at Birmingham’s Advantage Marketing. “They have not tried to change too much, which is a mistake companies sometimes make.” But as with all marketing efforts, follow-up and follow-through will be crucial factors, and the hardest to quantify. “It is very important for the creative guys to make sure the company knows what it has to do to get the full benefit from the creative work,” Pippin says.

All the while, Averitt cannot fumble the execution of its souped-up business plan. “By expanding their services, Averitt can add value, but they must know the competition,” says FTN Midwest’s Davis. “There are a lot of very large companies out there, like FedEx and TransAir, who are already doing this.” The Cookeville trucker also must contend with the difficulties a company often faces when it steps outside its core business. Still, given the turmoil in the trucking industry, “in this case, bigger is definitely better,” Davis says.