DENTCO is a full-service Exterior Services Management® (ESM®) company with over 30 years of industry experience. Headquartered in DeWitt, MI, they provide services throughout the country through their network of Contractor Partners. They provide online portfolio management for snow and ice control, parking lot maintenance, landscaping, irrigation, and various other services for retail facility exteriors. There is significant competition within this commodity-based industry.
HCP has been working with DENTCO for over 22 years. During that time, the firm helped develop its unique centralized approach to controlling today’s exterior facility management. HCP developed and coined the term Exterior Services Management (ESM). ESM refers to a division of highly skilled and knowledgeable professionals who are available to discuss the best options to care for a facility’s exteriors. DENTCO became the first company to brand a fragmented industry, making the ESM philosophy a differentiating factor between DENTCO and the competition. Until this model was unveiled, many national businesses struggled with fragmentation and poor results of decentralization.
In the years since DENTCO has experienced considerable growth while maintaining a 99 percent customer retention rate. HCP has worked with the DENTCO team to coordinate advertising, tradeshow activities, and customer retention efforts and conduct customer and employee research to develop creative campaigns.
HCP began developing a new campaign concept to showcase its two main selling seasons and highlight the brand promise of unparalleled customer service. HCP conceptually married the services delivered with DENTCO’s high-touch philosophy in what became known as their “Faces” campaign.
The campaign involves a series of headshots with models that have been designed to depict the exterior issues that DENTCO resolves with its services. For example, a snow removal model may have hair made of icicles and frosted skin, while the parking lot maintenance face is covered with potholes and uneven striping. By identifying client pain points in creative ways, the campaign draws attention to the value that DENTCO offers through its services while highlighting that there is a person on the other end that facility managers can count on to remedy the problem.
This campaign was uniquely creative in the B2B landscape in which DENTCO operates, and there have been spin-offs from the original materials that have brought the campaign to life in interactive ways. At the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM), DENTCO’s booth was not only outfitted by HCP with a 20-foot backdrop featuring the four “Faces” of this year’s campaign but also a live model dressed up as the “snow queen” from the snow removal face. This unique offering at the booth drew attention and crowds and truly went beyond the average facilities management trade show display.
HCP has enjoyed working with DENTCO in the long term and being given such opportunities to push the creative envelope in the B2B marketplace. In early 2021, DENTCO was acquired and merged under POWERHOUSE, a national facility maintenance company headquartered in Texas. HCP was involved for the past year in the merger process and is happy to have played a small part in the dynasty of the DENTCO family.
