The Brief
Bender Transportation (formerly known as Jim Bender, Inc.) has disrupted the transportation industry since 1984. Since its beginning, the Bender Transportation team has aimed to change the game in the transportation industry by delivering the highest quality of service to their customers and treating professional operators with the respect they deserve. Their mission is to continue transforming their industry by creating a company focused on people.
In 2018, a team of experienced managers, led by Barrett Bostick, broke off from a larger motor carrier and acquired Jim Bender, Inc. With a vision driven by uncompromising core values, that group has broadened the service offerings and geographic reach to successfully grow the company by over 500%.
The new Jim Bender, Inc. found that only a few people knew who they were in the transportation industry, and nothing was going well online for them. They had a stale, outdated website untouched for three years, low-quality photography, no video, a poor reputation and reviews, and no social media presence.
They wanted to compete with top guns like Werner Enterprises and NFI Industries. To do this, they needed a new brand and new website and inbound marketing to increase their brand awareness.
What We Did
Branding
Web Design
Photography and Videography
Marketing
Our Vision
The PHOS team aimed to reposition Jim Bender in the market with a history-honoring and forward-leaning brand identity (nostalgia and modernity) while also implementing a marketing strategy that captured their target audience.
Delivering A Best-In-Class Customer Experience
One of the first distinctions that Bender Transportation is not like your average asset-based logistics provider is that they pride themselves on providing excellent service to their customers. They create meaningful relationships with each person they serve to provide solutions that best meet their needs. We wanted to develop a B2B-focused brand identity that positions Jim Bender as a trusted advisor to prospective customers such as Publix, Harris Teeter, Coca-Cola, Lowe, Bacardi. Our messaging strategy needed to combine the focus of being a people-first culture with their industry experience that instills trust.
Redefining The Driver Experience
Bender Transportation distinguishes itself by being a company with a people-first culture. Their team is their family, and they value and respect those who represent who they are. They know each of their professional operators by name and care about their wellness and safety. They proactively collaborate with their professional operators to understand and help them achieve their goals. Bender Transportation’s new website needed to create a powerful and engaging talent recruitment tool for top-caliber professional drivers. With this in mind, our team established a supporting messaging strategy for the website and the entire brand system.
Changing The Transportation Industry
Since its beginning, Bender Transportation has aimed to change the game in their industry by delivering the highest quality of service to their customers and treating professional operators with the respect they deserve. The PHOS team wanted to develop a data-driven and multi-channel digital marketing strategy that creates leadership, clarity, accountability, and consistency in Bender Transportation’s digital strategy to reflect Bender’s motto, “We do transportation differently.”
The Strategy
The Bender Transportation team was ready for a brand rejuvenation. They desired something history-honoring but modern and spoke to their mission of taking care of their people and their customers.
PHOS took this opportunity to showcase this first in their new name identification and selection. Jim Bender, Inc. became Bender Transportation, Inc. With this new brand identity, we created a new logo and brand that was history-honoring and forward-leaning (nostalgia and modernity).
After deep discussions on their “why,” PHOS designed and developed a website that featured a user-focused design, warm and people-friendly photography, and modern but nostalgic branded elements.
This new website called for new brand photography and videography that matched their expertise and people-first culture. We needed active photos to capture the services offered in action. We wanted to capture the friendliness of the Bender Transportation team with candid photography, which you’ll find all over the new website.
By working together to put their mission, vision, and values into words, PHOS translated these core qualities into a tangible marketing plan that would elevate the Bender Transportation brand, build brand authority, and expand brand awareness into new markets.
Additionally, we created a marketing strategy that focused on:
- Improving local SEO rankings.
- Developing a strong social media plan.
- Content marketing that would establish them as leaders in the transportation industry.
We also designed new collateral like email signatures, business cards, letterhead, and their sales proposal (both as a PPT and a PDF) to illustrate a refreshed brand that the Bender Transportation team could use for brand consistency online and in-person.
Strategic Consulting
We met with the Bender Transportation team to hear, in their own words, their “why.” Bender Transportation’s mission is “to do transportation differently.” We helped their team clarify their mission and vision to create a strong brand system.
Branding
Our design team created a new look and feel for the Bender Transportation brand by utilizing colors, graphics, and fonts, bringing a nostalgic yet modern feel to the brand image. The PHOS team also helped Bender Transportation adjust their company name from Jim Bender, Inc. to Bender Transportation, Inc., more representative of where the brand has grown to today. Our design team’s iconography and new logo communicate the history-honoring and forward-leaning brand identity (nostalgia and modernity) that the team desired.
Web Design
Bender Transportation’s website was stale and outdated, had low-quality photography, and had no video. This new website needed to be a complete brand rejuvenation. Our goal was to illustrate their brand with a modern and user-friendly website that communicated the heart of Bender Transportation’s team and mission. This website needed to look great, but it also needed to be extremely functional to garner more conversions to drive new leads for customers and professional operators/owner-operators.
Bender Transportation’s website sets a new standard in the transportation industry. At the 2023 AAF-NCFL American Advertising Awards, Bender Transportation’s website was awarded the Best B-to-B Website!
Brand Photography & Design
When creating this new website design, we knew the importance of branded photography. Our photography team took photos of Bender’s team members interacting with each other in a casual setting to help audience members visualize the fun, loving, and trustworthy culture that Bender Transportation prides itself on. Each team member received a new headshot, which helped create a cohesive and professional brand image. Additional photos were taken on-site to highlight their services and speak to the level of quality and experience clients can expect to receive when working with the Bender team.
In addition to new brand photography, our team worked with Bender Transportation to create newly designed collateral that matches their new brand. These resources help the team showcase their brand in multiple touchpoints online and in person.
Digital Marketing
Our ongoing relationship with Bender Transportation included curating a digital marketing strategy for them that would promote their new brand, help them confidently expand into new markets, and grow their number of professional operators/owner-operators. This includes search engine optimization, social media marketing, paid advertising, content marketing, conversion tracking, and campaign development.
Results
Since launching in February of 2022, Bender Transportation has seen an 80% increase in organic traffic and an overall increase of 360% in website sessions, mainly due to the implementation of Google Ads. Targeting potential Bender employees through paid advertising and organic hiring posts on social media has brought in over 2000% more website users from social media. Facebook employment advertising has proved to be a consistent and reliable funnel of employment leads for the Bender team.
Their website now effectively communicates their freight shipping services and supply chain solutions and lets professional operators and owner-operators know exactly how they’re redefining the driving experience. PHOS is proud to work with and support Bender Transportation, and we are excited to see what the future holds for their team!
