Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

120 BRAND RELEVANCE
advantage. Even when they started to serve airports in 1995,
they used less - expensive, off - site locations.
Enterprise Rent - A - Car created a new subcategory of
car rentals. With a series of innovations and programs that
came to represent signifi cant barriers to competition, Enterprise
had its subcategory virtually to themselves for at least three
decades, a recipe for profi tability. The fi rm actually passed
Hertz in sales during the mid - 1990s, and in 2008 they had
sales of $ 10.1 billion as compared to Hertz ’ s $ 6.7 billion.
Further, they were less susceptible to the ups and downs of
the airline industry. The privately owned company was estimated
to value at $ 17 billion in the last part of the fi rst decade
of the 2000s. 13
Enterprise from the beginning has been highly entrepreneurial,
with each of its offi ces representing a profi t center.
Because the customer base is local, the offi ce manager and staff
have room to build relationships and affect the business, much
more so than a manager of an airport branch that serves out -
of - town customers. There is an aggressive incentive program
based on branch profi tability, and employees are empowered to
innovate. In fact, it was an Orlando offi ce manger who in 1974
created the “ We ’ ll pick you up ” program that has become an
Enterprise signature promise.
At the same time, the Enterprise culture values customer
service, emphasizing a distinctive professional dress, courteous
demeanor, and personalized assistance. Jack Taylor started it all
with this philosophy: “ Take care of your customer and employees
fi rst, . . . and profi ts will follow. ” The incentive structure
previously mentioned applies to customer service as well as profits.
One of every fi fteen customers is interviewed to determine
if he or she is completely satisfi ed. The percent that check the
“ completely satisfi ed ” box becomes a key performance measure
for each branch, affecting promotions and compensation. This
number approaches 80 percent across the company.