Gentle Giant

The company's highly trained moving crews, state-of-the-art trucks and equipment and strong emphasis on putting the customer first are the essence of why Gentle Giant has achieved industry notoriety. The company takes the "Gentle" part of its name very seriously, and does everything possible to ensure a safe, effective, and hassle-free move. Since 1985, the company has enjoyed 10-20 percent year-over-year growth, with notable milestones including $2 million in revenue in 1990 that resulted in Gentle Giant being named to the Inc. 500. Gentle Giant has also been honored by Boston Magazine as the recipient of its "Best of Boston" award for the moving industry from 1996-2000, and was ultimately entered in the "Best of Boston Hall of Fame."

For years, Gentle Giant had solely promoted its services to new clients through limited advertising and word of mouth referrals. These tactics proved to be quite successful, until new competitors emerged and were gradually gaining ground. CEO Larry O'Toole realized that the company needed to differentiate itself and to do this required taking a step in a new direction. In the summer of 2001, O'Toole decided to engage the strategic help of the PR professionals at PAN to help him achieve his goal of "moving" the company to the next level.

The Challenge

The PAN team hit the ground running, determined to turn around results that would not only broaden awareness of the Gentle Giant business, but also help attract new customers. Before working with PAN, the company had virtually no media visibility outside of business card-size advertisements placed in regional weeklies.

The Approach

Since the moving industry is very personality- and customer service- driven, PAN knew that many of the key qualities that distinguished Gentle Giant from its competitors could not be expressed or validated through a basic ad. Therefore, PAN set its sights on securing profiles highlighting the company's outstanding work ethic and customer service philosophy through the eyes of its CEO and founder. O'Toole had an extremely unique story to tell about the company's founding, but more importantly he had very unique business strategies and tactics—such as drawing heavily from Boston's core athletic communities to build a strong corps of movers—that has helped the company become so successful. PAN gleaned details from O'Toole and company staff and leveraged this information to effectively tell the public why Gentle Giant was the superior moving company in Greater Boston.

The Results

• Secured CEO Profile and Gentle Giant company features in regional publications such as the Lawrence Eagle Tribune and Andover Townsman.
• Gentle Giant highlighted in company profile in the "Marketplace" section of The Boston Globe.
• Employees profiled with half-page photo in the Acton Beacon and in the Weymouth News, sending overall recruitment message that Gentle Giant is an employer of choice.
• Feature article and accolades in Boston Magazine's 2002 "Best of Boston" award issue.