Safeguard, started in 1989, had grown from a single store to over 50 locations with 3.2 million square feet of self storage space. Over the years, locations had become disconnected from one another, offering little consistency in customer experience and brand design elements from store to store. Understandable in an industry where competition within the category has long been based simply on price and location — prevailing wisdom is that the store is the ad.. With MorganStanley as a financial partner, Safeguard was seeking to facilitate an aggressive growth strategy over the next five years to make it into the top tier in the category. It’s an industry in which over 46,000 facilities are owned by only 2,000 companies. Safeguard hired Trumpet to realize their growth. Trumpet quickly recognized the opportunity to increase margins through increased customer loyalty, thus reducing the customer “churn” so prevalent in the industry. To gain loyalty and preference the brand had to move beyond the commodity of selling space into a lifestyle brand dedicated to the personal organization needs of the customer. Trumpet has designed and implemented several strategic initiatives to this end, including interior and exterior environmental design of retail locations and corporate headquarters, package design, web site design and development, and online outreach.