LunchBOX: A Strong Brand Propels Franchise Businesses

Me, I’m a branding guy. 

As a social entrepreneur whose Boise branding agency builds brands for purpose-driven companies, it’s what I do for a living, sure. But more than that, branding just runs in my blood, and I’d be on the lookout for—and commenting on—stellar work even if I were a landscaper. (Ask my wife about it, and she’ll likely tell you it’s more of an affliction than a passion; her affliction, my passion.)

It’s not every day I see a national home run when a new brand launches, especially one from a mid-sized market like Boise. But that was the case a couple years ago as I was walking through downtown one afternoon and saw the potential for a branding grand slam. 

It came in the form of a small sign for a new business in town. I looked at its name and its logo—and immediately pulled out my iPhone and took a photo of it, thinking as I usually do when confronted with outstanding work—wow, I wish I’d created that.

The brand I’m referring to is called LunchBOX.

Pure Branding Genius

LunchBOX is a waxing studio founded by Debi Lane. For the uninitiated, of which I'm to understand there are fewer and fewer of these days, a waxing salon specializes in body hair removal.

So what makes this brand so special? 

It’s the smart boldness of the name paired with its sharp logo design.

Let’s start with the name. Lane could have descriptively named her salon “Debi’s House of Wax” or “Brazilians in Boise.” She could have gone more creative with something like “Believe It or Not Museum of Wax.”

None would have likely rated a mention in passing—let alone captured the attention of Diplo, a mega-superstar DJ and producer, who posted a photo of LunchBOX’s Park City, Utah, salon to his Instagram account.

But create a brand name based on sexual innuendo, visualized for the world by a strong, graphic identity of a female figure with a pink purse coyly covering the sweet spot? 

Now THAT’S what gets a social media star like Diplo interested.

“The brand was created to attract attention, to be a little bit cheeky,” Lane said in an interview with The Idaho Statesman. “The brand is doing its job.”

“The name is risqué for the obvious reasons, but also just tells it like it is,” says Crissie McDowell, a senior art director here at Oliver Russell. “‘Lunch’ (you’re going to get 15-minute service on your lunch break) and ‘BOX’ (I don’t need to get out the Urban Dictionary on this one).” 

And of the graphic identity itself, Crissie adds, “I absolutely love it. The logo is simple, graphical, and makes me smile. It’s smart.”

A Franchise’s Number One Asset Is Its Brand

Apparently, world-famous DJs and Oliver Russell art directors aren’t the only ones who have taken note. The brand has attracted big interest in the business world as well.

Fueled by the strength of her brand, Lane began licensing rights to LunchBOX in 2013. She currently has agreements or is in negotiations to have 103 locations with a goal of 200 sites over the next year.

And what’s the most important thing to franchisees? They want a profitable business model, sure, but mostly they’re paying for a strong brand. And that Lane has in spades.

“We just love the marketing possibilities,” LunchBOX franchisee Scott Hatter told The Idaho Statesman. “The name is edgy, but in a fun way. We found it gives us a lot of traffic in a new market.”

Successful Brands Require Talent and Risk Tolerance

I think the LunchBOX brand will propel Lane’s venture far beyond 200 sites.

In fact, I think a LunchBOX will be coming to a retail strip near you sometime soon, because she’s hit branding gold.

Striking branding gold isn’t easy and most don’t. It’s not that smart people aren’t involved when companies are named and new brands launched. It’s just that hitting a home run is hard.

Lane’s got a home run on her hands and here’s why: She was willing to differentiate and get outside a comfort zone that likely would have inhibited others in the same branding process. 

There’s a little bit of quicksilver to the branding process, magic in the moment, sure. Finding a name you can own in a world of millions and millions of trade names and URLs that are already protected is increasingly hard, near exasperating. If you’re fortunate enough to claim that name, you need to double down with strong brand design as well, which is easier than securing that brilliant brand name, but definitely not a given.

What you need most of all if you’re swinging for the fences is a willingness to strike out, a tolerance for risk that Lane clearly has.

That she created a brand called LunchBOX from her home base in a fairly conservative community is all the more to Lane’s credit.

Of course, risk brings ruin or reward, and in Lane’s case at this juncture there’s something to her credit—a significant business valuation on her growing enterprise. In a crowded and competitive marketplace for people looking to make their bodies beautifully bald, Lane says her franchise has been valued at eight figures. 

Now that’s downright cheeky.

Images from lunchboxwax.com