Call it a jingle. Call it a tag line. Or call it a brand identifier.

But no matter what designation you put on it, many plumbers agree that using a jingle, tag line or branding device is a great way to increase a business's recognition in the community.

For instance, there's this one:

"Who knows what danger lurks in your plumbing?

Adee Do!

Who can fix your pipes?

Adee Do!"

Jack Dean, general manager of Adee Plumbing and Heating in Los Angeles, said his firm, which has been in business for 60 years, has been using its jingle since 1965.

"It's a play on the old program, 'The Shadow,' where there's a line, 'Who knows what danger lurks in the heart of men? The Shadow knows,'" Dean said. "We played off that line with our commercials and eventually realized that was our tag line."

Dean noted that the public has responded so well to the "Adee Do!" tag line that in reality many of them believe the name of the company is Adee Do Plumbing.

"We first started using the 'Adee Do!' tag line in television commercials, which was not cheap," Dean said. "We had to work on the tag line and keep repeating it. Getting into the minds of customers takes time, but we never had a clue that we would be known as 'Adee Do! Plumbing' as a result of the ads."

When Dean first started doing television ads, he used an actor, Wally Sherwin, who actually came up with the slogan.

"Wally did voice for us and wrote copy, but we didn't use his face or likeness in the ads," Dean said. "But he was a very clever guy and the first commercial really took off. Ultimately, the repetition of the tag line developed into big business for us around Los Angeles and in Orange County."

Adee Plumbing and Heating now employs 70 people and has a fleet of 50 vehicles. The firm is geared toward residential plumbing services and can be found at www.adeedo.com.

"We originally wanted to give the impression that we were huge," Dean pointed out. "And that obviously was successful for us."

It's impossible to reproduce the melody here, but Arico Plumbing's infectious 'We keep your plumbing humming' jingle helps set the company apart from its competition. Photo courtesy of Arico Plumbing, Inc.

Larry Cummings, the owner of Arico Plumbing Inc. in Tucson, has been using a jingle for his business for about a dozen years. The line, which is set to music, is "Arico Plumbing Keeps Your Plumbing Humming."

"That line was professionally written for us twelve years ago when we were doing television advertising with a local station," Cummings said. "A production company from California was in town and teamed up with Channel 13. If an advertiser gave a guarantee of ads for six months, you'd get the jingle for free."

Cummings liked the idea and agreed to the deal.

"We sat down for about a half hour and they asked me a lot of questions about the company," he noted. "They were able to put together a jingle in about 15 minutes, complete with a melody and a song, and then took it back to California and produced it."

Cummings began using the jingle right away in his television and radio ads.

"At first I didn't know if I liked it or not, but once I saw how it grew on people, I came to like it," he said. "Now folks will stop and sing the jingle to me. I was at a casino table in Tucson a few months back when a woman recognized me and sang the jingle. It's amazing."

Cummings said that his company name doesn't really stand out, so, "Arico Plumbing Keeps Your Plumbing Humming," helps distinguish the firm from other plumbing companies. In addition, all Arico advertising uses the jingle, either in song form or as a tag line, plus a photo of Cummings.

"The visual connection to my photo is important, especially in the Yellow Pages and print ads," he said. "Print doesn't make any noise or play the jingle so the photo helps people recognize me and make the connection with the tag line. People may not know me, but they may have talked with me or seen my photo somewhere. It's a form of contact with the company."

Besides using the jingle in all advertising, Cummings also uses it as a tag line on his trucks, business cards and all paperwork that goes to customers.

Arico Plumbing has 25 employees and operates 16 service trucks, two HVAC trucks and a septic pumping truck.

Mike Diamond, principal of Mike Diamond Plumbing in Los Angeles and Reeves Journal "Business Strategies" columnist, promises consumers that his 'Smell Good' plumbers will arrive at service calls on time and without offensive odors. Photo courtesy of Mike Diamond.

Mike Diamond, the owner of Mike Diamond Plumbing in Los Angeles uses a tag line that he calls an unique selling position.

"We're the Smell Good Plumber," he said. "We also promise that, 'My plumber will smell good and show up on time or your house call is free."

Diamond said that when he came up with the idea for the "Smell Good Plumber" line 15 years ago, people laughed at him.

"An idea like that gets kicked around and everyone says you're crazy to try it so you put it back on the shelf," Diamond said. "But my experience has been that the more people tell you 'no,' the more you know that you're headed in the right direction."

Mike Diamond Plumbing operates more than 100 service vehicles from nine service centers serving Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties. It can be found at www.plumberssuccess.com.

"The whole idea of our tag line was to get people to remember us," Diamond said. "A lot of people do other things in the trade to attract attention, but we settled on being the 'Smell Good Plumber'."

"There are plenty of examples of tag lines where the lines immediately evoke an image of the business, and not only in the plumbing trade," Diamond said. "Our intent with the tag line was to break through the airwaves and get people to remember us. And the 'Smell Good' campaign has done just that."

Mike Diamond Plumbing uses a considerable amount of radio advertising to promote its tag line, although it also has ads on television, in print and in the Yellow Pages. The "Smell Good Plumber" tag line also appears on the side of Diamond's trucks, on uniform patches, employee hats, and on business cards and letterheads.

"You can go to a professional and get ideas for a tag line from them or the idea might come from one of your children," Diamond said. "The key is to have a tag line that causes people to remember it."

Diamond believes that the, "Smell Good Plumber" campaign has been so successful for him because it is so unpredictable.

"The perception on the part of most customers is they are looking for predictable things," he said. "People pay attention to us-a plumber who smells good and shows up on time-because it's unpredictable."

Diamond added there are other values to having a successful tag line.

"Employees want to keep working for us and be associated with being a 'Smell Good Plumber', and other plumbers want to come on board because of the tag line's effect," he said. "We've even heard that some of our competitors have been asked by their customers if they were the 'Smell Good Plumbers'."

As many Los Angeles-area television viewers can attest, some jingles or taglines can transcend mere marketing to become part of a geographic area's pop culture. Photo courtesy of Jack Stephan Plumbing and Heating.

Jack Stephan, owner of Jack Stephan Plumbing and Heating in Los Angeles has been advertising on television since 1965.

"We've done a lot of commercials and tried to get a jingle to remember, which is why we do so much television," Stephan said. "You try to get name recognition so when the customer goes to the Yellow Pages, he remembers you."

Stephan said he first started with a Tiny Tim ad, which was followed by a Prince of Flushing spot. Neither one seemed to be exceptional. Finally, Stephan had an actor intentionally mispronounce his name on air and Stephan corrected him. The mispronouncing worked.

"We had the announcer say 'If you have drain problems, your man is Jack Stephanski,'" Stephan said. "The plumber turns around and says to the viewer, 'It's Stephan. Jack Stephan.'"

Stephan later did another commercial, having his name mispronounced as Jack Stephanino, which was then corrected on the air.

"It's amazing how well the mispronouncing has worked," Stephan said. "We use it in all our advertising, even in the print and Yellow Pages ads, and on our Web site, www.jackstephan.com. The television ads are what got us noticed and the Yellow Pages maintain that visibility."

Jack Stephan Plumbing and Heating has 50 employees and operates 38 vehicles.

Stephan acknowledged there is plenty of competition in the Los Angeles area and maintained that his jingle has made the company in terms of sales. But constant attention to advertising is needed, he added.

"You have to maintain the jingle all the time by putting it in front of potential customers," he said. "We plug away with our jingle every month because our philosophy is that the smallest drop of water will eventually wear away the biggest stone."

Quail Plumbing Inc. has only had a jingle and tag line for about four years, but, 'When It's Worth Doing Right' has increased the company's service business significantly during that time. Photo courtesy of Quail Plumbing, Inc.

Tim Harris, owner of Quail Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix, has only had a jingle and tag line for about four years, but he's pleased with the effect that, "When It's Worth Doing Right" has had on his business.

"It's had a very positive effect on our bottom line," he said. "Our service business has increased by two hundred percent during the time we've used the jingle and tag line."

Harris was approached by a Phoenix television station four years ago with an offer to work with a New York City advertising company that would put together a jingle and tag line to be used by his business.

"The ad executive took about ten minutes to write a jingle and come up with that tag line," Harris said. "I didn't have much to do in coming up with the jingle and it seemed like it didn't take them a lot of effort to develop it."

However, the jingle and tag line proved to be very effective for Quail Plumbing.

"Just the other day I ran into a woman who told me her eight-year-old sings the jingle all the time," Harris said. "Very often when people find out who I am, one of the first things they mention is the jingle or the tag line."

Quail Plumbing uses the tag line on its vehicles, shirts, business cards and paperwork, as well as in its print and Yellow Pages advertising. The jingle is sung on the television commercials.

The company, which has 60 employees and more than 30 vehicles, can be found at www.quailplumbing.com.

"The jingle and tag line have been very good for us," Harris noted. "They give us a branding that sets us apart from our competitors."