🔒The ‘family-owned’ brand can be an important marketing tool

Just out of college, Joe Capozza III worked for a while outside of his family’s business, Capozza Floor Covering Center in Portland.

“Every time I’d learn or experience something in the jobs I had, I would think, ‘Oh, this would be good to apply to Capozza Floor Covering,’” he recalls. “It’s just always been another member of our family. I always had pride in it and always wanted to contribute to its success.”

Today, Capozza and his sisters, Katie Capozza and Tia (Capozza) Green, are the third-generation owners of the growing business.

That pride in the family-owned story speaks to what the business offers, says Capozza.

“It’s who we are,” he says. “If you’re going to brand or market something, you want it to be true. What’s associated with ‘family-owned’ is expertise, knowledge of the area, long-term relationships with the community. To me, that’s really what differentiates us from, say, a big-box store. You have that personal connection.”

Name on the door

The “family-owned” story can be an important marketing tool, says Catherine Wygant Fossett, executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Family-Owned Business.

Not all such businesses understand the power of that tool, she says.

“The ones that don’t use it, I think they’re missing the boat,” she says. “Like ‘buy local,’ where everyone wants to go to their local farmers, family businesses are local entities and they’re the backbone of the economy.”

Family businesses, she says, inherently care about their stakeholders — their families — which in turn care about their communities.

“If you go to a family-owned business, you can talk with the owners. Their name is on the door and they care about that,” Wygant Fossett says. “It’s not that other companies don’t. But if I go to Capozza, I can talk with Joe Capozza or one of his sisters.”

Generational growth

In 1974, Joseph A. “Buddy” Capozza laid the foundation for Capozza Tile Co Inc. in the basement of his home.

Buddy and his wife Doris embarked on creating a flooring installation business. In 1976 their son, Joseph F. Capozza, joined the company. In 1988, Joe’s wife Jeanne joined Capozza Tile & Floor Covering Center, as it was then known, focusing on office and administrative duties.

The company expanded to encompass commercial and residential divisions at the Portland location, and the Capozza Concrete + Epoxy Flooring division in Gray. In 2000, Joe and Jeanne bought a specialty tile store and turned that into the Old Port Specialty Tile Co., in Portland’s Old Port neighborhood.

Joe III recalls as a kid sweeping up in the warehouse.

“I remember I came in one day, my father was working in the office and I helped in the warehouse. And he rented a movie on the way home — that was my pay for the day,” he recalls with a laugh.

Joe III, Katie and Tia came on one by one through the 2000s, each in a different division.

“We have our own areas of expertise and we try to use that to our advantage,” says Capozza. “We’ve had a really good working relationship over the years. If there are any major decisions, we all want to be on the same page. We have that all written out and we worked hard before taking over ownership to get those structures in place.”

The company this year celebrated its 50th anniversary, hosting an event that raised over $63,000 for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program and MaineHealth’s Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.

Personal connection

Although it’s more anecdotal than data-driven, there’s a sense that the family-owned story is an important part of the business.

“We get compliments multiple times a month for the service our people provide,” says Capozza. “It’s more of a personal connection. Those relationships are huge.”

It’s even useful for employee recruitment, particularly for prospects coming from larger companies who learn that their ideas carry more weight in a family-owned firm.

“We want to hear opinions of our team and how things can be made better,” says Capozza. “That’s part of the family-owned culture.”

Wygant Fossett agrees that employees notice. “They know they’ll be taken care of in a family business,” she says. “And I think customers realize that.”

Industry knowledge

The family-owned brand carries a lot of weight at R.H. Reny Inc., a chain of department stores and one of Maine’s largest family-owned businesses.

“We hear it all the time, ‘We want to support a local’ and/or ‘family’ business,” says owner Adam Reny.

He continues, “A lot of our customers grew up with a Renys as a kid, and seeing my peers grow up, start their own families, and provide the same experience for their kids that they had is something we take pride in.”

At Graffam Bros. Seafood Market in Rockport, “It’s a key part of our marketing, especially on our website and electronic correspondence,” says Leni Gronros, a third-generation owner with his wife Kimberlee Graffam, who run the company with their fourth-generation nephew Brandon Graffam.

Gronros continues, “It’s been very big part of what we push to the customers as to why they should buy from us.”

Adds Kimberlee Graffam, “It promotes longevity and knowledge of the industry over the course of generations. The fact that we’re family owned — there’s an investment there on the part of the family. It gives people a level of trust.”

The company started in 1946. E. Maynard Graffam Sr. and his partners formed Graffam Bros.’ parent company, Penobscot Bay Ice Co. Inc.. to cut ice on a local pond and deliver it to the residents of Rockport.

Maynard expanded the operation to include a lobster shipping plant and buy lobsters from local fishermen. After his death in 1969, his sons Jimmy and Sandy took over and renamed the business Graffam Bros.

“Its name reminds us daily of the tradition of quality and service Jimmy and Sandy learned from their dad,” the company’s website says.

Sandy’s daughter Kimberlee followed him into the firm and helped bring the company into the retail business by establishing Graffam Bros. Seafood Market, where the next generation of Graffams can often be found helping out.

Today, the company has just over 20 employees during peak summer months, a wholesale market in much of Knox and surrounding counties, and ships across the U.S. Lobster comprises about a third of the business. It also sells finfish, and farmed oysters are a growing segment.

Customers ‘love a back-story’

The family-owned brand became more of a focal point with her dad and uncle, says Kimberlee, who started working in the lobster plant, helping to pack lobsters, in 2013.

Customers notice: “It’s, ‘Oh, this is a family business,’ and we say, ‘Yes, it is,’ and they say, ‘Oh, that’s awesome.’ And as the generations changed, that’s become more important.”

Why is it important?

“They love a back-story,” says Brandon. “You can buy seafood at any big supermarket in the area. The difference with us is quality, our knowledge of the product and, No. 1, our customer service skills, which is passed on to our staff and to my cousin, my little brother and so forth.”

The family says the company is an integral part of the community that has become something of a social epicenter as well as a business.

“You see local, friendly faces,” Brandon says.

“Brandon just had his second child,” says Gronros. “Customers love to hear about the kids.”

The family-owned aspect is a big part of the company’s marketing, including its website and merchandise. It’s featured in a video on the company’s website, when in 2023, Graffam Bros was named Small Business of the Year by the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“You have a lot of lobster companies out there, that ship as Maine lobster, but they’re not actually in Maine,” Gronros says. “We get a lot of online orders because we’re Maine and we’ve been here a long time. People say, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of Graffam’s.’”

Wygant Fossett notes that some owners of family-owned businesses miss out on the branding opportunity. “I think they don’t toot their own horn enough,” she says.

But there’s plenty to trumpet. She says that attributes include paying higher wages than equivalent jobs in non-family businesses and a legacy of donating to their communities.

“They’re shepherds of where they are and what they do,” Wygant Fossett says. “And their names are on the door.”

In Maine, 80% of businesses are family-owned, she notes.

“Maine has sixth, seventh generation families with businesses,” Wygant Fossett says. “What makes their brands so important is that they have those roots.”

Not just a corporation

A campground could be one of the most auspicious types of family-owned businesses, particularly if the father is a winner of the TV reality show “Survivor” and has a gift for gab.

Bob Crowley and his daughter Page Atherton run Maine Forest Yurts on Runaround Pond in Durham.

Crowley opened the campground in 2013 with his wife Peggy. Other family members are involved in day-to-day operations.

Crowley won “Survivor: Gabon” in 2008. “My dad has been known to sit by the fire with families and tell stories,” says Atherton with a laugh.

The family-owned story isn’t deliberately used as a marketing tool. But it’s an important aspect of the businesses that tends to communicate itself to guests. “It’s not just a corporation,” Atherton says.

She continues, “When people come, we want them to know that this is a family and that they’re welcome here. I found that people respect the yurts more if one of us went over and welcome every guest. It makes it a whole package. You’re not just staying in a yurt; you’re coming to our home to enjoy our property.”

Guests tend to respond, she says.

“When people get here, they’ll start asking questions like, ‘Who owns the land?’” she says.

“When I start talking about my parents, my brother in California who helps behind the scenes, the bunch of us who are around — people enjoy hearing that we’ve kept it as a family unit on the property.”

Her own family is attracted to the same vibe. They enjoy going to sports camps in Maine.

“The ones we love most are generations-owned, places where you have the whole family,” she says. “There’s something about people loving their space, that you immediately love it, too.”