Through the first four months of 2008, the $55 million exterior contracting company formerly known as Statewide Windows grew its revenue by 16 percent vs. the same period a year earlier.

Part of that success was, no doubt, due to a sustained strong market for home improvement services in the Pacific Northwest where the Mukilteo, Wash., firm maintains its base of operations.

Another factor is an improved closing percentage from its seasoned sales team. But much of the increase can certainly be attributed to a strategic decision to invest in a new brand — Penguin Windows — launched only 14 months earlier in February 2007, complemented by a sizable television and radio advertising campaign.

The company will not quantify the size of the investment. It will only say that the total cost in a new name, new creative and a massive media buy in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Boston is “multi-millions” and will continue for many years.

The name change, says Vaughn McCourt, the company’s general manager, had been kicked around for several years, beginning about 2004 when the do-not-call list was enacted, effectively ending telemarketing as a viable lead source for most exterior contracting companies. McCourt says the company pivoted toward canvassing as a means to pick up the slack in lead flow.

“The do-not-call list knocked us out of that lead source, so we converted over to canvassing. Now about 50 percent of our revenue comes from canvassing,” McCourt explains. “Then all of a sudden there was some talk out there about a possible do-not-knock list. It was then that our owner Dean Laue said we needed to do something different. The thought was to get on TV and radio in a unique way. We wanted to brand the product and brand the company.”

Penguin Windows management says they made the commitment to a new brand with the long term firmly in mind, setting expectations of a return on investment in years, rather than weeks or months.

“Our plan was that this was going to be a five- to six-year project and that we would not get any leads out of it right away, according to what the advertising agency told us. And we agreed to it,” notes McCourt. “We made a long-term investment in a new brand. And historically, the thinking in our business has been that if you spend a dollar in the media you’d better get a lead for it somehow.” The company, says McCourt, had to temporarily set aside that kind of thinking.

The return on investment came faster than expected. Toward the middle of last year, the company began to see new leads come in from its newly branded Web site — www.penguinwindows.com — as well as inbound calls to its (800) Penguin toll-free phone number. McCourt says the new lead flows have not yet been able to pay back the full return on investment but it is moving that direction.

“We had really planned on investing for two years with a negative return based solely on leads coming in from our Internet site or the telephone. It is coming back to where our advertising is coming in, but not quite yet.”