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Rodney and Laurel Hess join Jan Swift on Discover Lafayette. Business partners and advertising gurus that created Rally Marketing, Laurel has also launched hampr which is making all the news as an on-demand laundry service.
Hurricane Katrina was the catalyst for the couple to meet when Laurel came to Lafayette from New Orleans to attend UL in 2005. The two joked about how they didn’t hit it off at first when they met in a creative writing class, but through mutual friends, reconnected a few months later and fell in love quickly, marrying in 2008.
Fast forward to today: the two are owners of Rally Marketing which was formed in 2016. Laurel brings experience in developing and executing comprehensive marketing plans for international corporations, as a production manager, and then five years as Sales and Marketing Manager of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Smoothie King Arena and Champions Square. Rodney is the driving force behind Rally’s strategic content, SEM/SEO and online advertising plans, having cut his teeth in Search Engine Optimization over ten years ago when digital media was still referred to as “new media. He previously worked for one of the fastest-growing Search Engine Marketing firms in the south and developed and grew a successful digital marketing department for a large ad agency in Lafayette.
Rally Marketing was formed as an offshoot of its sister company, Comit Developers, and has nine team members in addition to Rodney and Laurel. They help clients with marketing automation, content development, search engine optimization, strategy, or how to use strategically use social media to grow and market your business.
The importance of a company or entrepreneur starting with their mission statement can’t be overemphasized. Many business owners know that they want to make money but they haven’t fine-tuned who they are, what they offer, or what their values are. Rodney stated, “Start with your mission statement, and then you can move toward that with intention. If something you’re doing doesn’t feel right, you shouldn’t be doing it. Simplify your message to its absolute core; you only need to post focused, clear content. People want to be spoken to directly, not just thrown a lot of content that doesn’t explain what the company does or what it offers.”
Rodney Hess hosts Social Media Breakfast Lafayette to bring together local sharing of information on the ever-evolving social media industry. It is a casual and comfortable setting for newbies and experts alike to ask questions, toss around new ideas, and offer personal stories of success.
Meetings are typically the first Friday of every month from 7:30-9:00am. Participation is free. @smblafayette
Laurel Hess launched hampr, an on-demand laundry service on January 15, 2020, which also happens to be Rodney’s birthday. She freely admits, “I’ve hated doing laundry since at least 2013 when I was pregnant for my first child” and even posted on Facebook a few years ago that “someone should invent this!” Her long-held dream to get rid of the chore of tackling the never-ending pile of laundry crystallized in 2018 when she took the idea to the next level, talking with potential investors, working on the app to be downloaded, and finetuning details such as the ideal hamper to provide customers who utilize the service.
Hampr has already experienced unprecedented success in Lafayette, a Tier 3 market, outpacing similar services in Tier 1 markets (large cities with dense populations) in its first few weeks of operation. On March 14, hampr began operating in Baton Rouge.
To become a member, you first download the hampr app on your phone or tablet and pay a $39 membership fee. Within a day, four “hamprs” will be delivered to your home. When you are ready for service, you sign onto the app and schedule a “washr” to pick up the laundry at your home and it will be returned the next day “fresh, folded and ready to put away.” You set the wash preferences for each hampr load, so you can have delicates washed in cold water, dirty towels on the hot cycle, etc. Each load/hamper costs $10.
Contract workers who sign on to work with hampr can make up to $1300 per month while working from home. Customers can have their washr use Dropps, a hypoallergenic and fragrance-free laundry pod which is included in the $10 per hampr price, or the customer can send their preferred detergent to be used. All washrs undergo thorough background checks and their home equipment is also checked out to ensure the highest quality.
hampr received approval from the Governor’s Office to continue operating during the coronavirus stay at home order. What does this mean for you? All orders will be contactless – orders will be left for the washrs to pick up and they will leave them where you state in your order preferences.
We thank Laurel and Rodney Hess for this light-hearted and informative podcast! For more information on Rally Marketing, please visit https://rallymarketing.com/ . You can find information on hampr at https://www.tryhampr.com/.
