Geek Squad Marketing: Why they get more clients than you.

The Geek Squad is something most computer technicians have seen or heard about at some point even if you are outside the US. In this article I will be talking about their beginnings and their highly effective marketing that make people view them as mini-celebrities instead of just computer technicians.

Who they are and how it all began

Geek Squad was formed by Robert Stevens in 1994 with only $200. Robert Stevens, a native of Chicago left a Art scholarship at the Institute of Chicago in 1990 to pursue a degree in Computer Science at the University of Minnesota. While attending university he landed a job fixing computers at the “Human Factors Research Laboratory”. Over three years he became the head engineer of the lab and during this time he started Geek Squad. In 2002, Geek Squad was brought by the American electronics chain stores Best Buy and is integrated into every best Buy Store across North America.
Now days with over 6000 workers the Geek Squad is America’s largest technology support company.

The Marketing

Geek Squad elevates computer technicians to a FBI agent/James Bond like status with a geeks-to-the-rescue branding theme which remains consistent across all of North America. Geek Squad call their technicians”Agents” with varying titles such as “Double Agents”, Counter Intelligence Agents, Special Agents and many other types based on their role in the company. These “Agents” can be identified by their FBI-like uniform wearing a white short sleeve shirt, black clip on tie with a Geek Squad logo pin, black pants, white socks and their trademark ID badge which looks similar to a police badge.

The agents drive around in black and white Volkswagen Beetles with a large Geek Squad logo on the door which they call “Geekmobiles”

In their TV commercials they have a customer who has had their computer fail and Geek Squad para-drop their geekmobiles to get on the scene as soon as possible.

While researching this article I came across a mothers marketing based blog where she writes about the effect that Geek Squad had on her young daughter. Here is a quote from the post:

“she suddenly starts bouncing up and down in the back seat hollering, ‘Look, Mom! It’s one of those Geek Squad cars…!’
She got all excited about spotting the black and white VW parked nearby because ‘it’s just like the ones on TV!”

The Geek Squad brand is consistent on all fronts and even their on-hold music is James Bond-esque.
Recently there has been a lot of talk about how competent their technicians are. In fact, If you search for “geek+squad+incompetent” on Google there are currently 56,600 results. But all that doesn’t matter, they have an image that everybody remembers; they have their logo on everything they do and they look like someone you can trust. That is why they get more clients than you. Perhaps we should all take look at our own marketing and see what we are doing to make us stand out from the rest.