LuggageHero, a growing network of affordable luggage-storage sites, was launched in London in March 2017. Today, the platform has its growing network of +40 luggage storage sites in New York, London, Copenhagen, and many more major cities across Europe and North America. Jannik Lawaetz, CEO of LuggageHero, talks about his brand for our “Names With Stories” series of interviews. 

What is the story behind LuggageHero?

Jannik Lawaetz (our founder) had the original idea for LuggageHero in 2016 after dragging around his own luggage too many times. He created a peer-to-peer economy-sharing concept that is easy to use, trustworthy, and where customers pay only for the hours their luggage is stored. He started the business in his hometown of Copenhagen. Together with Christian Loekkegaard (co-founder and head of the technology part of the business) they founded LuggageHero as it is now and expanded the service to London and New York City in 2017. In 2019, LuggageHero raised $2.25 million in funding and grew to more than 40 major cities in Europe and North America and continues growing in 2020.  

When did you start thinking about your brand name and how did you settle on LuggageHero?

In the beginning, the business was actually called Drop n Local but we were not too happy with the name. One time when Jannik and Christian were in London they were discussing the name as a possible issue in the future as it was not completely relevant and a bit confusing for customers. Christian mentioned LuggageHero as an option and together they decided that LuggageHero is a way better name for this kind of business.

How did you get the domain name LuggageHero.com for your brand? Why did you select that one exactly?

We wanted a simple domain that matches the name and we were lucky that LuggageHero.com  was actually available so we could just use it without any problems.

“We wanted a simple domain that matches the name and we were lucky that LuggageHero.com was actually available so we could just use it without any problems.”

Jannik Lawaetz

How has owning LuggageHero.com affected your business? Do you own any other domain names?

We don’t really think that owning this particular domain has had any noticeable effect on our business. It might have had some effect SEO wise as the URL contains’ the keyword “luggage” – and maybe it is a good thing that it’s a simple and short domain too, but we haven’t given much thought to that. We do own other names in case we want to develop other travel-related websites in the future that will support our core business

Who is your target customer and how is your brand name helping in reaching them?

Generally, our target customer is anyone who travels and is in need of luggage storage. That can be people from all over the world and all kinds of ages. However, our business may appeal more to people using services like Airbnb who don’t have the opportunity to store their luggage at a hotel. Our brand name has probably helped us a bit by being self-explanatory – a hero that helps you store your luggage – LuggageHero.

How do you keep your brand consistent across different channels online and offline?

The truth is that we have not yet thought too much about consistency. We have focused more on earning brand awareness and creating useful content instead. When it comes to luggage storage services, there is a problem that many people are not even aware that such a service even exists. That means that a part of our mission is not only to make people aware of LuggageHero as a business but make them also aware that the luggage storage business exists in the first place.

Has the pandemic affected your company in any way? What has changed since?

Like every other business, the pandemic surely affected our company both negatively and positively. The negative part came from the fact that people were not traveling as much (or at all) which meant that we had very few bookings for luggage storage compared to before. It was also a struggle to generate content in times where all content was about the pandemic. However, we created an information hub about the COVID19 situations in major cities and we sincerely hope the information has been useful. At least we can see that the pages have been extremely popular measured by the traffic they received. It had a bit of a positive effect too as we had been so busy the last year. Out of the blue, we had the chance to take a step back and optimize everything we had done so far, making it stronger. We took the time to prepare for the future, made research, and improved things internally. We tried to help our partners by promoting their deals while they tried to help people in need of apartments or isolation.

What do you do to make sure your marketing is effective?

We focus on a lot of tracking with different digital tools – we want to see where our visitors are coming from so we can do better for them. We try to provide content that’s actually useful for travelers and provides them with relevant information as well as make sure we are on all kinds of platforms so that our content can reach people. We try to be on Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. We focus a lot on reaching people organically, but we also make use of paid advertising.

What would your advice be to entrepreneurs who are just starting out, in general, and when it comes to branding and naming?

Go for it! Don’t overthink too much. If you have an idea you believe in, go after it and chase it with your all. Maybe don’t go into travel right now… but if you do – you have to be brave! Try to get a good team in the beginning, build a team that has the basic skills you need in relation to tech and marketing, business, sales, and anything else that applies for your type of business. When it comes to naming and branding, choose something that stands out but is also not too complicated and confusing. Simplicity sometimes works best.

“When it comes to naming and branding, choose something that stands out but is also not too complicated and confusing. Simplicity sometimes works best.”

Jannik Lawaetz

Where do you see your business in the future and how does your brand name fit into that vision?

We hope to expand as much as possible. We see our business expanding someday all over the world and creating a big and strong team within our company. We have a proven concept and we hope to expand to as many regions as possible thereby freeing tourists from burden and improving the travel experience and creating value.

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We hope the above information will help you in making informed decisions about your brand. How we can help you open more opportunities for your brand? Get in touch, we are always happy to chat.

Find out more about LuggageHero