By signcraft
Posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2016
There’s no doubt about it. Well-executed vehicle wraps pack a lot of potential for high-impact advertising. They are also potentially quite profitable for the sign business that makes them—provided you don’t make any of the common mistakes that can siphon off those profits.
One of the common challenges is helping the client see the value of the wrap during the sales process. Wraps can seem expensive and it’s essential to get the client past the sticker shock if you want to sell the wrap.
Doug Downey [The Image Factory, Stratford, Ontario, Canada] did his first vehicle wrap in 2006 and has been doing them ever since. He’s quite familiar with the surprised or pained look on a customer’s face when they hear what a wrap costs.
To overcome that, Doug explains that a full wrap leaves the vehicle’s original paint in perfect condition when it comes time to replace the vehicle. Standard lettering may leave ghosts in the finish by protecting the finish under it from the wear and weather. As a result, the client may have to repaint the vehicle or trade or sell it at a reduced value. Not so with a wrap—the paint will look new when the wrap comes off.
“That’s my approach,” says Doug. “Say you’re bringing me a brand-new GMC pickup, and let’s say the full wrap is going to cost around $3000. The truck will be on the road for five years, and the wrap will be delivering advertising 24/7 for all those years.
“Assuming you’ll replace the truck at that point, you can remove the wrap and the truck will look brand-new. You’ll get most of the original $3000 back in the resale value of the truck because the exterior will look great. No need to repaint. So basically, the advertising was practically free for five years. How’s that for a value?”
Rather than talking about the cost of the wrap, sell the return on their investment. Take the focus off the initial cost of the wrap and sell the benefit of the advertising over the life of the wrap. Well-designed vehicle graphics turn a vehicle into a rolling billboard—a powerful form of advertising that the business owner couldn’t buy any other way.
An effective wrap can push that even further. The main message and logo can be much larger because the entire vehicle becomes your format, rather than just the door or a body panel. You can change the color of the vehicle or use bold panels or graphics. The visual appeal goes way up.
There are more tips on being successful at vehicle wraps in Seven Steps to Succeeding at Vehicle Wraps in the upcoming Sep/Oct 2016 issue of SignCraft. And success means bottom-line profits—not just no wrinkles or bubbles.
