Who runs the marketing program?

[vquestfilms.com]

I will say this, we have Johnson, CP Films, SolarGard, HanitaTek, 3M and Madico all on board with the IWFA for the manufacturers committee and I think this is a great start in the right direction. I tip my hat to each company who is participating.

Rob, would Huper be considered under the umbrella of CP for this?

Solutia yes, I would think so it's their brand now.

[TomTint]

Tim, Im not a marketing pro by any means, what I'm saying is that I think the way it is done now is just throwing good money after bad. Film companies market to dealers and not to end users which would create product knowledge for their brand, not everyone's brand.

[Fiveofeen]

Tim, Im not a marketing pro by any means, what I'm saying is that I think the way it is done now is just throwing good money after bad. Film companies market to dealers and not to end users which would create product knowledge for their brand, not everyone's brand.

Sorry about the confusion.

What type of end users would you like to see the message directed towards? Architects and specifiers, home owners etc...

[TomTint]

Wherever the target market is. For example, if your Panarama line is geared toward resi with point of sale material, adv more in the high end home mags. I know SG does some of this already but not near enough. Nor do the other mannys

[Tinitman]

This is the attitude with manufacturers. Why advertise your product to the public when other manufacturers will benefit? Instead of banning together and promoting the industry as a whole, they prefer to let the dealers do it. And now the manufacturers are competing against their dealers.

Many of us have been saying for years that the manufacturers need to ban together to generate product knowledge, but it has been on deaf ears.

Here is a quick question, say in your market there are three to four very professional dealers. Members of the chamber of commerce, BBB A+ etc...

Then there are a few not so great dealers, perhaps unlicensed but still large in size but have questionable practices and then there are a hand full of smaller shops ($99 tint) etc

Say you are one of the three to four big dogs, would you be willing to pool your funds to market window film in your area while the others refuse to.

See there is the problem, marketing in my area only. Now we are now talking about two different things. This is about promoting at the national level.You have food industries, solar power, wind energy, and others who market their industry on the national level. Now all of these industries have competition, good, bad, ugly and overseas, but they keep promoting their industry. With their national advertising, does it help their competition with questionable practices, yes but they keep promoting.

Throughout the years I marketed my companies all over the place from doing interviews, mailings, air waves, even our logo on an Indy Car. Do I think my competition benefited from my work, absolutely. But I benefited more than they did. Did it stop me from promoting my industry, no.

I started doing auto over 25 years ago and flat soon after. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting my companies and the industry as a whole. Bottom line is this, unless the industry as a whole gets their act together, it will NEVER be seen as a viable industry. Yes, a national campaign is needed.

[Guest Mario]

Tom, I agree with what you are saying regarding product advertising. Most people have never heard of the film mannys, other than maybe the obvious (3M, LLumar...).

And an even greater number of people have no idea of the great benefits of having film on their homes, cars, etc...

This should really be the manufacturers responsibility on boosting their business...public education on benefits, etc...

[dbdreams]

Tim, Im not a marketing pro by any means, what I'm saying is that I think the way it is done now is just throwing good money after bad. Film companies market to dealers and not to end users which would create product knowledge for their brand, not everyone's brand.

I agree Tom,

If a Manu quit advertising at all to the dealers & put those efforts into advertising to the consumer it would create demand for "their" product. Where there is demand for a product the dealer WILL meet that demand and supply the consumer. IMO

[Fiveofeen]

This is the attitude with manufacturers. Why advertise your product to the public when other manufacturers will benefit? Instead of banning together and promoting the industry as a whole, they prefer to let the dealers do it. And now the manufacturers are competing against their dealers.

Many of us have been saying for years that the manufacturers need to ban together to generate product knowledge, but it has been on deaf ears.

Here is a quick question, say in your market there are three to four very professional dealers. Members of the chamber of commerce, BBB A+ etc...

Then there are a few not so great dealers, perhaps unlicensed but still large in size but have questionable practices and then there are a hand full of smaller shops ($99 tint) etc

Say you are one of the three to four big dogs, would you be willing to pool your funds to market window film in your area while the others refuse to.

See there is the problem, marketing in my area only. Now we are now talking about two different things. This is about promoting at the national level.You have food industries, solar power, wind energy, and others who market their industry on the national level. Now all of these industries have competition, good, bad, ugly and overseas, but they keep promoting their industry. With their national advertising, does it help their competition with questionable practices, yes but they keep promoting.

Throughout the years I marketed my companies all over the place from doing interviews, mailings, air waves, even our logo on an Indy Car. Do I think my competition benefited from my work, absolutely. But I benefited more than they did. Did it stop me from promoting my industry, no.

I started doing auto over 25 years ago and flat soon after. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting my companies and the industry as a whole. Bottom line is this, unless the industry as a whole gets their act together, it will NEVER be seen as a viable industry. Yes, a national campaign is needed.

While I would love to have this happen lets take a look at the numbers. The cost to perform a successful national ad campaign that will actually succeed could be in excess of $250 million dollars, this is more than the entire industry in N. America is worth in annual sales. Sadly its simple math, the industry is not large enough to support that type of a campaign.

Jeff I admire the amount of time you have invested into the window film industry, you are without a doubt one of the hardest working guys in the business and I would feel very comfortable saying that you have put 100x the effort into marketing than the average window film dealer has.

Tom, I agree with what you are saying regarding product advertising. Most people have never heard of the film mannys, other than maybe the obvious (3M, LLumar...).

And an even greater number of people have no idea of the great benefits of having film on their homes, cars, etc...

This should really be the manufacturers responsibility on boosting their business...public education on benefits, etc...

I can assure you several major manufacturers do this and work very hard to promote window film and their brand but our reach is limited. There is no one person or company that will volunteer to take on this task. When I had my business I relied on one thing to grow my business and build awareness of window film, myself. Right now there is this little podunk town in Michigan that is 10x more aware of window film and its benefits thanks to my efforts and do you know who was rewarded for this work? Me.

This is a great subject and I enjoy the discussion and I think having more active dealers with a voice reaching those on supplier level is a great thing. Take the time to speak with your film rep, ask them what their company is doing to build awareness in this industry and make it known that this is something you value. I could speak for a long time on the efforts we take to build awareness on a global, national and local level. Take a look at whoever is the most successful film dealer in your area I would be very surprised if they are waiting on their supplier to build awareness in their market, this is a team effort. This is a small industry in scale compared to solar, in my opinion the best route to achieve success for window film is educating our dealers and engaging them to participate in marketing window film and assisting them in any way we can. A grass roots campaign is our best bet for success.

[dbdreams]

Does it really cost 250 million to do a successful ad campaign?

[Fiveofeen]

Does it really cost 250 million to for a successful ad campaign?

You just asked us to run commercials during sporting events. Yes, to create an ad campaign that stands the slightest chance of actually creating solid brand or product awareness you are going to spend some serious coin.