Advertising and Marketing, what works?

[TintDude]

Advertising and Marketing, what works?

Q: In another thread we touched on advertising, and the guys had some really good feeback. I thought I would throw it out there for anybody that cares to share.

What has been your best avenue at creating additional business?,

what do you and/or your customers respond to?

Does your website promote you the way you want?

See you all at SEMA

A: My PPF installs are 90% dealer, I've only had retail from the non dealer sales. Each dealer gets an upper install for free, it costs me very little to do, Ive never had a dealer say no and each have more than covered that free hood fender mirror.

My business started as a PDR only company, a few years ago I thought Id try some advertising to see how much retail response I could get. I did some nice sized color adds in good spots of our city newspaper. I think I did something like 15 spots over 30 days, cost me close to 1000.00$ and I received exactally 3 calls from it.

Hmmm, the average upper kit is what.....40 bucks ??? my install time with BSing about the product....about an hour, hour and a half.

Let the product do the work for ya, PPF is such an easy sell once they get a look at it.

A: Up here in the Great White North ( 8" of snow on the weekend ), what I found is that the consumer knowledge of the ppf is low. 3M is the big name in town, but as per the last few posts, the 3M non topcoated film that I distribute and use, will soon be discontinued.

Sure, you need to inform the local dealerships of the service that you can provide, but unless the retail consumer is asking for the product, the sales people in "most" dealerships just don't care, or they can't be bothered.

Unfortunatly, spreading the message to the retail market costs alot of $$$. Car shows, flyers , "freebies" are all methods that I have used. The flyers were left over from the car show, and I had nearly 14,000 of them delived to the more affluent parts of the city. ( that was about $700)

I have signed myself up for next years car show, and hopefully I will gain some "advertizing or marketing ideas" from SEMA. My truck is wrapped with vinyl, and since I have to do a lot driving, it is like a rolling billboard. Everyone at the stop lights reads what services my company can provide. For me I found that my truck is probably the "cheapest" advertizing.

I do have a website (which is being revamped as we speak), but I find that most of my work comes from word of mouth, through some dealers, and from bodyshops. It seems easier to convince some one they need PPf after they spend $1500+ on a paint job.

A: Probably one of my BEST avenues has been through this cute little girl in the gym. She is a realtor here in Vegas, makes good money and not afraid to invest in a great product. I put PPF on her SUV, she shows it to everyone in her office (who most of them drive high end vehicles sitting on bling-bling ) and this has worked out in my favor. Now here is the cool part, she said she had a lot of contacts here for dealerships, but just how many I didn't realize at the time. Her best friends husband owns the Ford dealership here, the GM at Desert (who does Nissan, Dodge, Toyota and more) ADORES her, she has opened sooo many doors for me here, and let me tell you, walking into the office of the GM who actually sets aside a time and welcomes you with open arms is a GREAT feeling. She went with me on one of the visits, I found out first hand just how much they liked her. We walk in, the GM see's her, steps out of his office, gives her a big hug and then reaches his hand out to me and invites us into his office. Big plans unfolding with these accounts, they're excited and ready to take off. I treated her more than fair on the price (although she insisted on paying full price) and she promised me a few things for doing this good deed for her and she has lived up to EVERY ounce of those promises...more than what most people do in this world I have found out...

A: I should add that I always ask my customers how they have learned of my company. By asking this very important question, I can gauge where my advertizing money was the best spent.

I still find that alot of my retail comes from the yellow pages add and through referals.

As far as I know, last Febuary's carshow only netted me 3-5 direct customers. That show costed me around $10,000, but alot of the equipment and display pieces that I had fabricated for that show, I can re-use for next years show. See since I distribute as well, it is hard to know if I inspired the public to get the film, but maybe not through me directly. Word of mouth, treating people right, great work (never letting something out that you wouldn't allow on your own vehicle, after all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure) and catering to your clients in every way will open doors you never imaged possible.

A: Man!!!! the very values that I assert into my own business have brought me the same benefits. I truly believe that by taking care of your customer like they are your first and doing the highest quality work always pays off in the end. Sensei you have a truly valuable resource in that young lady.....good for you.

I started this thread to see if there was a mainstream effort I had not thought of, but I truly believe that from these posts so far, what I am doing is by far the best there is.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your insight and tremendously respect your business and talent.

A: There is a Jewel!!!! I am glad to see that 3M is going to make an effort at image building and product awareness!! It is indeed a steep hill to climb for a small business to build consumer awareness. All of the MFG's should step up and get the word out. Kind of a Catch-22 for them, they are likely to create demand in an area where there is not even a single installer for hundreds of miles....

Word of mouth referral discounts can work pretty well. As they say, networking works!

A: I think all of my installs this last month came from having a 1" high sticker of my website under the film on the hood of my car. (catches attention but it still looks good...not goofy). I have a new Audi that I keep in pristine shape (washed, waxed, etc) and it stands out pretty well up here so people always check it out. It is completely debadged and then bam...they see my sticker and it strikes their curiosity, but they have to get up close enough to read it that they end up seeing the film a lot of times. Seriously, first day after I put it on, I had 3 guys at the gym ask me if I had that "clear bra" on my car or what I had on my car since they saw the sticker and I have since done all 3 of their trucks. For the $5.00 it cost me I am not complaining.

I am considering giving a discount if customers will let me do the same underneath (so they can't remove it) their hood or bumper install.

Although this won't net me $100,000, it is amazing what little things will work.

A: I advertise with two direct mail companies. My ad is included in a packet with other companies coupons and they are mailed to 80,000 homes. The coupons are only sent to households with an income of over $50,000. It cost about $750 a month. My ad includes a coupon for $100 off full coverage or $50 off individual kits.

I live in an area where this PPf is unknown. The main purpose of the ad is just to get someone to call me. Then I can start selling them on the product. $100 off can be a good sales point, because if someone isnt sure if they should get the work done, they at least know that it is cheaper this month than next when the coupon expires.

If someone finds me thru a different source I can still bring up the coupon. I have found that people will often decide to get film installed if the think that they are getting a better value.

Before I get ripped about price ($100 off? You are gonna ruin the PPF industry!) my prices are high enough to allow the discount and I am generating a customer base.

I also sell thru dealerships

A: Mine is mainly word of mouth...quality, quality, quality. I cant say it enough, differentiate yourself from the rest. I get great feedback from my site as well. As I had mentioned about the 3M brouchures, I have people handing them out all the time at car shows, cars that I have done that are in the show, fan them out under the wiper blades.

I am in negotiations with a local radio station that has a very good morning show, and I'm probably going to sponser the traffic reports during that time. It's pretty expensive though, So we are negotiatiing.

Many may recall the old TV commercial with Heather Locklear, it ended with telling people and so on, and so on, and so on. Think of this as your customer base. Every person that is satisfied will tell 5 people, every one that is NOT satisfied will tell 15. Thats a staggering statistic when you think of the sheer volume.

I feel that through communication and not giving in to the hacks, the people that run a class operation from the beginning will be there in the end.

A: Networking and knowing who does what where will help everybody.

Probably half the calls I get are out of state, and after they get some information, I'll give them a web address to find a local installer. Hopefully somebody in LA got to sell some film to Rob with Mitsubishi for their SEMA car yesterday. I'd like to think that everyone out there does the same.

Last year, 3M did some advertising in Popular Science for about 3 months in the spring. Since I was listed on their installer site, my business doubled during that time.

A: Guys, you name it. We have tried just about everything from TV to radio ads on the Charlotte racing station to newspaper and magazine ads. We're even in the process of trying to put a roadside billboard on Interstate 77 north of Charlotte making thousands of motorists each day aware of our exisistence and directing people to our office in North Wilkesboro.

Our target group is a little bit different than many of you though, we primarily work to attract new distributors to represent and install our products and/or services. While we do some retail business it is secondary to the distributor portion and used to cover the light bill as we expand our distributor base (not that they suffer any less service or anything like that). As a result we spend most of our advertising dollars in publications such as "Auto Trim &Restylers News", "Specialty Automotive", "Import Parts and Accessories" and we're looking at "Mobile Tech News" and "Detailers Digest" this coming Spring. But ultimately the force driving this entire market is the end user or final consumer and as someone appropriately mentioned above, it's way more expensive to reach John Q. Public.

If John Q. Public asks enough times for ppf then every dealership in the country would soon be offering it and we would all be in Fat City.

Part of this last initiative could also involve coordinating all of us a group to do some advertising to the general public that none of us can afford to do individually. For example, a full page four color ad in Motor Trend goes out to over 8,000,000 people each month, many of who either have high end or sporty vehicles. The cost for such an ad is over $60,000 for a one-time run. We know. We checked and quickly found out we could not afford it. But can you imagine the impact of a generic ppf ad put out by an independent association, explaininig the product to the consumer, the fact that we have certified installers nationwide and maybe even a reciprocal warranty system that allows one company to make good on another companies warranty without getting stiffed. (Well ok that last one would take a lot of work but you get the idea). In the case of the ad we'd ask all member companies to chip in in exchange for having their business name, address and contact information listed in the ad. Is there anyone here who lives near any kind of major city that thinks that $500 or $1,000 to get their companies name listed as a quality ppf provider in a widely read publication like Motor Trend wouldn't pay for itself ten-fold over time? An that's just if we had 60 members. Suppose we had hundreds of members or more? That means less cost to each member and /or more advertising.

I know, I'm just kind of blue skying here but the basic fact remains. Getting the word out to the consumer is what will drive everything forward in this market.

I'd like to hear comments about the above, good, bad, indifferent or I'm full of crap. And also I'd like to see a show of interest. Would you be interested in joining a group like this and would you be willing to invest some money in national association advertising if you had the opportunity to review the ad before you committed the funds?

And the last reason for meeting in Vegas? Hell, I just enjoy a good stiff drink every now and then.

Feedback please????

A: COUNT ME IN>>>>I think you are going in the right direction. I would completely support a PPF Association and would love to join that dinner at SEMA if there is a round table discussion concerning it. We are the largest supplier and installer in our area but there is no way we can afford to do the high level advertising that we feel would work. That is why I started this thread, to pick the minds of you that have already tried. I truly believe that by pooling our resources we will all benefit.

As far as the nationwide warranty. I think that if you are a part of an association then that is just part of your responsibility. It would also help guage the quaility of installers in the group to be sure that it was kept up. If a fe shops had warranty work from a certain shop, then the concern could be addressed and alleviated.

There are some cons as well but that is where the roundtable comes in. Open communication is the only way to make it work.

A: The WORLDWIDE association of PPF installers! Dont forget there are a whole lot of installers in Europe and Me and at least one other in Australia. American Motoring mags do make it to Oz but usually R&T.

I am busy creating "Product awareness" here by doing displays at Swap Meets and Car Shows. Word of mouth is my strongest tool as there is no way I can afford any major advertising. My Brother in law is helping with the trucking industry and I will be doing a display at a major truck show shortly. Get the product out there and let it be seen. One up manship will also sell it- get it on someone's Vette or mustang and someone else will want it as well.

I did something similar to Drwest by putting my business name and phone number on the headlight door of my Vette. Our club did the driver's parade lap at a major race meet and I caught a guy taking a pic of the name and phone number with his phone. Handed him a business card as well and discussed his needs. A lot of the work generated this way is going to require custom patterning but in the end it will be worth it.

I don't have much to contribute to the discussions happening here (as yet) most of the time but I do read every post and it is an important source of info for me being located Sooooo far away.

Hey, any body want to sponsor a poor Aussie to SEMA? Have a brewski for me!

A: Well, I take it from the responses that there is more than a casual interest in moving forward with the idea of a World-wide ppf association.

My thinking is that it would need to be independent of any one manufacturer otherwise it wouldn't have credibility, kind of like the guys who make the gasoline pumps being responsible for certifying their own accuracy. Also precut kit manufacturers and users as well as pattern providers / users would all be welcome. Honestly I don't know what people would think about those who cut bulk film on vehicles though. There are people out there who can do it well and get away with it but in my own opinion I do have some difficulty seeing how any large group could condone the practice of cutting on vehicles and still have the vehicle owner's best interest at heart.

Then again, that is the beauty of an association. While my opinion and vote would be heard, it would count once, no more or les than anyone else's. The majority rules.

By the way, I forgot to mention in my previous post about advertising that the old company actually sponsored several NASCAR race teams. Wow! You talk about exposure to the general public on a wide scale. Mike Skinner, Dick Trickle and Kevin Harvick all drove sponsored cars at one time or another and that is ultimately what bankrupted the old company.....spending that kind of dough on a sponsorship while waiting for the idea to catch on with the public. Who knows maybe the time is right for a NASCAR sponsorship.

Any way, thanks for the feedback. We have several other issues to discuss which don't really concern the group so we'll plan on keeping our dinner meeting small and private. But when we do get around to discussing an association we will remember that there are many of you out there who have had the same thoughts and want to be included from the beginning.

Maybe we can keep a thread alive here to generate interest with the hope of putting together an association meeting in a central part of the U.S. this coming Spring.

A: I got in touch with a company that handles CSI (customer service index) they are the ones that will contact your customers and have the follow through. some buddies of mine use them in the body business and they have a 98% rating on the following criteria: Shop cleanliness, quality of work, was the salesperson installer helpful, courtious, was the job done on time, was the job done to their satisfaction, was the car returned in good condition...yada yada yada. but the point is they are an independent comapny that handles the follow up. basically a BBB, the orginization gives them the criteria for what to ask, they handle the gathering of info. Personally being as we are all in different parts of the country/ world. pricing to me shouldnt be in it, make it 100% quality and personal experiance related, once you achieve a certain standard, that can be used as a marketing tool for your customers. When they ask for references you can smile and say but of course and show them your record standing in the CSI. this in itself "powices" the installers and makes them be upfront with the most important person...the customer.

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