TD convinced me today I should post more. I have read this site almost everyday for the past 10 years but have not participated much, because I have tried to maintain a professional distance and not spam and self promote.
I guess for my 1st real post I would like to discuss flat glass. Our company started out doing just flat glass but our automotive segment has grown tremendously. Flat glass is the reason I got in the business though. I wanted to save people money on their energy bills.
It seems lately like flat glass has lost its momentum. I have seen this internally and notice there are fewer FG post on this board. I used to have customers adding flat glass to auto but now my flat glass dealers are asking about auto.
I have seen the recent studies that say solar control film is going to grow by 90% in the next 3 years. But from my experience consumer awareness is still super low.
I know I am to blame for this as well. As a window film professional I should do more to advertise the benefits of window film to end consumer. This was our original idea. The problem we had was converting this advertising into product sales. Customers would seek multiple bids and dealers would offer other products.
You might not know that my partner and I started Geoshield and another company that distributed solar panels. Solar panels in my opinion are an inferior product to window film but they have much better marketing and awareness. I actually did a study showing that 300 sqft of window film would save a customer more power than 300 sqft of solar panels would produce in a year at 1/10th of the cost. My partner is now running the solar panel company and I am running Geoshield because I believe window film is a better energy efficient product.
I believe the problem is lack of organization. The solar market is much more organized. Manufacture’s have distributors with protected territories, distributors have dealers with exclusive agreements. MSRP are used. Products have more transparency although they are just a commodity like window film. Marketing is direct and focused. Organizations and groups are professionally working together to advertise the benefits. Regulations, checks and balances are in place.
I have seen the same advances in window film but they are often underutilized i.e. Exclusive dealer programs, IWFA solar control certifications, NFRC, Window Film Mag, window film groups on tintdude, linkedin, facebook, etc. In the end I think window film lacks credibility.
I am as guilty as anyone. As a small company we have not gotten NFRC certification, we are not members of the IWFA, I do not participate on social media enough, we do not advertise the benefits of window film to end consumers. We do not heavily promote exclusive territories. And there are a million other things I can list that we could do better and I always make the excuse it cost too much. Well I think that it is going to cost us more if we don’t start doing these things. I know I am going to start trying more. Sorry this kind of turned into a sad apology letter.
Apology letter, i think not and im guilty of all the above also, but i dont own a window film manuf. but i appreciate you Burns for being honest. That is what is lacking in this world today and we need more of "HONESTY" or at least admitting. I have tinted for over 27 yrs from Baton Rouge (B&M GRAPHICS) and south La. to North La. & East Texas and LA, Cali.
Thank you Burns for this post it means something to all of us who have busted our a$$ for yrs to educate the comsumer the best we could with what we had.
Where are all the Flat Glass Guys
in Window Tinting - General Discussion
Posted
Apology letter, i think not and im guilty of all the above also, but i dont own a window film manuf. but i appreciate you Burns for being honest. That is what is lacking in this world today and we need more of "HONESTY" or at least admitting. I have tinted for over 27 yrs from Baton Rouge (B&M GRAPHICS) and south La. to North La. & East Texas and LA, Cali.
Thank you Burns for this post it means something to all of us who have busted our a$$ for yrs to educate the comsumer the best we could with what we had.
Mark Durham