Monday 21 January 2013

What every potential customer needs to know.


Dollar for dollar there is no cheaper way to get your message across to consumers than a commercial wrap. Rather a bold statement considering the significant outlay of money a wrap requires especially over a number or fleet of vehicles.

Advertising people use the term “per impression”. That is the benchmark of what an ad will cost divided by the number of people that see it. Years ago the higher that rate was the more money you had to pay to get it. This fueled the per month price wars for larger ads in the yellow pages or newspapers or billboards in higher traffic areas than say a country road. All of that since the invention of the internet is now (or soon will be) obsolete.

So where is the smart money spent? As cities grow and urban sprawl continues there is a greater dependence on vehicles for commuting. The average commute time in the GTA is now over 80 minutes round trip with the main roads averaging about 2 million commuters per day. Imagine having a captive audience for 80 minutes a day, 5 days a week seeing your ad NOT NEXT TO 20 OF YOUR COMPETITORS.

If we take the average life expectancy of a wrap (5 to 7 years), multiply that by the number of days per year on the road times the average number of daily commuters you will encounter, and divide that number into the initial cost of your wrap you will come up with a number 100 times lower than what you spent on your morning coffee on your way to work today.

So what is the only issue in this equation? Traffic will get worse we know that, affecting commute times and increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads; that's a given. Historical forms of costly advertising like phone books, newspapers, radio, television are all on the way out, great for us as well. The only issue is THE WRAP ITSELF.

If you don't get that 5 to 7 year life expectancy from your wrap the whole formula fails and your cost “per impression” can double, triple, etc. So how do you go about ensuring that the money you spend is going to give you that return on investment you are counting on?

Specialists. Specialists bring to the table what others cant. Specialists do one thing and one thing only and are the best in their field. In any field whether it be wraps or construction or medicine when you need the absolute best you go see them.

Every Canadian has seen and knows Mike Holmes. He gets on that TV and day after day he repeats himself over and over, HIRE THE PROFESSIONALS. We sit and watch as the poor unsuspecting homeowner recants the tail of how horrible the contractor was and what they did to them and we hear the same things being repeated by every one of them,

“We hired the guy with the lowest bid”.
“We didn't question it”
“We didn't check references.”
“We paid him CASH.”

We sit there and we lecture them thru the TV saying well what did you expect? There's a lot of shady unregulated guys out there with white vans and hammers claiming to be contractors and you let them mess with the largest investment you have!” And for every 1 person that makes it onto that show I can imagine there are a thousand just like them that are in the exact same boat.

So the question now becomes why would you allow someone to mess around with the SECOND largest investment you have, your vehicles? And how do you go about protecting yourself from the unregulated unqualified shops out there that will take your money and run? You hire the specialists. You educate yourself, you check references and you ASK QUESTIONS. Sounds familiar right?

3 comments:

  1. The old expression that "You get what you pay for." is true. The best price is not always the best value. You have to be an educated consumer.

    Good blog

    G

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ben. Excellent editorial. The subject is explained concisely and to the point. I can't wait to read your next posts. Especially one concerning the new matte black world and its future. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete