Car Wash Marketing Overview Branding and advertising 101 By Alfred Berlin Chief Executive Officer - B-Clip Productions WATCH NOW - From Express to Flex

usually begin developing a marketing plan for the operation somewhere between having the financing approved and ground breaking. You only accelerate your attention because the contractor begins asking questions about signage and building colors. You may have written a great marketing strategy in your business plan but now reality sets in. Budgets are tightening, overruns mount, time evaporates and now you are getting a price on a sign while still debating with friends, family, and partners on the official name.

If that's not how it went for you, then congratulations. That how it went down for me! I actually changed the colors of my sign to take advantage of an old Denny's sign that I found in efforts to save about $13,000. Truth is, I should have shaved other costs and paid for the sign I wanted.

I have since transitioned into a marketing business. Imagine that. While working for Simoniz, SONNY'S and ICS for the past few years, I have had the unique opportunity of traveling the country visiting more than 100 car wash locations. Now being all about marketing, I have enjoyed studying what works great and what fails miserably. I also have gotten a great kick out of the fact that us 'car wash guys' tend to all do the same things. We are the most creative bunch in the business world, but we all give the 10th wash free.

This article will not come from the experience I gained while developing my initial marketing plan. Instead, it's stealing great ideas from operators across the country while traveling for my job. Additionally, it comes from the three years of hard lessons after opening that finally prompted me to abandon the initial mixed bag of half-backed marketing and develop a real brand for my own operation.

Logos
I feel that getting a well-designed logo is the first step in the plan. There is another approach that is very successful which is to simply incorporate your price, the time and Car Wash. I think it depends on your market and how fast the traffic flows in front of your location. It also depends on how many locations you are developing in a market.

Whether you are planning a Full Service Wash or Exterior Express, I personally believe a great logo and branded identity is important. Your logo will be seen by 30,000 – 60,000 people a day who will determine if they are turning into your operation by looking at your logo in 3-5 seconds. Especially for a car wash operation, I think logo design is the most important start for marketing a new car wash operation.

Many entrepreneurs choose to design their own marketing materials when they launch their businesses, especially by creating their first business card or sign. Or sometimes they will have an amateur designer, friend, or relative create the design. There are several reasons why this is not the best idea:

Your wash may not look stable. Drivers passing your location will not have confidence in doing business with you.

You may look like a very small business. Well defined branding makes your business appear that it can perform well enough to meet or exceed expectations.

You will look unpolished and rough. Not having a professional look and feel can make it appear as though your business may not have the processes to give attention to the small details that matter to customers.

You may look unfocused. Unprofessional, uncoordinated marketing materials can make your business look jumbled or confused.

Start your marketing plan by finding a local marketing firm that will help you develop good branding for your operation. This does not have to be expensive. They simply should have experience and a working knowledge of good design. Make sure you get a disk with your logo in all formats imaginable. This makes life easy down the road when you are buying signs, banners and ads. If you cannot find anyone in your area that will help you for a reasonable cost, go online and find someone who can handle your project remotely.

Your sign and location.
Marketing 101 says the first rule is to identify your target audience. Well, in car washing that,s easy. Go out to your site, grab a lawn chair, and sit for an hour or so and look at the traffic passing your location. That's your audience! So the look of your location is the most effective marketing tool you have.

Now equipped with your brand new professionally designed logo, purchase the largest sign that your city will allow. It sounds simple, but for many of us, the cities we want to build in have very constraining sign ordinances. If not, make sure your building in an area that has enough growth.

If you have the ability to incorporate electronic display boards or LCD screen, give it serious consideration. I think anything that draws the eye while traveling down the road is a worthwhile investment.

Landmark Factor: You'll know you're doing well when you overhear someone at the supermarket giving directions that use your site as a landmark. When purchasing your sign, make sure that it has the distinctiveness to become an instantly recognizable feature.

The Building: Grab your lawn chair again and visit three brand new fast food locations. They do the best job of incorporating very cheap and subtle marketing elements into their building design and layout. From small pin-striping at the roof, to color coordinating trash containers, these franchise locations are masters of marketing while you are in motion. Take for instance, the window banners showing off the new monster burger with 12 layers of cheese and bacon, it gets your heart racing just taking it all in. Good thing…. Right?

The truth is that fast food operators have always had a good grasp on the art of marketing with the look and feel of driving onto their site. Especially in the exterior market, much of your emphasis should be placed on the coordination of material that is displayed at your site. Also find ways to brand each sign, even the ones that declare "we're not responsible for your antenna" should proudly display that new logo. Lastly, take the time to simply paint things such as trash containers and traffic cones to coordinate with your look.

Take Advantage of your Traffic: A typical car wash operation has thousands of people a week walking or driving through their facility. It took me two years to stop buying ads in every location in my local market and go to Fast Signs or Kinkos and buy personalized $40 posters to display. The best sign I ever purchased was at a junk yard. I got a well-oxidized hood that I had the detail guys polish one side of for three days. That one hood sold more express wax services than all coupons and paper ads combined.

Even in the Exterior Market, you have plenty of time and opportunity to teach customers more about our business while they are driving by. Banners before the pay stations, yeah they may slow down to look, but they may be faster once they hit the pay station. Ask yourself 'does McDonalds do it?'

How about signs in your tunnel? Simoniz is a champion at this. My kid cries when the little tire does not light up, never noticing the modern marvel of online tire shine service.
Signs in the vacuum area. Many operators are providing free vacuums for their exterior customers. Talk about a captive audience. How about an audio recording playing your propaganda while they are working on their car?

The point is half of the job in the exterior or full service market is getting them to the location, but the second job is increasing frequency and dollars/car. Remember to give that task half your budget.

Advertisements
The trap that I fell victim to is spending a little money in a lot of areas. I think it's a mistake. Make a big impact where ever you choose to spend your money. Let's review a few people who will try to suck your advertisement budget dry.

Billboards:
Outdoor advertising has exploded in past years and Americans are spending more time away from home than ever before. According to a 2001 study by Arbitron, the average American spends more than three hundred miles in their cars each week, and the average commuter has a round-trip commute of fifty-four minutes.

All this time spent in cars makes for valuable advertising opportunities. According to BPS Outdoor Media, billboards alone reach ninety-three percent of Americans, and according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), people look at seventy percent of billboards they pass and actually read sixty-three percent. In a survey reported in the Journal of Advertising Research, eighty-five percent of respondents stated that billboards are useful to travelers. The overwhelming majority of Americans not only see outdoor advertising, they read it, and find it useful. By any standard, that is effective advertising.

Billboards are huge in the exterior market! I know a few operators who have put everything into billboards and have done quite well. There are good Billboard markets and bad Billboard markets, but it's hard to go wrong if you can secure a great location at a critical artery leading to your location.

Newspaper:
Newspapers are effective advertising that can be used to convey a lot of information. Because of the size of the page, you can include special offers, testimonials, coupons, maps, menus...you name it. Turnaround time is very short. You can often change your ad the night before a newspaper goes to print. Hence, newspapers can be a great way to announce a sale or special event.

Newspapers usually have very impressive distribution, especially if your budget will allow for large ads that are run on a regular basis. Another advantage of newspaper advertising is that you can specify placement in specific sections, usually for an additional fee. Business sections, lifestyle sections, national news, local news, even real estate sections offer an area of interest with which you might attract attention.

The disadvantage is that review time in newspapers is very small. Unless you have a huge budget and lots of time to advertise, you might think about overlooking newspaper advertising for an initial advertising campaign. You need a good budget to make an impact in many markets.

One tip I discovered within my market is insertion. For my particular location, I got a better return on inserting flyers into the Sunday paper than running ads within the paper. Better yet, for many papers, insertion campaigns are much cheaper. You can design a high impact color flyer and insert into paper instead of black and white ads within. This also provides a much longer review time as well.

Radio Ads:
The results you get from your radio campaign will depend on at least two factors: creating appealing and effective spots, and making an effective media buy. To accomplish both, stick to the following guidelines.

Hire Production Pros - Radio spot production is not a do-it-yourself job, so you'll need a production company that has experience creating spots that motivate members of your target audience. For Car Washes, that means light-hearted and fun! Don't be scared to be edgy!

Sixty-second spots are still the norm in radio, unlike TV, where 30 second ads dominate. And whether you take a light-hearted or reverent tone, your spots must be engaging, using music, sound effects and dialogue to create 'word pictures' that involve the listeners. If you're advertising in a small market or where the personality of the on-air talent on a particular station lends interest or credibility to your message, you may choose to use announcer-read spots and have the station do the copywriting for you.

Buying airtime can be tricky. Sometimes it's hard for the radio sales person to understand your market. Here are four steps to take when buying time for your radio campaign.

Identify a narrow demographic target audience and their important characteristics or habits. For example: women, 25 to 54, with children under age 6, who reside in a specific geographic market area.

Contact the stations you believe best reaches your target audience, and ask them to provide you with proposals that include a ratings breakdown for your target group and a signal coverage map.

Evaluate each station's proposal, looking for reach, frequency and cost per point. The 'reach' is the number of individuals in your target group who will hear your marketing message. 'Frequency' isn't the number of times that you run your spot; it's the number of times a member of your target audience will actually hear your message. And the cost per rating point (CPP) is the cost to reach 1 percent of your target audience population. Also, the bulk of your spots should run in dayparts that draw the largest percentage of your prospects, not run-of-station (ROS), which may include multiple, lower-cost spots that air in the middle of the night, when fewer of your prospects will be listening

Select the best stations for your campaign, and negotiate your buys. Make frequency your top priority, and then include as much reach as you can afford. In other words, it takes multiple exposures for your message to be effective, so make sure a core prospect group will hear your spot multiple times, then buy as many additional prospect contacts as possible.

Tips for Getting Noticed - Consider buying sponsorships, such as news, weather or traffic, because you'll receive the first spot in the commercial break and often a 5-10 second billboard to say something about your company. Participating in contests will also get you lots of on-air mentions. So contact each station's promotions director for upcoming events.

TV Ads:
For the purpose of a new car wash operator I think cable TV ads are a great way to start. Cable TV allows you greater control to buy the market you serve. In many situations, cable TV is much cheaper than radio.

That being said, buying one or more cable zones is often a good way to shrink a big city to an affordable size. Most cable companies can section one small part of the city for you, if that's all you can afford to reach. Broadcast television and radio cannot sell you a similarly geographically restricted target audience. This allows you to finely target your market.

Also similar to radio, with cable television you can purchase specific channels that target your washes demographics. Have a lot of seniors and want to promote a price discount campaign, try the history channel. Looking for the boomers with some simple branding ads that link a clean car with financial success, try FOX NEWS or CNBC. Cable gives you a lot of flexibility to target.

When to choose broadcast TV? In my mind it's a very simple scenario. If you are in a market that has a single station with a local news broadcast, and you can afford to buy that channel, do it. This in the one time when buying local broadcast is worth its weight in gold. This means that all viewers from across 100 cable channels all come to a single channel at 11pm. Look for opportunities like weather bulletins or sponsor a weekly auto segment. Anything to make your operation a market leader in the community!

TV tip of the day! This one is from way out in left field. All cable companies are required by federal law to hold certain channels open to commercial leased access. This program is in every market and is required as part of their license to serve the community. Our company has placed programming for leased access for as low as $39/hour in Ft.Worth, TX. The price is determined by a formula controlled by the federal company. Why have you not heard of this before? Well the cable companies cringe when you call to request information about this type of airtime. It's like us being visited by OSHA. The catch, the person who buys the time is required to carry a million dollar insurance policy. That keeps small locals off the air, but not a car wash. We all have that type of coverage anyway. You'll have to have someone produce an infomercial style business profile of your car wash operation, but if you use your own signage on the road to promote 'your show', it could be a big winner! This is a great tool for Full Service operations that want to promote a detail center or special promotions. Remember to make it entertaining and provide good information. Don't be scared to provide self cleaning tips or 'how to' segments. People will watch but still bring it to the experts.

Television has one very important benefit that radio does not have: Every person watching television has immediate access to a phone, paper and pencil. Prospects can call while they still remember the message. These days the interaction can be even greater and faster because most customers who use a car wash also have immediate access to a computer. Instead of using your TV ads to make a general promotional message, call for your customer to immediately log and print a limited time coupon from your website. Now you got them! Combining your ads with a great website is a fantastic way to interact with your customers and heard them in to your car wash location.

Websites:
I can feel it already. What does a car wash location need with a website? Please hear me out on this one. Your website can be the most effective marketing tool you have if used correctly. Using it correctly is the key. No one will be bored enough to just stumble on your website while wandering around the internet. If your website is used in conjunction with all of the categories above, you will have a highly effective tool for little money. It will also enhance the investment you made with any of the marketing techniques listed above.

The comment I get over and over on this subject is "why does a car wash need a website?" Well here are a few reasons.

Provide information for your customers: Create a website with all the information a customer would need. Hours or operation, menu of services, contact information. If you need help figuring out other information that customers might require, have your cashier or attendant write down every question that is asked by a customer.

Attract new customers: Use your website in conjunction with all your advertising to encourage customers to take advantage of special offers and promotions available on your site. While they are there, make sure they have the option to learn everything there is to know about your car wash operation. Describe your equipment and the chemistry of the car wash. Talk about environmental issues of home washing. Profile key employees and management so that new customers feel like they have a connection. Promote charity washes in your market and require people to simply log onto your site to print out the coupon that gives money back to their favorite local charity. Give space on your site for local interests. Promote tee ball teams, school plays, bake sales and allow other organizations to display their messages on your site. Provide helpful links to selling your car. Make your site a local landing pad.

Build customer loyalty: Have a web-based customer loyalty program that includes an e-mail list. Allow customers to receive weekly specials or notification of any promotions through your new customer database. It's cheap and it's effective.

Re-evaluate the yellow pages ad: Just like anything else, hire a pro to help create your website. Find ways to change the content on a regular basis. You can easily do this by not buying any more yellow pages ads. All of your signage and ads will contain your web address. You now have little reason to buy display ads in your local yellow pages. It's just my opinion, but I think that if you have an effective website a display ad is a waste of money.

What makes a good website? Easy to find, easy to navigate and easy to read! Easy right?

Community Involvement:
Last on my list is being involved with your community. This is truly the most rewarding and effective tool in the shed. The market value of your car wash service versus the actual cost of giving away a free car wash is skewed so much in your favor that you should give any organization free washes for any event, period! I cannot tell you how many new car washing fanatics were created at my wash by simply winning a free wash at the local PTA meeting. You should almost have to pay to give them away.

Once the community knows that you will support them with door prizes and giveaways, you will receive plenty of requests. Never turn them down. Simply ask for a written request on the letter head of the organization and let it roll. You will get 5 paying washes for every giveaway.

Experiment. A large Rotary Club met at the restaurant next to my wash. One day the president of the club asked if I would be willing to donate a wash as a door prize to their club for an internal drawing. I asked if we could do it every week. He looked surprised and accepted my offer. My Tuesday morning business was double that of any other day including Friday. Why? It wasn't because the members of the club appreciated our weekly donation, but because the drawing was done right before the meeting was adjourned. I had over 50 people looking at their tickets, praying for a free car wash to start their morning. When they didn't win, they were already committed to the idea and could easily afford to satisfy that urge themselves. They all laughed as they drove up to see others in the meeting at the wash. They continued their prior conversation in our lobby to the point we had to sometimes park their cars.

They were simply reminded of our service in a positive manner and reacted to the message without realizing they had just been marketed to. That's what it's all about! Happy Washing!

Alfred (Bubba) Berlin is the majority owner and CEO of Bclip Productions, a multimedia production and marketing consulting firm with offices in North Carolina and Louisiana. He began working on the concept of Bclip after the sale of his first full-serve car wash in May 2001 to a national franchise. His company produces all of the car wash video training materials available from SONNY'S. Bubba can be reached at alfredberlin@bclip.comBclip Productions, Inc

B-Clip Productions
www.bclip.com
3515 Capital Heights Ave.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
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