Truck Wraps- Good Use of your Marketing Dollar?

Nice truck, Mike. And it has a subtle look of distinction and modest professionalism. I like it.

Not a stitch on mine to indicate who, what, where... and that's how I like it.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YQHSNbS.jpg[/IMG]

I think it gets down to whether the company has a salesman or not. If you have a salesman, you have someone that can waste their time on leads from people impressed with your truck bling. If it's the owner, who is also in the field working there is a tendency to want the leads to be 'qualified' before spending much time chasing a cold lead.

Me, if all a lead knows is my truck says roof on it, I don't want to bother. When shopping for a new truck, I wanted a specific hard-to-find powertrain and I wanted any color but white. But I couldn't find it in anything but white, so I bought it. I'm learning to like the stealthness of the white truck. With an aluminum headache rack on it, I can park it anywhere and it looks like it belongs there. If I want to launch my kayak along the river where they don't allow parking, I don't worry, my truck looks like the owner has a job to do and belongs there. I'm thinking of getting an orange flashing light on the rack to complete the illusion.

Trucks wraps are always good for PR. We were featured in a local magazine. People saw the magazine article, photos, other advertisements and our trucks. Good exposure, strong marketing message match with a good marketing mix. I think the truck wraps are true "Gorilla Marketing"!

I agree Robert "a traveling billboard"- to me it's the most cost effective marketing ever. They stand out at job sites, people can't help but notice them. They would call the office and say, "We saw one of your trucks and..." EXCELLENT ROI!

$3000,00 is what I paid its a traveling billboard a one time payment I've paid for billboards and realized when I need a motel, gas station place to eat their fantastic. But when I get home a need a plumber or electrician I cant remember one I read about on a billboard. I will eventually wrap all my trucks we cover a large rural area and a few big city's my goal is to brand my company and the wrap does this much better then a magnetic sign. We use yard signs internet yellow pages my customers find me many ways, this is just another tool and really is cheap compared to most other advertising not just highway its in front of jobs and I get a lot of positive reviews from potential customers about looking more professional were are always higher then our competitors but get the jobs anyway because quality rules!

In IL, it's now law that you have to have your license number and associated name on the side of all roofing trucks. I actually like this law, seeing as how we have all those others.

Willie, why not write Willie's roof repairs or something.

When I said I want a wrap, I really just want a lot more information with just a ounce of flash. I get leads from people who say they see our trucks everywhere, but I don't get leads that say "I learned about you guys from your trucks"...but then again I might not want those.

I drive a plain white wrapper these days with no lettering or signs. For years I drove a company lettered truck around and had people tell me from time to time they've seen my trucks around so it gave us some recognition but I also had a lot of people stop me at stores, etc and hold me up for long periods of time asking me all kinds of questions. I found that these people rarely, if ever, hired me for any work and maybe I'm just not being very humble but I grew to despise being stopped by these types.

Now days, I don't want so much work that I need to expand so I like to just keep things as simple as possible. No one has had a problem with my truck not being lettered and no one has stopped me at any stores. :laugh:

Magnetic signs for me and my truck looks like a truck. I see te odd wrapped one here and there, but their 'theme' is so busy, you don't get a chance to read what it says before you pass them.

Twill, I was told by an advertising rep that a competitor in this mid-sized market spends $20,000/mo in marketing, and it shows; he's everywhere. Any chance I get I subtly remind a customer with a smile that their customers are paying for that huge marketing budget.

And of course, right on cue, if I underbid him he'll call me a low baller. lol

I prefer pertinent information ;)

I agree with what Tim said. Small town and all. Not sure my customers would even appreciate, or if the small town market would bear, $3,000 (?) vehicle wraps. Very few in my market even do it. I can think of one in Porter Co. and one in LaPorte County. Both owners have HUGE Egos. Hmmmmmm.

As it is, it's amazing how people will say "you must be crazy busy, I see your signs everywhere" when they say this, many times we aren't busy at all.

It kind of perplexes me. I think we just must be working on a road they are traveling on........ :huh:

Not a one-size-fits-all. If you're in a metropolis I think it is more effective, if the goal is to have people who've never seen your truck before give you a call. In the smaller areas, such as West Texas, our goal is to have our signage say: Yep, it's us again.

We don't have to sell a new customer on the fact that we're local because he sees our trucks at least once a week, at the mall, the theater, the grocery store, the gun shop, the airport.

I do put a lot of effort into positioning my truck for maximum viewing at local events. I get to the gun shows early and park at the edge/corner so that everyone who enters, looks at my truck. Our customer-base is heavily pro-gun.

When I came back from Vegas last night, I got my truck while my wife got our luggage, and I quickly parked it by the exit doors as a large local builder was on our flight (he went to the gun show) and I wanted him to see my truck as he exited the terminal.

A lot of marketing efforts are free and simply involve getting in front of the customer's eyes.

I want our graphics to be noticeable without being gawdy.

I've actually been saying all winter that I'm going to wrap at least one truck this spring. Here is what my Dad's trucks have looked like since 1987.

Here's mine after a small ditch came out of nowhere and ripped the front trim off.