Vehicle Graphics
Because you can take your logo with you
By Sara Deitrich
July 2005
© R-Design, Inc.


Because many of our readers are small business owners working out of their homes and vehicles, I’d like to share information about vehicle graphics and how this type of advertising can increase your business.

Purpose
Vehicle signage has two purposes. The first is branding. When you arrive at an appointment in a vehicle that has your business information on it, it reinforces your corporate identity. It should correlate with your business cards, brochures, website, etc. This helps legitimize your business in the eyes of your customer – it completes your professional image for them.

The second purpose for vehicle signage is advertising. Advertising is all about reaching as many people as possible as many times as possible. The book Guerilla Marketing helps explain this. It says,

“Research shows that the average American sees mare than 30,000 ads per year. On average, only one out of nine well-designed ads is ever seen by the targeted customer. We also know that an ad needs to be seen at least three times before it makes enough impact to spur action. Quick calculation: You need to put your ad in front of your target customer twenty-seven times before it makes a difference.”

Twenty-seven times!? How do you do that? You could send out 27 direct mail campaigns. You could advertise in the paper or on the radio 27 times. But at anywhere from $100-$1000 an impression, that ads up to thousands of dollars very quickly.

So instead, consider the use of vehicle graphics.

More Bang for your Buck
Vehicle graphics are going to cost around $75 for basic magnets to a few thousand dollars for a full color wrap. If you’re like me, and many days you feel like you spent the whole day in your car, your vehicle graphics have just paid for your advertising in impressions after only one month. But the graphics are there every day for years afterwards. This makes the value per dollar for vehicular advertising astounding! And that is why there are more and more vehicle graphics around you.

Options
There are several different options for vehicle graphics depending on your budget and goals. If you use your personal vehicle for work, magnetics may be a good choice for you. They are made to go on the doors and rear of your vehicle. You can put your logo on for branding purposes and add a slogan and your contact information for advertising. A nice thing about magnetics is that you can leave them on when you are driving for work, but when the car is your own on the weekends they slip right off. If you take care of them, they will last for years.

The next step up is vinyl lettering. This can be subtle door lettering or logos that wrap around the entire vehicle. This option is great if you want to advertise around the clock. Larger graphics allow you to grab more attention. The most dramatic option is the full color vehicle wrap. These are similar to what you see on buses or many work vans. The entire vehicle is covered with full color vinyl, including the windows. These are a big attention getter! Many people who choose this option like to park their vehicles at events with large crowds to use as a traveling billboard – without paying billboard pricing!

Whichever method you choose, you want the message to be simple and to the point. Use your logo, your contact information and as few words as possible to get your message across. Remember that people are reading your message at 30-miles-per-hour and faster.