who does your detail advertising?
I will start this by saying I am not a marketing guy and I don’t know the best ways to advertise and to get your name out there. I don’t cover marketing in my classes and I am surely no expert on this subject, so NOOOO this will not be a boring column on how to market your business. You can figure it out for yourselves. Just be the best, and the rolling billboards of the great details you have done will be your best advertising. So that’s the end of that
However……I do have this thing about advertising for people other than myself. I don’t wear shirts that have a NIKE logo on them. I don’t wear Tiger Woods stuff. I don’t wear jerseys of my favorite sports teams. I don’t have pens or pencils or hats with other people’s business names on them. I don’t wear fancy sneakers that are say Air Jordan and I am certainly not a slave to designer anything. I even take the dealer logo or license plate bracket off the back of my car. I certainly am not going to advertise for them, since they certainly are not going to pay me for that, so it comes off my car instantly. Furthermore, my all time favorite band, Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band who I have seen live over 100 times and I have over 200 live shows on my ipod and have been fortunate enough to meet band members, have all the autographs, and have traveled the east coast seeing shows over the years……but…..I still don’t wear their shirts or hats. I don’t advertise for even Bruce! My buddy, who I go to most of the shows with, and have been friends for 30 years and have seen most of these shows together, he has over 100 shirts, hats, all kinds of stuff and he wears it all. I like it because I remember where we got some of those old (now see through) shirts but I have none, and I don’t keep my ticket stubs either (which I do regret). He is a collector and an advertiser for everybody. He also owns his own business but rarely wears stuff with HIS name on it.
My point is advertise for yourself! Wear your apparel. Give it away. Other people will surely wear it because they got it for free! I have a number of shirts I have made over the years with my name on them and I wear something with MY name on it every day. I am even thinking of having custom made bike jerseys with my name on them so even when I ride my 40 miles per day, people will see my name on a jersey (as I pass them of course!) instead of some team name from the tour de France or a bike shop, or whoever. I had shirts made a few months ago with my logo on them. I offer them for free if you buy a certain dollar amount on my website. I made the logo pretty large as it’s a buffer with just 2 hands holding the buffer. Anyone can see this notes detailing. I made these shirts without my name plastered all over it. I just put my name very very small in the corner as a copyright sort of thing. But I wanted a detailer who received this shirt to wear it to advertise that HE is a detailer and hopefully people may strike up a conversation with him if they saw the shirt. I purposely did not put my name on it as I knew other detailers would be wearing it and I wanted them to be able to promote their business, not mine.
But many people have told me (even some people who received the shirt) that I should have put my name on it much bigger. No No that’s not the point. You guys should advertise for you, NOT me. Wear your stuff all the time. Get shirts made with your name on them and hats and pens, etc. Get your name out there. I can’t tell you what to wear and not wear, but I certainly know that I don’t need to advertise for Nike, or Adidas, or Lance Armstrong……or god forgive me, Bruce Springsteen! These people have enough dam money! Be proud of what you do and who you are. We all need to market our own brand. It’s your business. It’s your brand.
This “issue” that I have where I would not wear somebody else’s logo or name started many years ago. My friends think its funny and sometimes they purposely try to give me a shirt with another business name on it. My one friend is a landscaper and he wants me to wear his shirt. My other friend is a printer and he is always willing to give either his shirts or even other shirts he has printed for other business. They do this knowing I will tell them no (in sometimes more harsh words than that) and they just laugh at me. But I do think that you should wear your logo and make sure people know what you do. It’s the easiest and cheapest way to advertise and strike up conversations wherever you are. It also makes you look more professional. When you and or your employees are wearing the company logo, the entire business looks professional. I see many detail shops where all the guys are wearing different items and some shirts are actually kind of vulgar. Obviously you don’t want customers seeing this as your employees are as much the face of your business as you are.
I have never been a marketing or advertising guru. It’s not my thing. But the thing I do know about advertising is….its expensive as hell to get your name out there and advertise in other ways. So if somebody is willing to wear your shirt, or hat, or write with your pen, and have a magnet with your name on their refrigerator….then just do it!….hey that’s a slogan for a major company. You see how slogans and branding gets in your head. Keep your name out there and be proud of what you do and you never know who will notice and what will come of it.
Its amazing how designers of women’s stuff like purses, shoes, clothing, etc get women into a frenzied state. The ones that are slaves to designer labels and the brand name will buy ANYTHING with that logo on it….for any price as well! I see some ugly stuff (but what do I know about fashion) with a designer label on it that was outrageously expensive and women (and sometimes guys) eat this stuff up. It’s like having the ability to print money! I guess they wear this stuff as a status symbol to show people how “hip” they are or how much money they have. But it certainly works for many of them. I am not saying that we detailers, or anybody in this business will ever reach branding levels like that……But what I do know is this…..If you are wearing stuff other than your own, with somebody else’s name on it, you have zero chance of gaining any more customers. Advertising is hard and it’s expensive. Wearing your own shirts is easy and relatively cheap advertising.
Oh and by the way, if you were thinking of sending me a t shirt because of my great blogs and my entertaining articles, forget about it! You know I won’t wear them anyway!