Obsessive Car Detailers

Obsessive Car Detailers Advertisement Consultation

The Situation & Plan The Situation

Target Audiences

O.C.D is the only car detailing company in Rexburg and holds the market there. It has a good downtown location in the shopping district of Rexburg that will help draw customers as they are out and about doing their errands.

Also O.C.D’s pickup and return service allows for business people to have their car cleaned while they are getting other things done. These aspects are some very good strength in favor of O.C.D. Some weaknesses right now are the lack of advertising, the relative anonymity of the company, and competition from cheaper car wash and vacuum spots in Rexburg along with other car detailers in Idaho Falls. O.C.D needs a road sign that will let the community know they are open and ready to do business. It is important to capitalize on their location and show potential customers where to come for a good car detailing.

The road sign will help people to know who and what they are, but the key will be to getting advertisements out to the car owners of Rexburg. This will help O.C.D to become known as Rexburg’s one and only car detailing shop. The advertising will also help people to understand the advantages to a detailing as opposed to the self washing and vacuuming places that could be competing for customers with O.C.D.

Obsessive Car Detailers has two target audiences. The primary is the local community; college students make up the secondary target audience. Specifically with the local target audience we want to reach those that have potential to be long-term clients. A good example would be younger families that have settled in the community long term. These families have relatively new cars that they desire to keep in prime condition for years to come.

To better reach these families we plan on catering the advertisements to women that would normally feel uncomfortable going into any type of car garage. We feel to reach them it is best to give OCD a clean and wellmaintained reputation not only for their work, but for their workspace as well. This will help OCD break away from the normal stereotype that these women have about auto shops.

The secondary target audience consists of college students, as there is a large population of them in Rexburg.

These students tend to be on a tight budget and don’t have as much money to spare on expensive, elaborate detailing.

For this reason we feel that the $22 double deuces can be successfully targeted to this group. Within our campaign we also have some ideas that will help build a returning base of college students for the 4 or so years they live in Rexburg.

There may be a constant turnover, but once OCD is well known on campus there will always be students replacing those who move.

Strategies

1. Window Washing

Have someone in a white jumpsuit with window cleaning supplies waiting by the stop light nearest their store location. When a car stops at the light he runs out and washes their windshield and gives them a flier (and possibly air freshener). The flier will include information about services and prices. Most print places will print black and white for about 5 cents per page. If the fliers are quarter page size it would only cost just over a penny per flier. If the fliers are half sheet size then a flier cost about 2.5 cents per flier. If fliers are printed in color they will cost about 50 cents per page or 25 cents per half sheet or 12.5 cents per quarter sheet.

This will work great because it’s low cost and will attract a lot of attention. The only cost will be for fliers and possibly air fresheners.

This will be a good way of creating

awareness not only of the existence of the store but also where it is.

The guy washing window will also be able to direct people to the store. Even if he ran out of fliers the window washer would be able be able to direct people to the store. He will also been seen by a lot more than just the people whose cars he washes everyone waiting at he light will be able to see him and will be curious about what he is doing. This will create buzz. People will talk about the guy washing windows and word will spread.

Word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertisement because it come from a source other than the seller and because it’s free.

2. Air Fresheners/ Punch Cards Air Fresheners are an essential part of the car cleaning experience. Customers like having that pine or pina colada cent in their car to remind them how clean a wonderful their car is. One element businesses do to get return customers is give them a punch card that can serve as a reminder. After a certain number of purchases they receive a free item, or a discount service. By combining the air freshener and the punch card into one element would serve as a reminder for customers but not as disposable as the punch card that gets thrown in the wallet and purse and lost in the shuffle of papers. Every time an OCD customer looks at their rear view mirror they get a reminder for who detailed their car and when they need to go back.

Air fresheners are available on line from different vendors at prices ranging from $1.84 a piece for 200 to $0.30 a piece for 10,000. One made in America website offers full color custom air fresheners with the ability to put owns on label and information on the air freshener. Another Australian website also offers full customization for the air

fresheners along with other options.

These are low priced products that can be customized for O.C.D. They can be given out after the detailing, with a little reminder for what date the customer should return for their next cleaning. The added punch card could offer a $22 discount after 4 or 5 visits (a free “Deuces” or $22 off other services).

The air fresheners will be a perfect little billboard hanging in customer’s cars for other passengers to see and as a constant reminder of O.C.D. The Air Freshener is the perfect idea for a punch card for OCD. They need something that will keep customers coming back, and by having a useful punch card, one that adds a touch of pine to the freshly cleaned car smells and dangles from the rear view mirror as a constant reminder, customers will be able to get a discount for returning after a few visits. We talked about getting $22 off after 4 or 5 visits with the presentation of the punch card/ air freshener. Air Fresheners cost 35 to 50 cents apiece on orders from 500 units on up. We have contacted http://www.

Strategies 3. Wrap Advertisement

Wrap advertisement is defined as: the act of partially or fully covering a vehicle with advertisements or livery. It has been in practice sine the 1940s starting with bumper stickers, and has since evolved through window clings, custom paint jobs, decals, and most recent vinyl wraps.

According the American Trucking Association: wrap advertisement has been found to have a 97% recall rate. Meaning that 97% of those surveyed remember seeing the wrapped cars. Of those who recalled seeing the wrapped car, 91% were able to recall some of the text used, and 80% remembered specifically what was being advertised. This resulted in an average increase in sales of 107% The prime example of success from Wrap Advertisement would

be the redbull mini coopers.

Before redbull even put together their first TV ad they had these sleek little cars driving all over college campuses passing out free redbull. The result was a massive boom in sales.

After the success that redbull found in wrap advertising dozens of other companies followed suite and started building their own fleets of wrapped vehicles.

Success has varied, but overall it has been proven to be a very effective way to advertise for a variety of products.

Vehicle wraps have been proven to be effective, but that comes at a price. The less expensive vinyl that tends to wear out after a couple of years ranges from $5-8 a square foot. To have a full size car wrapped in this material it costs anywhere from $500 to

over $1000 depending on the complexity of the graphics and how much of the car is actually covered. There is also in many places a higher quality option that has been proven to last upwards of 5 years. This higher quality material tends to cost between $12-18 per square foot. This puts the cost of a full size car around $2,000-3,000.

If the price of a full wrap seems out of budget, partial wrap jobs are also available as well as spot decals. These range anywhere from $200-800 depending on the size and level of detail. The downside being that they are less noticeable.

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Strategies 4. Advertising via Craigslist The website: www.craigslist.org has been a national classified and forum website for over 10 years, and now services 50 countries in 6 languages. Craigslist has been used by many businesses over a variety of markets as an effective tool for advertising products and services.

So what is the advantage of using craigslist as part of an advertising campaign? Quite simply it is free. After a user signs up for an account they are allowed to post as many ads as they want and as often as they want. All advertisements will be listed for 30 days, and there is no cost to repost the same add. For this reason it is advised to post your personal add twice a week to ensure that it remains near the top of the listings.

Another advantage of using craigslist is how little time it takes.

The site uses a preset template

that allows the user to post a title, location, business address, and a description of services and products offered. OCD can also have its ads posted specifically to eastern Idaho. Users may also post their address, which will be linked to google maps to help possible customers locate your business quickly. Up to four pictures may also be included at no additional fee.

Reposting is encouraged, but unfortunately has not been made a simplified process yet.

However, it still only takes a couple minutes to repost an ad.

Users may just copy and past each section of the ad into a new template and post it again.

To speed up this process, it is encouraged to keep any photos used in a convenient folder on your hard drive.

To implement craigslist for OCD we would write up an ad

and take four pictures to post with it. The photos would most likely include: a before shot of a car, an after shot of the same car, the building, and a flyer with prices. Craigslist may end up being a very successful tool for OCD, because it is effective for raising awareness of the company at no cost and only a small time investment.

In review, those who view the ad will have quick access to: the prices of OCD’s services, a google map of where OCD is located and photos that promote the business. A phone number and e-mail address should also be listed to allow craigslist users to contact OCD with specific questions or concerns as this will encourage potential clients to investigate further into what OCD has to offer them.

Other Suggestions:

-Direct Mailers -Taglines -Surveys -Bright and Colorful light -Logo needs to get done -Clean up the garage(a nice waiting area)

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Conclusion: Obsessive Car Detailers needs to improve their advertisement to combat the community’s unfamiliarity with their business. A sign in front of their business would be a catalyst to this cause; it would inform the public about the business. Such advertisements should be targeted to local families, specifically women, to facilitate the formation of a reputable establishment.

Obsessive Car Detailers need also advertise the $22 double deuces to college students who may lack the funds to purchase other services from OCD. The competition is not very strong for Obsessive Car Detailers, so there is a great advantage in advertising their name immediately. As the first car detailer business in Rexburg, their acquired clientele would be easier to retain. The closest competition to OCD is in Idaho Falls, too far to pose any risk of losing clientele. Obsessive Car Detailers has great potential to do well in Rexburg.