My good buddy Chuck Burke told me you guys were talking about my van so I had to check it out.
I didn't even know that Harding had posted the images to their website, not that it matters. Jim is a good guy and if it helps his business then I think that's great.
To answer a few questions that seem to have popped up regarding the graphics and cost (if you really wanted to know...):
Cost - all I'll really say about that is that the ranges quoted on this thread were accurate. However, we used graphics that were developed for our corporate catalog so that cost was already largely taken care of...and that has the potential to be a big number. The pretty blonde girl was a friend of someone at Harding and I think we paid her a few bucks to be our model.
On the alignement of the graphics: I toiled over this one because they are actually crooked in relation to the "lines" of the van. However, because the rear end of the van sits high (heavy duty shocks), the graphics are actually level with the road. That was Jim's idea and I think that due to the nature of our business (I can spot a crooked plate a mile away) it still kind of bugs me. But when you're driving down the road or see it across the street, you don't notice the lines of van so you only see the graphics as being level. That was Jim's argument and it works for me (except when I get too close and that "crooked image" creeps into my head).
Does it pay dividends? I'd have to say "absolutely". We constantly get comments about it from our customers. It helps to keep us visible around town. We have two locations so it's always traveling between the two or making deliveries so it gets seen pretty often. We park it parallel to a another street so everyone can't help but see it when they drive by. No regrets in doing it at all.
Someone asked if it makes my customers think we charge more to help pay for it. I would hope not. But I'll say that if they think that because of what they see on our van then they'll probably never buy from us when they see our showroom. It's very nice and generates tons of comments from our customers ("Wow", or "This isn't what I expected" etc.). I think that people want to shop at successful businesses because it adds to their confidence level and I also think they want to shop in nice, attractive showrooms. If someone doesn't want to buy from us because of our prices there is really very little we can do about it. But we strive for a professional approach and after people compare they'll find that we really aren't any more than anyone else. But we put forth a higher perceived value (we like to think at least).
Hope this helps,
Sam
Sam Varn, President
Awards4U
1387 E. Lafayette Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 878-7187 |
