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Do I need a Sign?
A couple of months ago we got a new van. I have been trying to design something snazzy to put on it for a while now without much success. I was gonna put some stuff in full colour (mostly because a guy we sold a resolve to has owed us £500 for a year now) I wanted some photos etc of the products we sell.
Now my question is…….what is the point? It’s unlikely that a Sign Maker is gonna see it and think….oh I need a new cutter i’ll ring them blokes.
If any of you were trying to sell me a sign how would you do it? Why do I need Signs!
The only slight advantage I can think of is that maybe it will make it less of a target for thieves. I don’t think that is a good enough reason to spend £500 on it though.
Do I get a Sign? or do I send the boys round to collect my monkey?
(thats £500 for those that don’t know) 🙂
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17 Replies
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I would send the boys round to collect your money and get a sign, why do you need one?
Signed vehicles generally give a company more credibility, if youve taken the trouble to signwrite your van theres less chance you are a cowboy who will be out of business tommorrow.
You dont need to be to flash or cover the vehicle with graphics, web addresses are working well at the moment, all the customers whos vehicles have a web address on have reported an increase in hits.
It gets your name seen and that stays in the back of peoples minds, if your looking through yellow pages and you have recently seen someones name else where you automatically think you know them when you read their name in the directory.
MacDonalds are the number one fast food outlet and have been for years, they spend a lot of money on advertising why? to stay number one.
Every business I’ve signed a vehicle for that I have asked and some that have volunteered infomation has reported that their vehicle graphics had led to some kind of sale or genuine interest in their business. -
That has already happened Lorraine, a few years ago when we had a van parked in a hotel car park 😥
The car park was underground with barriers & cctv, the cctv was turned of for a couple of hours though 😡
We don’t leave anything in there anymore, I have been known to carry a cutter up 5 flights of stairs in some cheap hotel without lifts since!
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Some good points there Martin, I think maybe normal vinyl is the way to go. Maybe just our company name & web address. Don’t like phone numbers coz people only use it to phone & complain about my driving! 😳
Maybe I’ll spend the £500 towards getting our web page updated, it still needs a lot of work 😳
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what kind of van is it brian…
why not get it part vinyl part digiprint…
like martin has said its about “being out there ” “being seen”
mcdonalds spend millions on promotions and the like…
they dont need to but there do…the fact your company is at all the sign shows is doing the same thing… even if its to get more sales … you may not sell anything but you appear to be doing well so we buy from you!
i think you know where im coming from…
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couldn’t agree more rob,
I’ve been trying to sort something out for my car, I don’t have to but it’ll help get us known around town! The same thing can be said for your van, I’ve found with a lot of my customers, they buy a van mainly for the advertising space rather than the load capacity (obviously that plays a part though)
ANDY
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It’s a new Astra Rob.
One of the reasons I was thinking of putting big digital prints all over it is because I always think they look a bit strange with normal vinyl. The body lines go all over the place, I don’t remember seeing an Astra that I though looke good with Signs.
Maybe you folks could prove me wrong though, has anybody got any good pics of any they have done?
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when a customer says to me “eh £200 thats a bit steep for a transit…”
i say thats bloody rock bottom mate….
take an avert in the local paper the size of a business card. it will cost you double that! now that same adverty is stuck on a page amonst loads of other adds… after one day that advert is in the bin with the paper..
no more advert no more £400.
take a van advert at £200. it runs about under everyones nose for years on end… has all the company details and makes the van/company look good… now whats money well spent? 🙄 -
What shall I do to get my advert to work then Rob? drive past Sign Making Companies slowly beeping my horn! 😆
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Your Right Brian – I can never get an Astra to look right. I usually try and keep van lettering running level with the road surface – However, on Astra’s that doesn’t look right. I’m of the opinion that if all the lettering is running at the same angle as all the other lettering on each side of the van – then it’ll look right. The Astra is best done this way. Even then – depending on how you look at it – it can stil look wrong. Best to trade in the Astra and buy a Renault Trafic instead. 😆
Joking apart – get the van lettered up – it’s the best value for money advert you can buy. Honest!!
My van gets driven everywhere – shops, Holidays, Zoo, bridge class, Gym, elecution lessons, Chiropodist, Gynacologist, everywhere.. Just for the advertising.
I’m not kidding – I was once out on a job fitting a sign – when I got three serious enquiries for work as a result of my van being seen while I was up a ladder fitting a sign.
OK sales pitch over.
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my website..our website… is only sucessfull because its updated regular with these posts..our posts … this is the reason rob is helping me and doing all the techy stuff behind the scenes. he will shortly have it the first sigmakers site (well that i know of) that is almost totally interactive.
its not that i advertise it just yet nor is it the name… its folk coming in and out all the time … the logo is under there nose on every page…
when somone says give me a uk sign site… i hope they will say try the uksigngroup because its the one that will spring to mind that everyone visits… supplier or sign maker… they participate in some way and it stick in mind…i mentioned merging my contests with a sign mag.. why?
i get coverage and reader participation…
the mag gets the same in return here and in the mag…
we both win out! and its not cost us anything more than what an advert would. but its one with a differnce. it gets folk thinking… taking part. getting the next mag to see who won… what was there entry like and so on… if its a success? then we run another. make the prizes bigger and better… sound good?then go to another page where theres black and white expensive drab adverts… they cost you and there in the bin with the mag… then next month you have to make the advert bigger and better and it costs more…
your van will create an impression. a proffessional one.
if you turned up in a rusty transit and jumped out with jeans and t-shirt
caryying my cutter ide think hohumm hope they dont go bust with my warranty…
but if you nice astra drove up with the latest didgprints and you had shirt and tie on then you think nice van very smart… clean sharp image… you then get the refferals and the second and third sales from us…oh and while im on ill send you a cheque for your new disk. i missed the sign show!
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Yeah I guess the best bet is to align all the graphics to the plastic grey trim that runs down the side. I see loads of Astra’s with text at all kinds of angles on the same van!
On the same subject it seems almost every day I see an old shape Transit that has text on the back doors aligned to the bottom of the windows, the windows aren’t level arghhhh….sorry it winds me up! 😳
Can’t really afford a Trafic Phill, you must be loaded! 😉 Seriously though we only need a small van, when we sell bigger stuff we have it shipped direct to the customer mostly, if not we hire a van. How is the Trafic for MPG? I am sure it is a fair amount more than a small van.
I can understand your signs getting you business, I am amazed at the number of Sign Companies we visit that don’t have their vehicles signed 😕 maybe they have too much work! 😮 For us it is a little different though, our previosu van was signed up & I don’t think it got us any enquieries. That brings me to another reason for the digital stuff, I thought maybe it would be good for us as an advert to show sign companies what the machines we sell we capable of doing.
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Yes Brian – I think in your case a vehicle wrap is what’s required. To promote the cutting edge of signmaking (which is what the equipment you sell is capable of doing). It’ll teach us common or garden signmakers what to aspire to.
The Trafic gets about 48mpg which is better than the caddy I used to have – and a lot quicker.
Vehicle wrap for you – definately 😉
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quote rightsigns:Yes Brian – I think in your case a vehicle wrap is what’s required. To promote the cutting edge of signmaking (which is what the equipment you sell is capable of doing). It’ll teach us common or garden signmakers what to aspire to.
The Trafic gets about 48mpg which is better than the caddy I used to have – and a lot quicker.
Vehicle wrap for you – definately 😉
48mpg? are you sure? blimey as many as the Astra i think! I have heard they are a nice drive as well, is that true? If so maybe we shoulda signed up for a bit more credit! 😆
I’ll get the wrap printed & drive my van to Rob’s place, he is the expert with vehicle wrapping 🙂
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Sorry Brian – you were right to challenge my claim of 48mpg. Actualy 38mpg is the combined figure claimed by Renault. But with the high Gearing of the 6 speed box – I reckon 48mpg would be achievable on a long steady run. It’s certainly more economical than my last van – a 1.9 diesel VW caddy. 😀
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HI Guys About the sign on the van Like some katz had aready told you you need to advertise for you company so do full color print showing hat you sell and dont worry about the customer you will atract the ones that count you have to spend some cash to make cash
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I have done lots of vans and the only way i have been able to
make then look, right is by making them look right (hope that makes sense)
what i mean is sometimes measuring is no good at all……
put the vinyl on stand back look at it
IF IT LOOKS RIGHT IT IS RIGHT!!!
no techinical measuring just make it look right……..
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