Fully Covered Vehicle Wraps
By Richie Ladner
Owner/Operator of Creative Sign and Banner
As a person who makes his living designing and producing signs, banners, vehicle wraps you might think after reading this that I have proverbially “shot myself in the foot”. Who in the world undersells his product? If you read through, you’ll find it is to simply protect the customer.
Why does any business want to wrap or mark their company vehicle? They are using it as an advertising tool to generate more business. The more people see it, the more potential business is received from it, yes? Well, not necessarily. For me personally, a fully wrapped vehicle for business is a waste of profits because most times it is completely ineffective.
I have seen many beautiful and eye-attracting full-bodied wraps going down the highway, no doubt designed by some highly-skilled designer sitting behind desktop computer. A proof is printed out on a sheet of paper and approved by the customer. It is then printed on vinyl and skilled technicians install onto the car, truck or van. The customer looks at the finished product and is very happy. His employees drive it everywhere for all to see, hoping to recuperate his investment with new sales from the visibility of his new wrap. But it never comes. The phone doesn't ring. Why? Because the designer, while very skilled to design, has made quite a few errors.
A vehicle wrap has only mere seconds to make any impression. We are not talking 10, 7 or even 5 seconds. Sometimes only 2 seconds! If the most predominate thing about your wrap is how beautiful or eye-catching, you have just wasting $2,500 to $5,000 of your hard-earned money. Your prospects will only remember what they saw was nice-looking but can not retain who it belonged to! The designer has NO EXPERIENCE in sign-making. Sign-makers know how far a 6” letter can be seen. Sign-makers know to use high-contrasting color combinations to make text and graphics stand out and be quickly interpreted. Advertising Designers do not use these and other proper techniques when designing wraps. Don't blame them. Blame the company that wowed you into an ineffective wrap design.
So, the next time you drive, start looking around for different types of business vehicle markings. How long does it take you to identify the business name? Tag line? Phone number? Most times you will not be able to and that’s a darn shame. From this small exercise, you’ll know how best to spend your money when it comes to marking your business vehicle.
Along with his wife Susie, Richie owns and operates Creative Sign and Banner in Metairie, LA. He has been in the sign business since 1989.