[Marketing
is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer
requirements profitably]. The Chartered
Institute of Marketing (CIM)
I hope that this basic information will
help you take a critical look at your current business marketing; and this
article will give you the key elements that all detailing business owners need
to be aware of... There are many important words in business but there is one
that holds the key to entrepreneurial wealth and that word is 'Marketing.'
It is the mainstay of business and
although it’s not a panacea, it is the one thing that if you don’t get right
will kill your business stone dead even in the best of times. Marketing is what
gets people to come to your business and try out your products and services. If
you do a great job for them or delight them with your products, then it’s this
fact and your ongoing marketing that’ll keep them coming back over and over
again. And that’s where the real money is: the ongoing relationship with your
customer
Marketing is the wide range of
activities that involve making sure that you're continuing to meet or exceed
the needs of your customers and are getting appropriate value in return. It can
mean direct-mail advertising, e-mail marketing, traditional media like print
and radio ads, couponing, and non-traditional approaches like websites, blogs
and social networking through the Internet. The most successful form of marketing
is ‘word of mouth’ referrals and repeat clients
Being good at what you do is 25% the
balance is business acumen, client relationships and marketing yourself and
your services and product. Strive to offer customer-focused services that
differentiate your company from the competition. Ensure that your marketing
focuses on customer’s needs as opposed to what you think they want
Marketing Plan
A fundamental question; what is my
target market demographic and what exactly am I marketing? Is it a detailing
service, protection of investment; preservation of their leisure time or is it
to gratify their ego?
With a well thought out business and a
solid marketing plan, a good work ethics, quality tools, products and
workmanship, along with outstanding customer service, knowledge and experience
of products and the tools of your trade you'll be on your way to achieving
success.
Take a step back from your business and
start thinking outside the box and begin looking at your marketing in a totally
new way. (See also “Essentials for Starting a Business” article)
A few questions to enable you to form a
marketing strategy
• Target market - who are my potential
customers?
• Where can I find potential customers?
• Branding strategy - what would make my
services attractive to them?
• Pricing strategy - how can I motivate
potential customers to buy from me?
• Promotional strategy - how do I reach
potential customers?
• Customer – acquisition and retention
Take time to answer these questions as
accurately as possible.
Internal Analysis
• Vision -what do we want to be?
• Relative strengths
• Relative weaknesses
• Opportunities
SWOT Analysis
Everyone’s heard of S.W.O.T. analysis,
haven’t they? You need to read, learn and know more about your competitors,
your customers and your marketplace than anyone else. SWOT analysis is a great
place to start. Get a blank piece of paper and list the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats for your business and those of your nearest
competitors. SWOT analysis – as old as the hills but still effective – it will
make you think about your business from a new angle and should ideally be
repeated once a year at least.
External Analysis
• The current economy and business
environment
• The Market Place
• Competition - who are they, what do
they offer?
• Market share - in each key market
• E-commerce/ technology
Expert positioning
Any time your name appears in print, you
are automatically an expert. People believe what they read on the Internet,
read in the newspaper or see on the TV. It can be as simple as writing a small
column in a local paper, most of these papers are crying out for quality
content. They have little money to pay freelancers to write for them and might
very well welcome material from you.
Understanding who your target is should
help you decide how to communicate with them. Getting a sense of their needs
will help you decide the best way to communicate to them. The answers will also
help you develop a communication strategy. The key with all your communication
- be it words or pictures - is you want to develop an emotional bond with your
consumer. Pictures done well help deliver an emotional bond at a different
level than words alone. That's why the best ads almost always will have a combination
of words and pictures.
Article marketing
Has definitely become one of the best
things out there when it comes to promoting websites and businesses today, you
will find that many individuals are turning to this form of marketing in order
to promote their business. Article marketing is one of the most popular tools
which people use today to gain more and more traffic to their websites.
On top of everything else, you also need
to make sure that you write numerous articles in the same niche. You should
also keep the same name on the articles you write, as this will help to build
up a good reputation on the Internet, which will be great for your business
Target market
For example, a few years ago Michelin
ran an ad for tyres. All it was, was a Michelin tyre with a baby sitting on top
and the ad said something like "Aren't they worth it?" See the
emotional connection?
You're not just buying a tyre; you are
buying safety for your family so of course you will spend whatever you have to.
The campaign was hugely successful. [Based on an idea by MB fan, TID forum]
Potential customers are most probably;
professional with higher than average disposable income, aware of maintaining
their professional image, an automotive enthusiasts with more money than time.
You must understand that auto detailing
is a niche market. It is not easy to define exactly who the target market is
One marketing sector- people will be of above average incomes that truly care
about the appearance of their cars;, doctors and surgeons, realtors, dentist
and oral surgeons (perhaps to project their professional image) golf course,
health spas and gyms or automotive enthusiasts with more money than time and
are willing and able to pay a premium for a detailing service. Quality and
outstanding customer service creates its own demand
If you live in an area where there are
people with prestige cars and high disposable incomes, the sky is the limit.
Customers in this type of niche market will have their vehicles detailed on a
fairly regular basis, especially during the concourse show season. Building
long lasting customer relationships should be your main goal, ideally you want
to establish a customer base that uses you not only for the major concourse
details, but also for maintaining their vehicles on a weekly to monthly basis.
Build a solid portfolio of before/after
vehicle correction photographs, word of mouth, show your work on various
enthusiast Internet forums, and maybe even put ads into some car enthusiast
publications (i.e. Local Porsche publication (PCA FSR: Horizontally Opposed,
etc.) Most car clubs put out a newsletter or have a website. Advertising there
is usually pretty reasonable. Also, car shows/events are good for marketing.
They are usually populated with car wash & wax operators as opposed to true
detailer’s.
Marketing copy
Should be a personal communication to
the individual reading it; it should be about them, addressing their needs, and
it should constantly communicate how you can meet and even exceed those needs
and the benefits of what services you are offering. At the end of the ad you
need a call to action, that means you must state exactly what they need to do
to obtain the benefits of the services you offer ( contact number, e-mail
address, website, etc.) and you must make it easy for them to do so.
It can sometimes be misconstrued to be a
product vendor’s catalogue, or a vendor pretending to be an educator, as there
are a lot of companies that are now using forums and YouTube video’s on
detailing and preaching that only the product they sell or manufacture are
suitable. Posted articles (thread) should be a true ‘How-to’ for educational
purposes, not a lame attempt at a sales pitch
In reality they are just advertisements,
with the appearance of educators as opposed to mere salesman.
Commercialism
brings with it concerns of honesty and true representation. In other words,
it’s difficult to know what is true when someone is motivated by income, i.e.
directly targeted at product sales, more so than an unbiased opinion.
Types of marketing copy
a) Factual information = neither theory
or subjective opinion
B) Marketing Hype = Blurring the
distinction between science and fiction
c) Opinion = Not necessarily fact or
fiction but usually highly subjective
d) Advertised Claims= Nothing more than
advertising copy of dubious functional validity.
Negative Marketing
In business negative marketing involves
making your competition look bad. This is a ploy used in order to make their
product look better than yours in the eyes of the consumer. While some people
may find this to be unfair or unethical it is a marketing strategy used all the
time. Why? Because it gets attention and it really seems to work. Promoting the
strengths and advantages of your own product is much more effective; but it takes
creativity and intellectual effort. Negative Marketing, which slanders
competition, is a new and growing trend
Prospects for Success
By providing a value added service that
meets or exceeds their needs, believe me customers will come to you in droves.
Auto detailing presents vast opportunities for motivated individuals. It is an
industry in its infancy. Only about 20 percent of the population knows what
auto detailing is, and less than 15 percent have purchased detailing services.
Yet, auto detailing is a huge industry. The biggest challenge for the industry
is educating the public.
As the number of detail shops continues
to grow, the public slowly is becoming aware of the service. The average price
of a new car is over $20,000. That level of investment warrants maintaining the
resale value by maintaining and protecting the vehicles exterior and interior.
People are keeping their cars an average
of nearly nine years. During this time, they need more services than washing,
waxing, and vacuuming the inside i.e. specialist services such as Paintless
dent repair (PDR) carpet dyeing, paint surface renovation, leather dying and
repair, etc. (See also A Vehicles Condition and How it Affects Resale Price)
Testimonials
All of us in businesses can make better
use of testimonials. Why are they so powerful? Because, no matter how strong
your sales and marketing skills, no matter how well you communicate the
benefits of your products and services, nothing communicates the quality of
what you are offering better than the words of other people who have
experienced doing business with you.
The best testimonials give a detailed
and specific description of how the person has benefited from what you have to
offer. Let’s suppose an accountant wants to use testimonials.
“David is a great detailer and I highly
recommend him” is not a particularly effective testimonial. The following would
be much better because it specifically describes the benefits of hiring Jon:
“John is a great accountant. He takes all
the hassle away from taking care of my vehicles and is always available to
answer my questions. Just one piece of advice that he gave me a few months ago
saved me $2,000 when I traded in one of my vehicles. Above all I trust him. He
started as my detailer, but has become a trusted advisor. If your vehicle
requires a top notch paint renovation and detailing - I strongly recommend
calling him today.”
One of the biggest obstacles to growing
your business is convincing people that you can really deliver on your
promises. A testimonial does it for you. So when customers tell you they’re
pleased with you, don’t be shy. Ask if they would be willing to share their
experience with others. Most will actually jump at the chance to write you a
testimonial. You know what it’s like to experience a great product or service.
It’s so unusual you want to let others know about it.
Include your customer’s name and if
appropriate their business name on the testimonial. Don’t use anonymous
testimonials because people don’t believe them.
If you are starting a new business, plan
to make testimonials an integral part of your marketing from the outset. You
could even give your first customers a price reduction if they’ll write you a
great testimonial.
Don’t under estimate the power of
testimonials. They can increase your conversion rates by 30% or more.
Photography
Another useful piece of marketing copy
is a photographic portfolio of your detailing work. Try to show a cross-section
of vehicles. Ferrari and Lamborghinis are great but include some everyday
vehicles (unless of course this is only the market segment you sell too). Show
a cross section of before and after details and don’t forget to show a few
vehicle interiors, after all that’s were most drivers spend most of their time
As a professional detailer you need to showcase your work as best you can. A
portfolio of your detailing work is a great selling tool. Internet detailing
forums all have a section (Detail Gallery) were you can showcase your work as a
form of advertising to potential clients. A decent camera with a great lens
makes the world of difference. Without good photographs, people find it
difficult to imagine what a difference a proper detail can make, after all you
cannot describe a ‘look’ with just words, as they say a picture is worth a
thousand of them
If you've ever removed red-eye from a
photograph, or used a spell checker to correct an essay, then you know how
computer software can enhance a raw photographic image.
• Take photographs when the sun is
setting
• Use digital a photograph in an editing
software picture editing program (i.e. Paint Shop Professional X1) you can also
adjust contrast, and white balance from the camera
• Open the digital photos in a picture
editing software program and use the tools to "sharpen" the image.
The end result is a better, more finely tuned picture.
Does the camera ever lie?
Photographs can now be digitally altered to
tell an entirely different story. In the age of the airbrush, can we ever
really believe our eyes?
Software like Photoshop CS5 Content
Aware is a simple and easy program that allows users to ‘desaturate’ the
background enough so there is still colour; Selective Colour this will make the
‘subject’ more vibrant than the background without being too obvious, or fill
in parts of the photo that are not desirable and allows easy manipulation of
images, but just be careful what claims you make for a product with ‘enhanced’
photographs (i.e.’ Truth in Advertising’ ) as a professional detailer you will
be expected to replicate this in your work
Very subtle differences in shadowing are
often a give-away. Identifying exactly where the shadows fall on an image
reveals where the light source must have been to have created that shade.
Re-touching: sharpening blurred or under lit detail, but proportions of basic
colours in sequences of pixels are often not balanced after a re-touch.
Lighting -by analysing all
shadows in an image, scientists can tell whether a shot had a single light source.
RAW pictures; uploading jpeg images to a computer allows its hard drive, which
is much bigger than the camera’s, so that you can manipulate the picture on a
computer, which is not possible on a camera that simply records .jpeg images.
Is
this then cheating? Liken it to the ‘air-brushed’ photographs of fashion models
or celebrities, it has very little to do with reality, you are creating an
illusion that people ‘want’ to believe.
Current Information
To be of real practical use,
a subject like automotive detailing requires a great deal of research, and
updating as new products become available. The advent of materials like
detailing clay, micro fibre technologies and finely milled micro diminishing
abrasives, suitable for ceramic nanotechnology paints are examples of why it’s
so important to monitor the industries new products, chemical technologies and
ideas that are constantly being introduced, as are the techniques for applying
them, hence all of the in-depth articles will be up-dated and revised on a
regular basis
Always be
willing to learn; because the more you learn, the more you’ll realize what you
don’t know. It is
said that knowledge is power, with the caveat that it includes access to a
reliable information sources. I would like to think
that these articles become an asset to anyone who is new to detailing and to
professional’s alike, as well as industry experts who seek to advance their
knowledge.
I
hope these articles are informative. They are based on the current status of
technical development as well as my experience with the products.
By having
some understanding of the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ as well as the ‘How’ along with a
little science to help you understand how the chemicals we use react, you can
achieve the results you desire.
I would appreciate it if you would share
these articles as it helps other detailers further their knowledge.
As always if you have questions, I’ll do
my best to answer; bear in mind the only stupid questions is the one that was
unasked. Questions and/ or constructive comments are always appreciated
Copyright
© 2002 - 2015 TOGWT® (Established 1980) all rights reserved
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