Become aWrap - Dream Street Graphics

J A N UARY 2012
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Become a Wrap
Specialist
> Green Showcase
> Monuments
Ve h i c l e W r a p s
B y J e f f Wo o t e n
(Don’t Drive) Naked Ambition
A controversial marketing campaign
and focus pays off for one company.
It’s probably not too often that
one gets the opportunity to tell a gathering of business owners and leaders, “Don’t drive naked!” But for one wrap specialist, doing so has led to what he feels has been one of the
best business decisions of his life. This liberating step has
even transformed his company into a prime success story
in today’s questionable economic climate.
Four years ago, John Wiley, founder and owner of Dream
Street Graphics (www.dontdrivenaked.net) in Indianapolis,
Indiana, started feeling that his then-twelve-year-old business
was taking on too much by offering customers anything that
could be produced using its two wide format printers. Then
the economy took a swan dive, which led him to restrategize
his shop strictly as a vehicle wrap specialist.
reasons for this turnaround—focus, premium services…
and, oh yeah, that aforementioned nudity.
A Million-to-one Odds
Although Dream Street Graphics has always promoted
vehicle graphics at its core, Wiley found that, as it was
growing bigger and snagging national accounts, they were
also accepting requests for additional output like business
cards, refrigerator magnets, and T-shirts. “The next thing
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Sign Builder Illustrated January 2012
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF DREAM STREET GRAPHICS.
The result: Business has actually tripled! There are many
January 2012 Sign Builder Illustrated
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come tell me they didn’t have to heart to
tell them that they didn’t agree. Then
they’ll ask me what I can do for them.
“So our detractors are practically our
unpaid sales people!”
we knew, we had two full-time admin
people on our staff chasing down suppliers, and we were busy trying to keep
track of all the vendors we’d outsourced
jobs to,” he remembers.
Wiley decided it was time to just focus
on designing, creating, and installing
vehicle wraps. And he hasn’t looked back.
“No one likes to sacrifice revenue, but
life got simple when we made the decision to cut everything else away,” says
Wiley. “Customers feel that you know
what you’re talking about when you know
so much about your specialty.”
Wiley eliminated anything that failed
to support his rededicated focus—including unnecessary samples, catalogs, and
even office furniture. “Focus is liberating. I gave thousands of dollars worth of
inventory away to other sign shops that I
no longer compete with,” he remarks. “In
fact, I confidently refer everything but
vehicle graphics to the companies that I
previously considered competition—
even if they do vehicle graphics as well.”
But this was only one stage of the plan.
Wiley didn’t know it at the moment, but
it was time to employ naked ambition.
Marketing Takes Off (Its Clothes)
Another element to this company’s
success can be attributed to its contro-
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versial marketing campaign, “Don’t
Drive Naked®,” which features sensual
graphics wrapped onto whatever Wiley
can get his hands on. So far, this
includes golf carts, a bread truck, two
mini-vans, an SUV, and even his office
manager’s Mercury Grand Marquis.
Wiley came up with the attentiongrabbing concept after attending his umpteenth networking workshop where he felt
more time was devoted to catchphrases
than actual business-generating ideas. “I
kept hearing, ‘Work smarter, not harder!’
he recalls. “And I’d look at them and go,
‘Yeah but what if you’re dumber?’”
Now Wiley is anything but dumb.
Although he’s been involved with vehicle graphics for thirty years now (beginning as a pinstriper), like lots of other
business owners, he was unsure how to
find customers to work smarter for.
After being told that well-dressed
companies get the customers they want,
Wiley realized, “Not having effective
graphics was, in effect, driving around
naked, so I told the other attendees that
it’s important to ‘don’t drive naked.’
“There was a hush that seemed to last
forever when I sat down. I thought I’d
stuck my foot in my mouth. Then the
entire room roared with laughter.”
Yet it appears Wiley is getting the last
Sign Builder Illustrated January 2012
laugh with this branding.
In developing this campaign, Wiley
knew he needed a memorable image; to
him, this meant an attractive woman. So
he tracked down a royalty-free image of a
perfect model (deemed “Sasha”) strategically positioned. “It was champagne taste
but on a beer budget,” laughs Wiley.
These wrapped vehicles are driven
around town to job sites and special
events. This generates lots of exposure
and has allowed Wiley to tap into viral
marketing (word of mouth, Internet, etc.).
“Viral is about everyone talking about
you—whether good or bad,” he says.
Yes, as you’d expect, this suggestive
marketing has generated a love it-orhate it reaction. “We’ve got that small
margin of people on the left who love
us and that small margin on the right
who hate us,” says Wiley. “But they’re
all talking about us, which is making
everyone in the middle listen too.”
A timid man by nature, Wiley struggled with implementing this campaign,
but he came to terms early on about not
being able to service potential customers
offended by this campaign. But everything has ended up working in his favor.
“The people who hate us are telling
people they can’t believe what I’m
doing,” he says. “These people, in turn,
The People Behind the Dream
This bare-all campaign would be fruitless if it were all hype and no substance.
But Wiley knew it was important to surround himself with knowledgeable
employees to reinforce the vehicle graphics specialist status. So each of his three
installers has at least ten years of full
body wrap experience, while his three
designers are “quick conceptually.”
This has led to a talent for quick turnaround jobs. Since they now only stock the
materials needed for wraps, response time
for jobs has been sliced by a day or two.
This streamlining has even led to an
enhanced commitment to customer
service. “We measure how fast we submit our first design drafts, respond to
change requests, and send quotes,” says
Wiley. “We’re even able to call the customer and let them know an email is
waiting for them in their inbox.”
Dream Street Graphics works on both
full and partial wraps, which is always
dictated by the customer’s budget. “I won’t
sell to anybody who doesn’t need it or
someone who can’t afford it,” says Wiley.
You won’t ever find Wiley upselling
either, as he believes this tactic violates the
trust he’s set up with a customer. “I’ll ask
them what they’re comfortable with and
then tell them that I’m going to bust my
butt to make them as visible as possible
within that budget,” he explains. “If they
tell us they only have $700, we’ll probably
end up doing a $900 job for $700.
“This will encourage them to come
back to us for more work later and spread
the word about us.”
Although the national franchise companies Dream Street Graphics services
already have their wrap designs figured
out in advance, most other customers
first sit down with one of the designers
to brainstorm ideas. “Designers have to
be able to communicate with the customer,” says Wiley. “They can’t be hidden away in a room somewhere.”
Wiley believes it’s important to first
talk to customers and find out “who” they
want to reach and “what” they want to say
to their customers. He’ll then show them
three basic price ranges and establish a
budget. “Design is paid in whole, in
advance,” he states. “Once the customer
approves, we schedule the installation
quickly and on their schedule—even if
that means overtime hours for us.”
Wiley’s shop can host as many as two
pretty big vehicles at a time. “We make
really good use of our space and our overhead,” says Wiley. “That way, I can spend
more money on my people and my marketing and not on a building.” (Note: Wiley
and his installers also perform applications
off-site—for example, large fleets unable
to be brought in at once—and only request
a “dry, warm day” to do so.)
Location, Location, Location
Dream Street Graphics is fortuitously
located along a busy highway. This prime
location allows Wiley to show off not only
his Don’t Drive Naked vehicles but also
his customer’s finished wraps by strategically positioning them in his front parking
lot. “It’s even better that there’s always a
traffic jam in front of our building every
day around four o’clock,” he says.
Not only does this benefit Wiley’s
business, but it also benefits his clients.
“It’s a win-win for both parties,” he says.
“Sometimes clients will even ask if we’ll
keep it an extra day or two for the free
advertising.”
They’ve Got You Covered
Rebooting his business has allowed
Wiley to take advantage of the “premium”
concept he strongly believes in—paying
his tight-knit employees a premium salary, setting up shop at a premium location,
using premium vinyl materials, etc.
Wiley also understands that, for some
sign makers, narrowing services down
to one focus can be a frightening proposition. “But customers aren’t ignorant,”
he says. “They’ll know when you’re
struggling with something.
“If you did just building wraps, for
example, you can build relationships
with all the people you used to call
competitors and have them help you
with other things.”
While the Don’t Drive Naked marketing stratagem isn’t for everybody, Wiley
does challenge other shops to escape
their comfort zones. “In marketing, we
occasionally have to push past timidity
and fear of loss,” he says, “The economy
made our phone stop ringing, so I felt I
didn’t have much to lose.” b
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