After staring at the bumper of the car in front of us for about 20 minutes while crawling our way to have US Customs inspect our passports and ask us why we were visiting Canada ,my daughter Berit asked, "How much do you save on your car lease if you agree to have the dealership's name on your car?"
When I explained to her that there isn't a reduction in price, she asked what only a rationale person would ask, "Then why do they do it?"
Good question. Why do people willing allow their cars to become 24/7 mobile billboards for a car dealership? I have no idea. I also had no idea just how many people feel compelled to use their cars to share a personal brand message.
If you live in New Jersey, you can't do it --at least that's the word from Wikipedia which says New Jersey bans license plate frames--do the legislators have some evidence that license plate frames increase fender benders? I find that hard to believe.
As far as advertising mediums go, the license plate frame seems a rather benign and ineffective method for getting a message out. Who reads this stuff? And if they do read it ,who remembers them?
On Saturday evening, Berit and I did read these plate frames for about 30 minutes on Interstate 5. Much to my surprise, over 50% of the cars had license plate frames..I was astounded. While the majority of them were the traditional auto dealerships ---Honda of Kirkland (with their website address ) , South Center Acura of Seattle, and Downtown Toyota. there were some cars that opted to use the frames as a personal brand billboard.
In that brief time, we saw cars sporting a variety of messages including:
'The Scuba Diver"
"Heading In The Wrong Direction? God Allows U-Turns"
"No island like Samish Island"
"I'd rather be golfing"
"My other car is an airplane"
Is it a west coast thing? I drive around Minneapolis every day and if people are sporting these license plate frames, it is completely lost on me.
According to some out- of- date statistics, back in 2001, car promotion products including key chains and license plate frames were the 1 th best selling promotional products ---accounting for 3.4% of the $18 billion promotional product industry.
Which brings me to a more in your face concept--The ID IT! Plates which claims"tens of thousands" have been sold worldwide"
'Forget bumper stickers and other cheap, cheesy decals. Classy I.D. IT! Plates are available in elegant polished chrome or a luxurious gold matte finish and are carefully hand assembled to your text specifications. They mount safely to your vehicle and have been road tested in the frigid Canadian north and in dry desert heat. Your plate can be run through hundreds of car washes and will probably outlast your car! Click here to see who is using I.D. IT! Plates.
And just who has these I.D. IT! Plates? According to the web site tens of thousands have been sold around the world.
"Webmasters - Small Businesses - Manufacturers - Corporations - Auto Dealerships - Political Organizations - Retail Stores - Limousine Services - Real Estate Companies - MLM's - Internet Businesses - Service Businesses - Schools - Universities - Trade Unions - Associations - Churches - Individuals"
You'd think if tens of thousands of companies have these billboards on their cars that at least one real client would be more than delighted to have her business used in the I.D. IT! promotional materials.Instead, the company uses a pretend company in its promotional material.
Curious isn't it?
. Tags: Business, advertising, car, license plates
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