"Seventy five percent of everything sold in a carwash lobby is impulse...You can drive your car without Betty Boop car mats or without an air freshener. You don’t really need these things."
What works for car wash owner can also work for sign businesses. You can increase your bottom line by displaying items your customers can buy on impulse while they're picking up their signs and banners.
Few items trigger as many impulse purchases as our love of the automobile. Having customizable license plate blanks available in your shop can add to your bottom line quickly.One of the keys to selling impulse purchases is to price it low enough that the customer doesn't have to deliberate on the value proposition. You can price finished license plate blanks at $19.95 for quick sale and have a handsome profit margin.
Tis' the Season to Make Money
Part of the secret of selling impulse items is to focus on what’s in season. Football-themed plates will, of course, sell better in the fall, baseball in the spring, and so on. So now’s the time to cut some Mighty Mongoose graphics (or whoever your local team is) and see if you can hunt down some extra revenue.
Popular Brands Help Sell Profitable Plates
In addition to seasonality, branding can be an easy connection to moving license plates.
According to a study conducted by Central Michigan University psychology professor Bryan Gibson, undergraduate college students were more likely to make impulse purchases connected to their favorite brands of soft drink. Gibson concluded, "The results of this research suggest that our intuitions and feelings about brands may lead us to choose them, particularly when we are distracted," said Gibson.
Target the brand connection by preparing some blanks with Ford, Chevy, and Toyota logos, and maybe a three-pointed star or two. That makes the emotional connection that leads to more impulse buying. Of course, some states, including Texas and Ohio, require passenger vehicles to be tagged front and back with the state’s plate. But in areas where the state government hasn't reserved that ad space, you can turn the front bumper into an opportunity for profitable impulse purchases.
