Are you starting a sign business, or considering starting one? If so, this new book will introduce you to many of the important facets involved in running a sign shop. Getting Started in the Sign Business ...
Yes, Virginia, banners can be profitable
Your customer wants a sign that has the pulling power of a black hole; it has to reach out and suck in everyone that comes within reading range. This sign needs to withstand the elements for months, even years. The customer wants to be able to remove or install the sign at will, and wants to be able to store it in a closet or a car trunk for easy transport. In fact, it needs to be collapsible - even foldable - because who has the time to neatly roll it around a storage core and tuck it safely in a protective carton? Further, your customer has a deadline for the delivery of the sign, but has very little advertising budget to cover its expense. The customer wants a banner!
Question: Is a banner a cheap sign?
Answer: Not a good one! Why? Because it takes as much time, talent, facility and personnel commitment to create an effective banner sign as it does to create any other quality sign production. Good banners are also as expensive in material cost as most other producer-supplied sign components. The only adjustment that can be made when pricing a banner is in the material used and the media to decorate it. Your time, talent and business commitment cannot be discounted! The current professional and public perception is that banners constitute a class of quick, easy, cheap signage. This attitude can be changed only by sign companies willing to educate themselves, their clients and their competition - in that order. (The competition often refuses to catch up until they start losing clients to companies that do make the effort to educate.)
I agree that banners can be quick. I also agree that banners can be easy. They should never, however, be cheap. Banners can potentially be the most effective signage we ever produce for our clients. Therefore, they often have more value - not less - to our customer's business. Are we as sign-makers properly marketing those benefits and values? Or are we giving them away?
The gimmick's gotta go