How to compete with $100 billboards?......?????

[Truckntran 0]

Hey guys, I am starting up here in a small Texas town where homemade signs are the norm, unless you buy your banner from "Mr Cheap" and nail it to a chunk of used plywood. Been doing some cold calls, today was an antique mall. Lady there wanted me to price out a 4 by eight double face for her new jewelry only antique shop she is soon opening. I said I'd take a look, see what the existing sign frame looked like, and be back with some ideas..

On the way I happenned to check out the new sign the antique mall had recently put up. Upon closer examination it turns out to be a printed banner, stapled to the old plywood sign of the restuarant who had the sign previously (they had a nice sign but went out of biz a few months ago.  I stopped to talk with the other antique mall in town.. and he introduced me to the local sign supplier, from a town 48 miles away.  This guy does printed banners from your jpeg or eps or whatever, for an alleged $1 a square foot.    THAT IS $96 for a two sided 4 by eight sign. 90 percent of the places with professionally done signs in town are banner signs, usually stapled to a plywood backer.

The local shop is a part time affair, hard to get hold of, prices out of the price guide, and generally tries to act like they are doing you a favor. Those guys I can compete with, but this guy seems to have most of the shops in town buying his banners...

I have folks buying truck lettering from me, sure would like to sell something else too... but how?

How the heck am I gonna compete with this nonsense?

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Find and take a pic of a printed banner after 2 or 3 years in the sun.

I just replaced some logos on a truck that were so badly faded I couldn't even get the info from them.

[lynnpromotions 0]

We don't compete on price. We price our product to make a profit. That said, we do pay attention to what others are doing but we don't sell for under cost or price match at all.

As an example, the art store across the street has a roland printer and prints banners for under $4/sqft retail. We are at $7.50 for printed and $5 for cut vinyl. That is just the way it is. We do sell banners and our customers do come back because we offer other services.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

If the guy is printing for $1 a square foot, he ain't gonna be in business long. The lowest price for raw banner I have found is around 25 cents a square foot. Add to that teh cost of hems, grommets, and ink...he is doing it at cost or not much more.

[2csignz 0]

whats that in a meter rate??? im getting a few banners sold down this way , thought i was cheep......lol

[Truckntran 0]

I would guess at $10 a sq Meter??