Frustrating

[WB]

I'm sure it's like this everywhere but we're constantly getting under cut on our Vehicle graphics, It's getting to the point where it's almost not even worth doing them anymore. A company in town is willing to do a FULL warp on a 2010 Chev crew cab for $2850...

Oh and that's WITH design.. gimmie a break

 

[Gino]

Are they doing a good job ??

For a really good shop, they can knock that out in a day without any problem. A day to design, fabricate and a day to install...... that ain't too bad for lotsa shops. Do enough of them and ya got yourself a nice week.

 

[WB]

Are they doing a good job ??

For a really good shop, they can knock that out in a day without any problem. A day to design, fabricate and a day to install...... that ain't too bad for lotsa shops. Do enough of them and ya got yourself a nice week.

We'll I've seen a few trailers they've done that were not laminated. I'm guessing they're bought a laminator by now because they'd have to be crazy not to laminate vehicles.

We're in a small city, full wraps happen once every couple months. I know why they're price is so cheap. Still Fustrating

 

[sdodson1]

Same here WB, I just let them walk. I am here to make money and after 16 years I don't need practice!

 

[tsgstl]

No offense that's about the going rate in most cities.

 

[WB]

We're at $2800 for print and install.. This customer is will to go to a 3rd party designer and pay him $1000 for design but won't give us $500 because our Competition isn't at that price.

Makes sense to me.

 

[the graphics co]

there is a guy not to far from me who advertises $650 for a 3/4 wrap on an express van.

IMO $2850 is competitive, at least in my area, not an undercut necessarily. If i can get a truck in and out in a day my labor costs aren't going to be terrible.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yeah, $2800 isn't too bad here either for that. It's an easy truck to wrap so if they can install quickly I'd say there's money in it for them. If that includes design, then it's on the cheap side IMO.

 

[Gino]

We're at $2800 for print and install.. This customer is will to go to a 3rd party designer and pay him $1000 for design but won't give us $500 because our Competition isn't at that price.

Makes sense to me.

Well, like Joe said the other day in his thread.... either stand your ground or let them walk and find out how lousy the other guy really is. Then, maybe they'll recognize craftsmanship and professionalism.

Otherwise..... 90% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
​

 

[HulkSmash]

i'd be about 2600.
2800 is close to 14 a sqft. id kill to get that

 

[WB]

For us it's almost a week's project, for the it's the same. Print 1 day Laminate and trim the Next (honestly I'd rather longer) and the install is 2 days. 1 person. it's alot of vinyl .. 320 sq feet I think

No one in my area bangs out wraps there's not a demand for it.

Also you guys are all in the US.. i'm guess my costs here are more.. Costs me $1075 for a roll of IJ180cv3 and 8518 laminate

 

[HulkSmash]

For us it's almost a week's project, for the it's the same. Print 1 day Laminate and trim the Next (honestly I'd rather longer) and the install is 2 days. 1 person. it's alot of vinyl .. 320 sq feet I think

No one in my area bangs out wraps there's not a demand for it.

Also you guys are all in the US.. i'm guess my costs here are more.. Costs me $1075 for a roll of IJ180cv3 and 8518 laminate

actually it's more like 240-260 sqft. Print install and Lam the same day here.
Latex printer. No out gassing.



If you're slow with wraps, I guess you need to charge accordingly.

 

[tsgstl]

Well, like Joe said the other day in his thread.... either stand your ground or let them walk and find out how lousy the other guy really is. Then, maybe they'll recognize craftsmanship and professionalism.

Otherwise..... 90% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
​

Without knowing the design or more info that isn't 100% true. Who's to know if this guy didn't come from a high volume wrap shop. And most wraps with less design time look better. I did a partial wrap this weekend on a van and had 15 minutes of design time in it.

 

[mudmedia]

We'll I've seen a few trailers they've done that were not laminated. I'm guessing they're bought a laminator by now because they'd have to be crazy not to laminate vehicles.

We're in a small city, full wraps happen once every couple months. I know why they're price is so cheap. Still Fustrating

"not laminated" that is all you should need to sale to your clients and should have problem beating your competition if they are not laminated. You will not beat them on price, you will beat them with quality and craftsmanship.

 

[HulkSmash]

They are laminated. It's liquid lam. hard to feel and see, but it's there. Most big companies who have the fleets on larger vehicles do this all day.

 

[mudmedia]

They are laminated. It's liquid lam. hard to feel and see, but it's there. Most big companies who have the fleets on larger vehicles do this all day.

Yuck I have never seen one but can not imagine it being durable. I did not know people liquid laminated vehicle wraps. I figured all or none.

 

[Gino]

Without knowing the design or more info that isn't 100% true. Who's to know if this guy didn't come from a high volume wrap shop. And most wraps with less design time look better. I did a partial wrap this weekend on a van and had 15 minutes of design time in it.

You're setting yourself up for an argument on the losing end. According to the OP, his competitor is doing sub-par work already without lamination and in his professional opinion, is doing an all-around lousy job. He guesses the guy is getting better and maybe even laminating at this point.

In this scenario, if you don;t know for a fact what your competition is doing, it's not good business to bad-mouth them..... to anyone, cause you just don't know.

Therefore, with tongue-in-cheek, I said he could either drop a little and get 90% of the pie, instead of holding his ground and getting no pie at all.

One man or not, this is not a week project. That is the first clue in this game, we're not all on the same playing field. I don't care if you print your prints two weeks ahead of time. To clean and prep that truck would take two hours. To apply the graphics maybe 8 to 12 hours. He could hire a monkey to cut his hours down. You'd still have it done from start to finish in 1 to 2 days at most.

If he's losing almost every job coming down the pike, than he has to look closely at what he's doing different or what his competition is doing right. He's either got to get faster or more competitive. You can't cut materials back without affecting the integrity of your work. So, it seems quite evident what needs to change in this scenario.



Doesn't it seem odd you can have a Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King and an Arby's on all four corners of the same intersection....... and they all do well ??

They all know what they're doing and and charge accordingly. It just depends what mood the customer is in that night. He's gonna spend regardless, so you need to either get them up or you go down....

People will go for the best deal, unless the board is even.... then they'll pick their taste..... or what looks the and smells the best.

 

[WB]

actually it's more like 240-260 sqft. Print install and Lam the same day here.
Latex printer. No out gassing.



If you're slow with wraps, I guess you need to charge accordingly.

We charge install by the sq-ft not by the time. I go for for quality not speed.

If my competition had a Latex printer and I was losing jobs because of turn around time then I could understand it, that's not my problem.

 

[WB]

You're setting yourself up for an argument on the losing end. According to the OP, his competitor is doing sub-par work already without lamination and in his professional opinion, is doing an all-around lousy job. He guesses the guy is getting better and maybe even laminating at this point.

In this scenario, if you don;t know for a fact what your competition is doing, it's not good business to bad-mouth them..... to anyone, cause you just don't know.



One man or not, this is not a week project. That is the first clue in this game, we're not all on the same playing field. I don't care if you print your prints two weeks ahead of time. To clean and prep that truck would take two hours. To apply the graphics maybe 8 to 12 hours. He could hire a monkey to cut his hours down. You'd still have it done from start to finish in 1 to 2 days at most.

I never said anything about my competition doing lousy work, I said they weren't laminating a few trailers that I've seen. No where did I comment on the quality of work.

2nd of all I said it's almost a weeks, work 1 day print, 1 day laminate and trim 2 days install. That seems like close to week to me start to finish!

There is not the demand in the area to produce a wrap and install it in 1-2 days We're in a city of 60,000 people. It doesn't make sense here.


My main issue is everyday there's more and more people willing to more work for less $$.

 

[tsgstl]

I couldn't agree with you more WB that's why I don't market wraps. I do a half dozen fulls a year and quite a few partials. If the vehicle is a nice color to work with I try talking them in to a partial. Charge them about half a full wrap, I use 30% material cost and the install is about 30%
Wraps have been like this here for a few years now. More and more jobs (non wrap) are being outbid by online companies selling wholesale pricing. It is extremely frustrating. I think the shift from yellow pages to online advertising has put the days of "buying local" behind us. I will always have some core local businesses I do work for but I am thinking more and more to market wholesale products. There are still a few markets where there is plenty of profit.