If 3M truly wants to create a program that would increase the sell of 3M vehicle graphics directly from dealerships across the United States w/o damaging their relationship with sign shops...
Step 1: Close down OW
This division will end up costing you local sign shops as customers. You do not need OW to work with dealerships. I think it only makes things more complicated for the vehicle customer and the dealership. What you need is a strong network of designers, printers and installers. All of this can be achieved using regional sign shops surrounding dealerships. The current website needs to show that the customers can support their local / regional companies and still get financing on the graphics. This would have a much larger impact for fleet sales that want a regional sign shop to handle their projects.
Step 2: Create a true network of regional sign shops within each Dealership Designated Marketing Area.
- Printing: List the companies that pass the 3M standards for printing. (Although I think the site should show certified 3M printing companies and non-certified printing companies within the region of the dealership on the project.) Create a mail-in submission for samples to test print quality. Then if you really want to ensure that the quality can be duplicated, do spot checks at the shop. This would benefit 3M in multiple ways with sign companies (New Product Launch & Proper 3M Profiling) You could even charge for a fee to have your shop inspected to get on the list. It would also be nice to see printer type options as well such as Solvent Printers, ECO-Solvent Printers and Latex Printers.
- Designing: List of companies that have qualified designers with preset fees & deadlines. Again this could be accomplished by submission and could be processed over the internet completely.
- Installing: List of companies that have been trained and certified by 3M for wrap installations. (Although I think the site should show certified 3M installers and non-certified installers within the region of the dealership on the project.) If you are only going to allow 3M certified installers to participate in the program, then utilize the dealerships and lower the cost of the certified programs. Every dealership has plenty of bay space for a weekend installation program that could be coordinated and open to every local / regional sign shop. You could even create new Co-Op branding campaigns with the dealerships to brand the 3M logo on dealership vehicles that would be used for the certification.
Step 3: Don't lower the value of wraps!
This digital printing market already has plenty of rough days ahead due to modern technology with digital signage. Make sure the program pays fair market rates for designing, printing and installing.
Step 4: Get your fingers out of the cookie jar!
You do not need to profit on the project outside of the sale of the 3M vinyl for the project. You are our supplier and you claim not to be our competition. Prove it... Allow the sign companies to design, print and install the graphics and make all the profits aside of what we currently are paying for the 3M wrap vinyl medias. Let us build a relationship with the clients and not be kept in the dark on the sale. The current OW website should be nothing more than a directory of sign shops within the region of the dealership that can provide them with services that ONLY USE 3M products for every project.
The site should have up front pricing options from regional sign shops on all processes of the project. Let the customer decide who they want to work with and rate their experience after the project has been completed. The site should have contact information for every sign shop that sales 3M products within that region. If a sign company is getting bad reviews and doing damage to the program, remove them from the listings.
3M should be trying to work with the local and regional sign shops around with dealership. This will end up providing the vehicle customer a better product and experience. OW is only going to damage the reputation of 3M with sign shops. This will leave the door open for your competitors to create a better network that utilizes sign shops and helps GET THEM WORK and not take it away from them! The current contracts you have with the major manufactures are not ironclad in the sense that you have no chance to lose them in the future.
Some of the things mentioned above are currently being executed within what you claim the OW program provides. But I am not buying most of it and see you as a competitor right now. I will slowly get my clients to use different brands of vehicle graphics. I am not alone and while you may think this is just some ranting in a forum, I don't think you fully realize the ramifications in the future, if the OW program stays on course.
I understand that its not as easy as the stated above... But I am not the person in charge that thought it would be a good idea to buyout OW and expand the program so that 3M increases their profits on vehicle graphics at the expense of local and regional sign companies. You guys did that... Now you need to fix it and make things right! You need to keep making profits on 3M products from the sign shops, not from selling directly to the client! That is our job and there is no gray area to it!!!