There’s been a lot of talk in the sign industry about entering new markets, pushing the limits of your equipment, and getting out of your comfort zone. But Dream Street Graphics in Indianapolis, Indiana has bucked the trend and dedicated itself exclusively to what it does best—vehicle wraps. And it’s working.
Dream Street Graphics celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the shop decided to focus on wraps.
“We gave up trying to be brand managers and doing the signs and banners and promotional,” says Tim Bettis, operations manager at Dream Street Graphics.
Since then, the shop has added more staff, four sixty-four-inch Epson printers, and two laminators. But the shop won’t turn away customers looking for signs and banners. It has relationships with sign shops in the area it will outsource the work to, and in return, these shops send wrap jobs to Dream Street Graphics.
This friendly synergy isn’t the case with all of the shops in the area however.
“There are a lot of other sign companies here that we compete with it, so in order to separate us from them, we took some extra steps,” says Bettis. “We put a lot of time into getting our guys trained and getting other certifications.”
Dream Street Graphics has three 3M Preferred Graphics Installers on staff, and it is even going to be hosting an Avery Dennison Supreme Wrapping Film Workshop on June 8 from 8:30 am-5:00 pm at its Indianapolis shop. (Note: To register, visit http://bit.ly/1H3HSJ4.)
Dream Street Graphics’ dedication, certifications, and quality wraps have all succeeded in setting the shop apart. It has also allowed it to offer its work at a higher price point.
“We consider ourselves the premium provider here in town,” says Bettis. “We do have to compete a lot with sign shops and the newer guys in the industry who are willing to do it for much, much cheaper.
“So one of the things that has helped for us is not budging from our price point. It’s really easy for people to start knocking down pricing to get the job, but as everyone knows who’s done wraps before, it is really easy to make a mistake and instantly lose all your profit.”
Bettis also points out that by starting at a higher price point, Dream Street Graphics does have the option to lower its price for fleets or other repeat work.
“It’s harder to raise your price,” he says. “But it’s really easy to bring it down.”
Some shops may wonder if a higher price point keeps customers away, but as vehicle wraps grow in popularity, that hasn’t been the case for Dream Street Graphics.
“I think that people are starting to see the value in vehicle wraps a lot more, especially for business owners who can get five years out of a vehicle wrap and potentially have hundreds of thousands of people see your vehicle for a one-time investment,” says Bettis.
Catering to the right customers also makes a difference, and Dream Street Graphics finds the market for color-change wraps quite profitable.
“Paint wraps are definitely a premium product that people with disposable income are interested in doing,” says Bettis.
The shop capitalized on the booming color-change wraps market at the O’Reilly Auto Parts World of Wheels show in Indianapolis this past February. The show caters to both car enthusiasts and those who work in the auto industry, and it gave the shop the chance to network and show off what it offers.
For the show, Dream Street Graphics wanted to do something special, so they wrapped their administrative assistant Andrhea Wilkins’ Dodge Durango with a split wrap—demonstrating color wraps on one side and a more traditional digitally printed wrap on the other.
On the color-change side, Dream Street Graphics took the idea of a swatch book to the next level.
Using some of the 3M 1080 vinyl they had in the shop, Dream Street Graphics cut ten-inch strips and applied them to one side of the car. They also ordered one-yard samples from Fellers of some of the newer vinyl colors and applied ten-inch strips of those, as well. When they were done, they’d turned one side of the car into a rolling swatch book.
“People look at the little swatch books that we get from the manufacturers. It looks neat, but it’s hard to see it when you’re looking at a little, two-inch piece,” says Bettis. “By doing the big piece on the side of the vehicle, people could actually see it, the different angles, and the different lighting and things like that. They could go up and touch it, and then they could also see how the wrap actually works when it comes to the door handles and the fenders and things like that.”
For the other side of the vehicle, Dream Street Graphics designed and applied a flashier, animal print wrap to show attendees what could be done with digitally printed graphics to get a message across.
In addition to the dual wraps, Dream Street Graphics was also able to show attendees what a wrap would look like on a car that wasn’t brand new. The Durango had some wind damage, the paint wasn’t in perfect condition, and there were a few spots on the sides where the clear coat was flaking away. The shop used all of this to demonstrate how the vinyl would look over these imperfections.
Most business owners don’t bring in brand-new vehicles to wrap, so the realistic depiction was useful.
“On the side with the color swatch on it, obviously with the wrap film being so thin and a solid color, you’re going to see more of the paint issues underneath the vinyl,” says Bettis. “But on the side that has the really busy leopard print, I basically had to really show people where the paint damage was.”
Bettis advises always being truthful with clients—especially first-time wrap buyers.
“What has really worked for us is that we’re very honest with people upfront on what they can expect out of a wrap,” he said. “[I say,] ‘Don’t expect this wrap to be a cure-all.’
“Give them realistic expectations of what the wrap actually does for them, and it makes people feel a lot more comfortable because they don’t feel like they’re being taken advantage of.”
What Dream Street Graphics’ dual Durango wrap demonstrates is that the wrap market is broken up into two camps: (1.) Wraps for style and showcasing a vehicle, and (2.) wraps that work as an advertisement for businesses.
As part of their sales pitch, the shop always finds out which camp a client is in by asking what the most important part of a wrap is for them.
“Most of the people in the industry that we deal with definitely want show-quality graphics and want it to last and all that, but getting the message and their brand out there is the most important thing to them,” says Bettis. “Having a little bit of paint damage underneath their logo or something is not going to keep them from getting work.”
No matter what type of wrap a customer wants, Dream Street Graphics sees the market growing.
“Everyone knows what vehicle wraps are now, at least they have an idea, and it’s getting more popular,” explains Bettis. “We only see upward growth from here.”
By Ashley Bray
All photos: Dream Street Graphics.
