HOW TO MAKE BIG DOLLARS WITH BUMPER STICKERS
This is the kind of business that might grow out of a
conversation over a couple of beers at your favorite tavern.
Imagine for a moment this scenario: Someone suggests that the
owner should sponsor a summer picnic or softball game. The
question then comes up as to how to advertise it, and someone
suggests bumper stickers. And the basics of a very lucrative
business are set in motion. As you consider this idea for a source of income, your first
decision will be whether to first line up people willing to "wear"
the bumper stickers on their cars, or the business owners who will
want to advertise in this manner. One person who started such a business a few years ago found
it easier to sell the business owner by telling him that 100 to
people were all set and willing to wear his bumper sticker adver-
tisement, because such people were known by him to be in the area. All this boils down to a recommendation that you talk to your
friends, neighbors and co-workers first. Get as many of them as
you can to agree to "wear" a bumper sticker. You might offer to
pay them $10 for three months, or $5 for six weeks . With
inducement of money just to put a bumper sticker on their cars or
trucks, you won't have too many turndowns. One person we know
runs an ad in his weekly shopper newspaper, advertising the fact
that he pays money just for "wearing" a bumper sticker. And of
course, don't overlook the pulling power of all the bulletin
boards in your area businesses. This is an ideal business for constant free publicity write-
ups in your local newspapers, plus interviews on radio and TV talk
shows. At first, you'll want as many people as possible to "wear"
bumper sticker ads. What you'll want to stress in any publicity
write-ups or media interviews is the fact that you've got the
"vehicles for exposure" lined up and organized so that any
potential advertiser needs only to give you a call, and you can
launch his advertising program immediately. Next, you check with a number of printers and determine the
cost to have bumper stickers made to order. Generally, you should
be able to get a thousand bumper stickers for $100 or less.
Whatever the cost, this initial outlay should be absorbed by your
charge to the advertiser. So let's suppose you've got 100 people lined up to "wear" one
of these bumper stickers on their cars for six weeks. Figure the
bumper stickers will cost $100. Now, the problem of what to
charge the advertiser. You should always charge on a "per car" basis, i.e., on a
basis of circulation, as newspapers do. So, you could charge $5
per car per week, with 100 cars. This comes out to $500 per week,
or $3,000 total over six weeks, from the advertiser. Subtract
$100 for getting the bumper stickers made, and $500 as payment for
the cars "wearing" the bumper stickers, and you would end up with
a profit picture of $2,400 for those six weeks. In the beginning, you should be the one calling on potential
advertisers and doing all the selling. Once you've got your first
program organized and running smoothly, your next step is a
natural multiplication of your efforts. Run an ad in your local
paper for commission sales people. Brief them on the basics and
get them out on the street selling advertisers for you. The best time to launch a business of this kind is during the
fair weather seasons, or just in advance of general political
elections in your area. Once established, however, the business
can, and should sustain itself year round. The selling "keys" to this kind of advertising are basically
the same as those enumerated for "word of mouth" advertising.
You've got people all over town spreading the word - talking about
the advertiser. And these people are saturating the area with the
advertiser's name and message wherever they go. It's easy! It's simple! And it works! Compared with other,
more traditional advertising methods, bumper sticker advertising
is very low in cost. One of the tricks of the trade is in using short, snappy, even
humorous slogans or telegram styled messages. For instance:
Anderson's Cafe - 6th and Main - That's where I'm going - How
about you? Another idea is to make the lettering on the bumper
stickers luminous to the headlights of the cars following. Most
important, be sure to make your lettering easy to read, and the
message easy to comprehend at one glance. Actually, you could start at the front of the yellow pages in
your phone book and probably never run out of places ready to be
sold on your plan of bumper sticker advertising. Some of the more
traditional places to sell this kind of advertising include:
The important thing is to always be creative in your selling
efforts. Always show the prospect how his business can grow from
advertising in the manner you propose, and how your method is more
positive, more responsive, and lower in cost than the more
traditional advertising.
Remember, too, the more clever or "catchy" the message on the
bumper sticker, the more it will make people talk and respond.
For ideas along these lines, go back to the yellow pages of your
telephone book and read all those short, crispy one-liners .
Remember also that advertising is a form of "brainwashing" and
the more people see the message, the stronger that message is
imprinted in their minds. Therefore, when they need or are in the
market for the services or product offered by the advertiser,
they'll quickly refer to the strongest, easiest-to-recall
advertising message in their minds. And that, of course, means
that if the prospect sees a specific advertising message on the
bumpers of the cars in front of him day after day, when he's ready
to buy, that particular advertiser will be the one he will
patronize.
You can expand this business to include magnetic signs on the sides of cars, saddle-back signs on the back of cars, and even signs in the yards in residential neighborhoods. As I've explained in this report, line up your "method of exposure," determine your costs and then go after the advertisers. It can be a very easy way to achieve real wealth and independence for yourself!