Finding Gold – The Value of Signs
The first step in finding gold in your sign is to clarify your expectations. The value of signs is substantially higher than you may have originally anticipated.
If a particular piece of retail property has the potential to produce $100,000 in annual net income without a sign, but could produce $150,000 annual net income with a sign, the value of the sign is the difference between the two income levels over time ($50,000 every year). Historically, the addition of well-designed signage to a business may show a sales increase of 5 to 30 percent. Many retailers do not realize that proper signage can have this type of effect on store sales. Retailers that understand this enjoy more business success.
Many retail stores are located in areas of heavy traffic. A store on a street with 30,000 cars a day, four lanes of traffic and some visual competition, may be surviving on less than five percent of the market share that passes in front of it. A good sign increases the potential of attracting part of the remaining 95 percent of the traffic. Evidence supports the conclusion that a better sign program could attract one or two percent of the potential customers passing that particular site. Adding one percent to the original five percent increases sales volume by 20 percent. A retail store doing $400,000 annually with a gross margin of 40 percent that adds 20 percent to its sales will add sales of $80,000 which contributes 40 percent or $32,000 to the net profit. The increased income produced by the sign program is so far out of proportion to the cost of the sign that the situation can only be compared to “finding gold.”
Traffic surveys to determine origin and destination of motorists and trading area surveys conducted in front of your store to determine your traffic patterns can be very valuable. These surveys are relatively inexpensive and easy to conduct. We can help you get started or conduct them for you. Given the legibility, visibility and readability of a particular sign, we can help you determine the size a particular sign needs to be to operate at its optimum level of visual effectiveness. By doing so, you can maximize the store traffic generated by your sign.
You need also to view signs in the perspective of the whole media advertising environment. We suggest that while a sign is the least expensive form of advertising, it may also be the most effective communication system. It is a sentinel, always on duty promoting your business.
“Finding Gold – The Value of Signs” part of the series of blogs titled “How to Buy Signage”. In our next blog in the series we will explore more about how signs increase your profits.