Expand Your Horizons Images from Paint Ads
Painting advertisements can be ads telling people find a house painter, select the right paint, or even find a portrait painter. These ads could be run by a paint manufacturer, a paint store, a painting company or one painter. Whichever one you are, if you're looking for ideas for painting ads, consider this: In every case, painting ads are about creativity and change. They are also about a product: the paint itself, as well as service and reliability. Your advertisement needs to sell the paint, the painter, the painting, and the pizazz.
Painting the House: The Painters
If you want to paint houses, your advertising needs to convince people that you are reliable, skilled and affordable. There are many, many house painters, and most are selected by referral. However, to set yourself apart from the competition, you need an ad that explains what real benefit you provide to your customers that your competitors may not. Let's say you are a college professor who wants the activity and extra income from painting houses in the summer. "Paint Professors" is a name that stands out and one that implies intelligence and knowledge. When your ad explains that you are a company of experienced mature professionals who have made a second career out of quality house painting, your ad will be memorable. Also, the implication is that you will be affordable. Similarly, "Student Painters" will imply energy and affordability. An angle for a firm of female painters might be "Ladies on Ladders Painting Company." The visual on an ad like that is easy to figure out. You'll be cutting through the clutter with a novel idea, and you'll be able to intrigue your audience enough to call for more information.
Selling the Paint: The Product
Watching paint dry is the cliché phrase for doing something boring. Yet, exciting things are happening in the paint world, too, as technological advances make it to the marketplace. If you are a paint manufacturer, educate your public about the features and benefits of the new developments in paint. "Just One Coat" might be an ad headline for a new paint containing plastic that goes on thick and is almost as protective as siding. Paint advertisements should also emphasize color selection, especially in interior paints. Beautifully decorated and photographed interiors are a must for selling the "sizzle" of the new color trends. One of the most successful paint marketing concepts is naming a paint line after a famous person and featuring that person in the ads (think Martha Stewart).
Selling the Paint: The Paint Store
In any given shopping area, you may find one, two or even three paint stores named for the brand of paint sold. Sherwin-Williams and Porter Paints are two examples. Hardware stores also have areas set apart just to display and sell paint, like stores within stores. Competition is stiff. An advertisement for a paint retailer needs to emphasize the name and quality of the paint sold and the selection of paint colors and types available, but it also needs to let the consumer know the store is a one-stop paint shop. Brushes, rollers, techniques and ideas may all be available, integrated and displayed in relationship to each other in one convenient destination. "The Paint Store with More" or "Paint Plus" are concepts your ad needs to communicate. "Everything You Need But the Wall" indicates time-saving shopping and available expertise.
Placing the Ad: The Strategy
Paint stores and paint brands often place ads in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television, and even on outdoor billboards. (Remember the "Ask Sherwin-Williams" song?) A very effective ad campaign for paint would be painting one half of park benches on bus stops, or just part of billboards, with a line like "Run Out? Run Out to Peter's Paint." Of course, every paint brand and store should have its own web site, and build an email database from those who visit the site. Couponing is a very effective advertising strategy, and very affordable, as emails can be sent out with coupons that customers can print themselves. An individual painter or small painting company would do less expensive marketing through small newspaper ads, liners in classified sections in different publications, and flyers. Every one can afford at least a minimal web site, so that they can be discovered by searching customers. Part of the marketing budget should go into business networking groups where other home improvement company members attend. In that setting, a memorable name and a well designed, innovative business card with website and contact information are the best ads of all.
