Taking Advantage of Blue Water Markets
Location is critical for the success of any business, and car washes in particular rely on the strength of their site to drive traffic and customer awareness. This makes site selection one of, if not the single most important step when founding a new car wash. But even an ideal location with good traffic count, size, layout, and proximity to desirable destinations like shopping malls or grocery stores, can be undone by a single, often overlooked factor: competition.
It’s tempting to only build in your own backyard, setting up a marvelous car wash with down-the-street convenience in your own community and accepting moderate success as a result. But first take an honest look at the area and the car washes already established there.
If your local market is already claimed (much less saturated) by entrenched older car washes with established customer bases, you’ll soon find yourself locked in a fierce marketing and price battle for the attention of a set population. While it is possible to win these competitions (particularly with high quality equipment and a service model that boasts faster, better results) the fallout will drag down all players, with the advantage going to the wash with the bigger reserves and membership pool.
The best bet is to avoid the issue altogether and search for an ideal site in a local area with no express car wash competition whatsoever. These locations, ironically, are often found in smaller communities, home to low-power car wash solutions like in-bay automatics and populations who will immediately notice the new facility and the difference a real car wash can make.
Admittedly, this investment-minded strategy may add to your commute. But a blue-ocean site selection approach can yield a far larger, undivided customer pool and open up high quality car wash service to communities which have never experienced it before, with raving customers and higher wash counts as a result.
As always, if you are currently in the process of developing your own car wash, consider the Totally Tommy wash design by Tommy Car Wash Systems, featuring a cohesive car wash layout, architecture, high-end wash equipment, and labor-saving automation technology. Learn more HERE!
Tommy Car Wash Systems.