Hopelessly Heather

I was slow to jump onto the bandwagon turning my ride into a rolling advertisement for my side gig.  I had many mental hurdles to overcome before I dove in and they were, in no particular order:

1. Fear of creepers having my contact info;

2. Fear of prank calls;

3. The decal looking cheap and/or garish; and,

4. The level of difficulty in applying the decal.

I ultimately overcame my fears, but made decisions with them all in mind.

Addressing My Fear of Creepers

I opted to leave my name off of the window decal I had made for the back window of my car.  I figured if someone wanted Avon, they wouldn’t care what my name was and it would give me a minute level of comfort.  I’m not interested in giving any nefarious individuals too much information that might calm my naturally suspicious mind, like using my name. Luckily, this has not been a problem in the three years I’ve sported the cling pictured above.

Tackling My Fear of Prank Calls

My fear of prank calls was actually the biggest fear that I had to tackle.  I am in my car a lot and I worried that I would open myself up to a lot of telephonic harassment by advertising my phone number on my vehicle.

The two prank calls I’ve received were obviously bored teenagers in the summer who had nothing better to do with their time.  It was quickly established they were prank calls and their numbers were easily blocked.  Problem tackled.

Cheap or Garish Looking Clings

We’ve seen so many of them now that I think we’re all immune to the visual clutter.  I wanted something on the smaller side that was interesting but not tacky.  I looked at dozens of designs before I found this one.  While some may argue that a lip stain is tacky, I beg to differ – I think it is cute and conveys what I sell all in one graphic.

Application Difficulty

This is another area that seriously stressed me out.  I am not creatively inclined.  I once purchased an adorable wall cling that was a line of musical notes on a staff and I bungled its application so horrifically that I was pretty terrified about plunking down money for a custom cling only to screw up applying it.  As a result, I purchased a couple of other small  Avon-related window clings that I decided I’d apply first so I could gain some confidence.

Before the application day arrived, I read instructions and watched YouTube videos obsessively.  I started with the “got avon?” sticker first as it’s the smallest.  It went smoothly, so I ramped up to the “avon lady inside” sticker which also went smoothly!  So I took several deep breaths and set about applying the big daddy cling – which was a bit trickier, but I managed to salvage!  As my hubs (who rides motorcycles as a hobby) would say, “I had a couple of pucker moments.”  In the end, I deemed them all jobs well done and hoped my car would last forever.  I never want to do that again!

The easiest advertising bits I’ve added to my vehicle are the Avon branded license plate frames.  I’m not sure whether or not people actually notice them, but they are there anyway.  Cheap and easy.

 

The second easiest piece of advertising I’ve put on my car was a straightforward, old-fashioned bumper sticker.  Again, not too garish and easy for those in the know to identify – just how I like it!

 

All said and done, I still feel like my car is definitely branded, but not in an obscene way.  How do you like to advertise your business on your vehicle?