Branding Your Exterior Laundromat Signs
If you are a regular reader of Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn related to Laundromats, you might see a variety of persuasive articles on the benefits and even the necessity of unique branding related to Laundromat success.
The problem that I perceive is that most of the writers are basing their opinions and conclusions on the creation of branding for other types of business. Every owner of a Laundromat is actually blessed with a built-in brand to market. Laundromat, Coin Laundry and Launderette are universal accepted names of our business.
Much like Kleenex is a universal name for instant recognition of a tissue, Laundromat, Coin Laundry and Launderette are already historically built, instantly recognizable names understandable by a single glance by the consumer public. The question becomes: “what additional benefit is there in attempts to modify or trivialize these names?”
Much of branding for Laundromats is contained in two major areas, which are exterior and internal signage. The exterior building display of a sign should be to display an instantaneous recognition of the services being offered. It is not a display that should enhance the creativity of the owner, or list all the services being offered, but to attract the attention of a passersby who can quickly understand that a particular service is being offered.
Since visibility is one of the three legs of the stool of success of the Laundromat business, the ability of an individual passing a store front sign while driving a motor vehicle should be premier consideration. There are studies showing that the capability of a moving vehicle on an arterial roadway provides only seconds to observe what services are offered in a neighborhood shopping center.
Most folks have, at one time or another, realized in their own neighborhoods a restaurant or other business, has been driven by for months, and sometimes years, before they realized it existed. I drove by a neighborhood shopping center for a few years before I recognized that there was a computer repair shop in my neighborhood. The sign was too complicated and had too many words to read that I never internalized the services being offered.
If you always read all the exterior and monument signs on roadways, maybe you’re spending too much time with your eyes off the road, or you have a superior speed of recognition. Congratulations, but to attract more customers you have to attract all levels of symbol recognition and simple and short are the keys to the vast majority of people.
There are those folks who upon the potential purchase of a Laundromat dream of creating exciting names, cute phrases and a belief that expanded exterior explanations will attract more business and spend more time working on their exterior store signs than naming their own children. I advocate the time-tested theory of KISS related to exterior signage. Simple, easy to read, and unmistaken is the understanding of the service being offered at the location.
Interior signage is an entirely different matter. Here the creative juices of ownership can freely flow. In a following post, I will offer for consideration the actual words that should be displayed in the interior of Laundromats for the protection of the owner and instructions helpful to your customers.
Here you can choose which type of exterior signage is more easily understood.