This Market View paper from DRB Systems explains what this trend means for carwash operators.

In This Market View You Will Learn About:

• The Power Of Free
  Retailers from Dunkin' Donuts to Baskin Robbins are using selective free offers to promote themselves. These companies view the cost of their free giveaways as an advertising expense. Instead of incurring the cost of producing and placing a traditional ad, they invest in giving away their goods or services, and then allow social media to spread the word about their business on the Internet at no additional cost. In the end, the costs of both forms of advertising are equivalent, but the strategy using “new media” is now often more effective.
• Denny's Grand Slam
  The most high profile free offer of late has been Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast promotion. It cost the company $5 million in free food, but generated $50 million through “free publicity”. Denny’s registered close to 50 million website hits during the promotion and enrolled 300,000 consumers in its rewards program. The company’s net income rose nearly 33% in the three quarters following the promotion.
• Making Your Carwash Fun
  In addition to free offers, many retail companies are turning to contests and special fun events to attract customers and generate viral publicity. For example, same store sales at McDonald’s increased by 5.5% during its Monopoly® game month. SiteWatch can help run promotions and events that make a trip to your carwash more fun.
• Extend Your Reach With Expanded Hours
  Retailers from Best Buy to Barnes and Noble have learned to generate buzz and draw new customers by remaining open longer or marking special occasions by being open unusual hours. (Think of the 3 am “Black Friday” sales and midnight in-store parties celebrating the latest electronic gadget, computer game or book release.)

Five Ways SiteWatch Can Help Your Carwash Become Its Own Advertising Platform:

• Free Washes – SiteWatch can automatically award "free" carwashes during specified periods or to celebrate an important event. For example, if your local team wins the state football championship, you can celebrate by giving away free carwashes for the day. The amount of attention and goodwill it draws to your carwash should make it well worth the investment.
• Extended Hours – The SiteWatch XPT® makes it easy to extend your hours while still controlling labor costs. This makes it more feasible to hold attention-getting "Midnight Madness Sales" or similar events.
• Charity Tie-Ins – Is there a local cause that’s important to people in your community? There are many ways that SiteWatch can help increase your involvement and generate positive buzz in your market. For example, you can use Intelligent Receipt Messaging to print the charity’s website on your receipts. You can also help the charity raise money by providing it with prepaid cards to sell for a fund raiser. For an added twist, you can hold a "Today Only" sale for a charity.
• Contests – SiteWatch can be programmed to award random free washes to your customers.
• SiteWatch Website Design and Website Connect™ – An attractive, flexible and full-featured website is essential to carwash promotions relying on social media to spread the word. SiteWatch Website Design can provide you with a complete website. Website Connect allows you to sell wash services from your website while still maintaining tight control. This can make it easier to run viral promotions by doing things like extending special offers only online.