Signs of Life

The on-premise sign industry is in the midst of receiving a $70 million boost over a 3½-year period. Virtually all the 2,000 Jiffy Lube stores will be re-imaged by the end of 2011 via the first branding mandate since its 1979 inception as the first drive-in, oil-change franchise. Marcus Duffel, group manager of construction for this subsidiary of the Shell Oil Co. (as of 2004), shared this news during the Buyers’ Panel forum at the Signage and Graphics Summit (SGS) held in San Diego in January. (The SGS conference has been sponsored by ST Media Group Intl., ST’s parent company, for the past four years.) As of the end of February, some 330 Jiffy Lube stores had been converted, with 800 more slated for the balance of 2009.

Although Duffel didn’t use the term “signature building,” that characterizes the goal, as opposed to “having a box with some channel letters attached,” which he said in a subsequent interview. “We want the signs to integrate with the architecture.”

To test the program, Jiffy Lube incorporated the new signage package into seven stores spread across the U.S. Attempts were made to eliminate any other variables. The result? Every store experienced increased sales, in the range of 10%, on average. (Cars per day is their measuring stick.) However, Duffel emphasized, this wasn’t the goal.

“Our goal was to create a new image, not to increase sales. The additional sales were a bonus,” he explained.

And helpful in soothing franchise owners faced with approximately $30,000 in expenditures per store. Duffel said most owners have fewer than five stores, whereas several others have more than 50. The biggest owner, with approximately 400 stores, recently emerged from bankruptcy, and he will have an extra year to fulfill the mandatory facelifts.

Although franchise owners have a voice via an advisory board, Duffel explained that the re-imaging didn’t need franchisee approval, nor would it have been scrapped, even if the test stores hadn’t experienced additional sales.

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Jiffy Lube had significant ground to make up. Due to numerous acquisitions, stores were housed in more than 200 different types of buildings, and handmade signs adorned numerous interiors. So what’s changed on the signs? Everything, Duffel said: the logo, the typeface, the color, the size of the letters, the use of LEDs, the use of negative space, etc. Fascia signs are required, except where sign codes present an obstacle.

Joining Duffel on the Buyers’ Panel dais that day was Kraig Kessel, a director for Bedrock Brand Consultants (Oakland, CA), a brand consultancy and design studio whose tagline is “shaping customer experiences™.” Bedrock produced the “image refresh” for Jiffy Lube.

Bedrock has five other clients with more than 1,000 locations, including the Chevron brand, which also encompasses Texaco and Caltex (a petroleum brand in Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East). The overall Chevron image refresh, currently in progress, will include approximately 12,100 service stations, of which 3,600 would be for Texaco. Kessel explained that this process involves the entire Chevron environment, but has “big implications for signage.”

None of Bedrock’s major clients has shelved a planned upgrade or logo change, although Kessel said they’ve cut their budgets for programs by an average of 20% to 25%. “They want the same things for less, so we’re having to work much smarter,” he acknowledged.

Additionally, the rules have changed for many brand managers. Kessel referenced how the demise of sign behemoth ImagePoint left many sign programs (and others, by domino effect) in limbo. As a backup, he said most chains want more than one vendor, for signage fabrication and installation, but also for the specified brands of products used to build the signs.

(Editors’ note: Williamsburg, OH-based Dualite Sales & Service, a quantity-sign manufacturer, is currently handling all the signage for Dollar General, including the portion formerly handled by ImagePoint, although Dualite officials know another sign company will be brought in for fabrication purposes.)

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Kessel also said sustainability is a genuine concern for petroleum companies, not just “greenwashing” for marketing purposes. “It’s a core value for them and a big factor in all of their dealings. It’s a big deal.”

Wells Fargo, the purchaser of embattled Wachovia, also had a representative on the Buyers’ Panel. No signage details were yet available.

However, the February 24 Wells Fargo-Wachovia blog includes postings going back to February 3, 2009. The February 24 edition began with the statement, “As our companies integrate, Wells Fargo and Wachovia will be doubling the number of retail banking offices and greatly expanding our presence across the country.” Whether that means new facilities or simply changeovers, that’s significant sign work. Combined, the new entity includes more than 12,000 ATMs.

When I first joined ST, I remember hearing that the sign industry was recession proof. I know that’s not true, but at least it’s more true than it is for the vast majority of other industries.