Everyone likes a choice, including your airbrush customers. Give them real choices and different ways to paint a car on a shirt, and you're almost certain to see car design sales sky-rocket. Ours, at West Coast Airbrush Company stores across the country, rose a full 50% after we implemented the strategies you'll read about here.

THE SYSTEM
Before we switched from our old way of marketing car designs, our freehand auto portrait prices started at $50 or more. When the people who asked about car designs heard this, three-quarters of them looked at us as if we were nuts. Then they walked out. Only the most diehard auto buffs went ahead with the purchase. Sound familiar?

But, what could we do? We painted all of our car designs in the same way—one which took so much time that our profits were practically non-existent, even at $50 or more per shirt. Fortunately, airbrush guru, Tom Davison, had encountered and solved this problem a good 15 years earlier. After finding it almost impossible to meet the demand for custom car designs at his T- shirt stands, Tom compiled a comprehensive list of popular car and truck models, made a serious line drawing of each, and then turned the drawings into transfers, now known as the Tom Davison Custom Car Transfer System.

Once he started using his transfer system at car shows around the country, his output multiplied. And his customer base expanded beyond car buffs. Soon he was doing a brisk business in both transfer and freehand shirts at every auto show.

Tom's success convinced us to try his transfer system, and it has been a great asset in our stores. Now we are able to offer low cost car designs to our customers. They generally have no trouble finding the design they want in the transfer system's selection of 90 different models.

Next, we focussed on the clientele who wanted renderings of their own cars or of cars for which there were no transfers. The freehand auto portraits we were producing for these customers were closer to fine art illustration than sellable T-shirt design. This high quality plus the time it took to achieve it justified the high price tag, we thought. But we were pricing ourselves out of the range most folks were willing to pay.

Luckily, an article in the August 1997 issue of Airbrush Action brought us back to earth—and back to the roots of painting cars on shirts that I had all but forgotten and newer painters had never known. The column, artwork, and step-by-step demonstration by Randy "Newt' Warriner was called "0l School Hot Rod T-Shirtin", and if you don't already have the issue it's in, send for it. It's a must read! By using Newt's black outlines, quick color fill-ins, basic shadowing, and highlighting techniques we could charge $35 per shirt and still paint a car at a one dollar per minute rate. Customers loved both the look and the moderate price tag.

THE DISPLAY
Today we have three car design options: transfers, "0l' School" freehand, and higher end, more elaborate auto portraits, each priced according to the amount of work that goes into them. We also are able to give our customers an even broader range of choices, by offering different lettering and background selections, Our in-store displays allow customers to compare options. They can actually see the design differences and understand why one selection costs more than another.

As you can see from the photographs that accompany this article, when we display our transfer car designs, we show three shirts, each with a different degree of detail in the car and background. The more detailed the shirt, the higher the price.
(See examples 1,2 & 3.)

Freehand designs are displayed in much the same way, although on the freehand designs, the car will have a complete finish regardless of the shirt's price. Background changes alone determine the differences in price.
(See examples 4, 5 & 6.)

We also display framed posters featuring reduced size versions of the 90 car transfers we offer. Several samples of full shirt, full bore illustration type car portraits in the $75-plus range are shown as well.

THE SELL
What do you do after a customer asks what the full bore freehand auto portraits costs, and practically passes out when he hears, "$75 not including the shirt"? Jump right in to educate him about his options.

First, help the customer understand that the shirt he asked about costs what it does because it is done freehand from a photograph; fills the entire shirt, and includes a high degree of detail. But don't stop there. Also let the customer know that you are a custom airbrush artist who can customize your work to fit whatever the customer wants to spend. Point out that you have car designs for as little as $15 and direct the customer's attention to your custom car pattern selection. Explain that the black outline of the car he selects will be applied to the shirt of his choice, cutting down the artist's painting time to reduce the finished product's cost.

Then move right on to the price differences among custom transfer selections. Using the display to illustrate your points, say something like: "$15 plus the cost of the shirt gets you just the car colored in and sculpted lightly with the airbrush and two words in single stock print or cursive lettering. For $5 more ($20 plus the shirt) you get the car with complete detailed airbrushing, your choice of color backgrounds, and custom lettering. Finally, for just $25 plus the cost of a shirt, you get the car detailed out to the "N"th degree, fantastic scenery in the background, and premium custom lettering. Make sure the customer knows that any of the 90 cars or trucks in your custom car pattern system can be done in any of these three ways. If he can't find what he wants or if he wants a portrait done from a photo of a particular car or truck, move to where the designs at the next price level are displayed. Tell him: "These freehand auto portraits start at $35 plus the cost of the shirt. "And you can customize as you go. We work from a photo, but will add new wheels, tires, a customized paint job or any other changes you want so long as the basic car design does not change."

When you're done with this part of your shirt discussion, the customer knows that:
(1) the $35 design involves painting the car just as it appears in the photo on a 15" x 15" area of the shirt with no background added—although there will be nice single stroke print or cursive lettering. (2) $40 buys a car just like its photo in a 15" x 15" area of the shirt plus the background color of the customer's choice and custom lettering to finish it off.
(3) the $45 job includes a scenery background behind a fully detailed car along with premium custom lettering.

Once the customer has seen what else you have to offer him, turn back to the designs with price tags of $75 and up. He can see they include a full shirt design with a larger car, which allows for more detail and customizing. The premium price is for a photo-realistic illustration with attractive scenery and top of the line lettering.

By giving customers a great selection of artwork AND prices, you avoid the trap of trying to sell them something they don't want. Here at West Coast Airbrush we no longer hear artists saying, "Cars are fifty bucks or more, period! Don't you understand that the artwork takes hours to produce? I won't do them any other way."

Experience has taught us that the customer who shops with us may not always seek or be willing to pay for the artistic standards we set for our artwork. In the real world of the T-shirt airbrushing business, we cater to the customer, not to our own artistic egos.

Veteran airbrush artist, Tom Davison did not lower his artistic standards by creating a transfer system. He simply developed a way to produce sellable T-shirt artwork that people could afford. He wasn't less of an artist because he stopped losing over half his customers due to impractical prices. And you won't be either.

So, try the strategy I've described here. It will work even if you don't use the custom car and truck transfer system. Just vary the degree of detail and the prices for your freehand car designs, and let your customers decide what best suits their tastes-- and their budgets. WCA