I was thinking about the power of advertisements, and remembered the weird fad when some companies were actually paying a few home owners’ mortgages for the right to vinyl wrap the house with advertisements and logos. It’s ugly for sure but interesting to say the least. That made me think about how car rental companies should put big vinyl advertisements on the cars to offset the rental cost. I wonder if people would be willing to take 50% off the rental car fee if it were plastered with logos…. NASCAR comes to mind.
I guess in a way Lows and Home Depot have rentals with company advertisements on them, and every moving truck company already does this too. They put UHAUL, Ryder and such on the trucks you rent from them. I have even seen some car dealers plaster their business name on the sides of the “courtesy” cars they loan you when yours is in the shop….
Why not apply that to the Hertz, Enterprise and Avis’ of the world? I guess driving around in a rental with Hertz smattered on the side is a little less glamorous, but sometimes it’s not about glamor…. Just the bottom line. I have two older cars and if I’m going on a longer driving trip i’ll rent a car for the week and run the wheels off of it.
Another idea might be for auto insurance companies. When your car is wrecked in an accident and in the shop, your auto insurance plan may entitle you to a rental car. That rental car could be a good place to advertise, it could state, “Free car provided by Geico, we love our customers” or All State or State Farm etc…. It’s just a little ugly but it’s free and would be nice for a lot of customers…..