The branded location experience/Vagrant Marketing

Let’s play a little game together, shall we? I’m going to name some brands and you're going to tell me which ones are products and which ones are franchises. Ready?

1. Lipton tea
2. Home Depot
3. Mr. Clean

Think you’ve got it? Well number 1 is a product, number 2 is a franchise, and number 3 is both.

Huh?

Recently, Procter & Gamble, the parent company that owns the Mr. Clean brand launched a new franchise: Mr. Clean Performance car washes. Mr. Clean promises to be something of a "mac store" of car washes (my words, not there's) with a coffee bar, free wi-fi, and multiple flat screen TV's.

The Mr. Clean brand is already associated with home car washing:


A hitchhiker I once picked up extolled the virtues of the Mr. Clean AutoDry carwash system (seriously). He was surprised that I did not use the product personally –I was unaware of it at the time– because my car seamed so clean (it should be noted that at the time my car wasn't exactly sparkling clean, I think the hitch hiker was trying to be nice, or perhaps he was suggesting I wash my car, or perhaps he was very high; I have noticed that most hitchhikers are often very high).

This event occurred early in the summer about a year ago, when the product was new. Throughout the rest of the summer I felt like everywhere I turned I saw people in their driveways with that blue and green raygun washing their cars. Apparently the vagrant was right.

But there's a big leap to be made when going from the store shelves to becoming a brick and mortar location providing a tangential service. Apple got a lot of criticism when it opened it's first retail locations in 2001, and all it was doing was centralizing a location to purchase it's existing product. It wasn't striking new ground into another business sector entirely.

But really, what is Mr. Clean competing with? Most existing car washes are local affairs with one location. When one thinks of car washes they don't ususally associate a luxury or even, perhaps ironically, a CLEAN image. Car washes are usually about as clean as the gas station or auto body shop they are frequently attached to. Also, car washes are often run by edgy comedians or rappers who haven't made a good album in a while. At least as far as I can tell.

But P&G promises a different kind of car washing experience, something more sophisticated, controlled, and above all... well, clean. (Note to potential future employees: the boss will likely mind if you sometimes act the fool).

So while Mr Clean will face some competition from the mom and pop outfits, what challenge is really facing the bald titan? The same thing that's facing down every start up, the current economic climate. Car washes sit on real estate, and while that's cheaper than it's ever been, it's still a big up front expense to potential franchise buyers. Secondly, in an economy as jittery as ours, where consumers are more and more conservative with their spending, how does a luxury car wash convince people it's necessary in their lives?

If P&G overcomes theses hurdles could it blaze a trail for other products? Could we see Pepsi "POP" soda fountains? Nintendo Wii arcades? Only time will tell.


PS- A closing thought. Perhaps that hitchhiker was not, in fact, very high. Perhaps he was instead a shill, paid by Procter & Gamble to wander the byways of this nation and comment on car care, mentioning casually a new system for cleansing. Though I doubt a late 40's overly thin man with a grey beard and yellow teeth was the picture of "Connection" or "Stickyness" that Malcolm Gladwell was envisioning when he was drafting The Tipping Point but perhaps he should have been.

I'm going to coin a term here, and I want you all to remember it: Vagrant Marketing. Doleing out logo emblazoned winter jackets to bums? That's Vagrant Marketing*. Giving out starbucks coffee in re-usable, branded begging cups? That's Vagrant Marketing.

*It's also old hat. In the 80's it was common practice to spray paint your tag (or throw up) on a sleeping bum's jacket. It was better marketing then train bombing in some cases, because bums will go weeks before changing, or trying to get your paint off, and they have the habit of wandering all over the city.