Vehicle poster question

[markus_maximus]

Hi all,

I've had an idea for a little business and wanted to pick some collective brains here, if that's ok?

Essentially the idea is to enable people to create stylised posters of various things... in our cases it would most likely be vans or other vehicles, but it would also apply to pets, kids, etc. I've done one for my sister-in-law of her dog and she absolutely loves it (my SIL, not the dog!), but I'm not sure how much of a market there actually is.


Here's an example of one I've made for our Landy (Dougal):


Users would upload their image, the background would be removed and then they'd be able to choose the shape of the poster, enter the title and select from a few different colour schemes. They could either opt for a PDF to be emailed to them, so they can print however they like, or they could order posters directly.

So, questions:
- is this something you'd ever be likely to do?
- if so, what sort of price point do you think would be reasonable?
- cars, pets, am I missing any other obvious subject for posters?

Thanks, all feedback appreciated!

 

[Bav]

Hi @markus_maximus - we love a side hustle here on the forum, even if the product has only a tenuous connection to our vans and our lifestyles.

I suspect dub dogs posters as well as van posters will sell quite well on here, provided the price was right. To form a view on what a viable price point would be requires more details from you as to what/how you're supplying. For example, an A1 poster on high-grade paper, printed to a professional standard with a glossy finish and supplied in a protective carboard tube would obviously command a significant premium over an A4 poster printed by inkjet printer on economy paper and supplied in an envelope.

For the right price/quality, I'd be interested in a poster I could mount in my van.

 

[markus_maximus]

Haha, amazing, yes, also love a good side hustle!

There would be a variety of options available... from a PDF delivery via email to a poster on high quality, thick stock (i.e. thick enough to stand up on a sideboard or whatever). Also depends on size. Generally A5 or A4 size works best.

Thinking the most popular option would be an 11" x 14" poster on thick stock. Around £50ish plus shipping is the sort of ballpark I'm thinking of, but happy to be told that's too expensive (or cheap!).

Hoping to make some good use of discount codes, referral codes, etc, as I think that's how I'll manage to get word spread around.

 

[Bav]

11"x14" is a good size, but as a Tyke with short arms and long pockets , £50 sounds punchy to me - that takes it beyond a frivolous purchase - but it's hard to judge without having the goods in my hands. Also, I appreciate that it's a pointless exercise if you don't turn a reasonable profit and I'll admit to being pretty clueless on your costs for labour and material TBH.

Hopefully others will provide their feedback so you can get a more rounded view.

HTH

 

[Skyliner33]

I’m going to offer a conflicting view (play devils advocate). It’s not something I would be interested in.
If I was it’s a few mins in photoshop to remove the background from a photo of my van and to add a colour.

Then get it professionally printed (countless sites online) in the size of my choice.

Just my view, trying to add balance. Sorry if it sounds a bit negative.

 

[roadtripper]

I'm broadly in agreement with @Skyliner33 here. My trade and hobbies mean I'm very handy with graphics so it's not something I'd buy and I think really most can be done at many online printshops including the assembling of the text and graphics.

To some extent your value add here is the background removal step, which generally online printshops don't have. However there are many apps that do that as removing a background to composite images is a common trend on the socials and it's an emerging feature of AI image editors where you can just describe what you want.

So I think you have a market where folks don't put together background removal apps with online print services, and for me it would need to be priced at convenience not premium.

If it's something you enjoy and you can cover costs then go for it, but if you are looking to make a hobby pay I suspect it might not. I did once try to make my photography habit pay for itself a bit by offering no frills event photography but modern phones mean folks can get close enough to not see the value in paying for a photographer's time; they felt that £100 for 4 hours work and a 200 mile round trip on a Saturday evening was too expensive. I packed it in and now it's mates favours only.

I suspect as they say in my day job there is a gap in the market, but not much market in the gap.

 

[Skyliner33]

I'm broadly in agreement with @Skyliner33 here. My trade and hobbies mean I'm very handy with graphics so it's not something I'd buy and I think really most can be done at many online printshops including the assembling of the text and graphics.

To some extent your value add here is the background removal step, which generally online printshops don't have. However there are many apps that do that as removing a background to composite images is a common trend on the socials and it's an emerging feature of AI image editors where you can just describe what you want.

So I think you have a market where folks don't put together background removal apps with online print services, and for me it would need to be priced at convenience not premium.

If it's something you enjoy and you can cover costs then go for it, but if you are looking to make a hobby pay I suspect it might not. I did once try to make my photography habit pay for itself a bit by offering no frills event photography but modern phones mean folks can get close enough to not see the value in paying for a photographer's time; they felt that £100 for 4 hours work and a 200 mile round trip on a Saturday evening was too expensive. I packed it in and now it's mates favours only.

I suspect as they say in my day job there is a gap in the market, but not much market in the gap.

Thinking about apps, I remembered that commercial with the guy bouncing off a small trampoline to 'slam dunk' and then just deleting the trampoline. So I agree, its getting easier and easier to edit photos.
Even about 10 years or so ago I started doing lots of photography courses with the aim to start making some money and hopefully do it full time. Even then the course leaders were saying how hard it was to start as with the advent of digital cameras people were taking so many shots that by chance some had to turn out good so the only real way to start earning money was weddings, which I had no interest in doing.

 

[dubber36]

weddings, which I had no interest in doing.

I didn't want to go to my own. I sure as hell wouldn't want to go to anyone else's, paid or otherwise.

 

[cgtmiles]

My phone removes the background in photos now. And it’s certainly not most advanced (hardware or user!)

 

[markus_maximus]

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated.

Definitely targeting the convenience market... I.e. mainly folks wanting it for a gift. Guess it could go as low as £25 and still make a small margin on it, don't know if that takes it into the frivolous purchase bracket?

It's actually a system I've developed that is largely automated, but has huge hardware cost overheads (as well as cost of printing). So although it wouldn't need my time for each one, there would be quite a lot of overhead to cover.

And also I guess targeting people who wouldn't have thought to do it but like it as a gift idea.