The State of Innovation in Car Washing

Craig Burr, Mulitmedia Publisher for CarCareBuzz.com offered the comments and thoughts on innovation for the purpose of seeking and sharing the expertise and experience of some of the industry’s “Best Thinkers”.  Following are Ryan Beatty’s (Mark VII) comments and thoughts in reply to concerns about the state of innovation in the car care business.

Craig Burr expresses his concerns on Innovation, real and faux.

Part of producing quality products and services is about generating innovative solutions and evolutions of products and services. It is logical that “continuous improvement” generates innovative new products and services—just as that process delivers real improvements in production efficiency, product durability, all the while reducing defect incidents. New products and new production processes go hand in hand.

For years, the industry has been plagued with faux inventors and faux innovations. We have all witnessed these come and go. Some even manage to hang around for a very long time—probably due to a certain apathy in the business to police these pretenders. We always see imitators especially in in-bay and conveyor tunnels. But we see it just as often in chemistry, dryers, even detailing technique products. Some of the copy-cats are well-known and they are not shy about their copy-cat tendencies.

Car care business owners and operators are challenged to distinguish authentic innovation and authentic products from the “knock-offs.” This seems to be a necessary part of their evaluation process when considering new suppliers or new equipment. This challenge goes along with deciphering the claims—sometimes bodacious claims of some manufacturers. Let’s face it, there is, and has been, a rather significant problem posed to operators and owners when it comes time to validating claims, innovation and authenticity.

We see a lot of faux innovations being proclaimed in the industry. We just received a press release from a rather large company proclaiming a great new adaptation of another company’s over-rated software. Proclaiming, the press release went something like this, “We now offer an interface to ABC’s software version 23.2—you can get bamboozled by us now instead of going directly to ABC.” This results in one exaggeration of product efficacy layered on top of another. This is not really a problem of exaggerated claims or “puffing,” but one of separating out and rewarding authentic innovation.

Let’s share advice with car care business owners on how they can separate out true inventions and authentic innovations from pretenders and knock-offs. What can those “authentic” innovators and inventors do to stand above the imitators?

Of course, if you own registered patents, or have formal patents pending with the registrar, that would be very good. Shouldn’t this be the real headline? Isn’t it hard to argue with that? What if you explained that you hold eight patents in a certain technology or formulation—wouldn’t that help to distinguish authenticity from imitation? We are not talking about exaggerated claims or over-stated marketing language here. Let’s focus on and reward innovation. Let’s give car care business owners a roadmap for finding the genuine inventors, the real innovators?

Is the search for real inventions that have real benefits so elusive and obscured that the pretenders can easily maneuver in and about the patent holders? Is there a benefit to the car care business owner and operator that will reward his research and his due diligence in finding business partners who hold patents and produce truly genuine innovations? Is there a recognizable difference between authentic innovation and the pretenders that can be pointed out?

Ryan Beatty offers his insights on the State of Innovation

Finding the real innovators these days isn’t as hard as it used to be. This economy has put a head lock on many R&D budgets of car wash equipment, chemical and software manufacturers. However, there are some bright and shining examples of some companies who continue to roll out new products, with new technology that are designed around bringing a more efficient, profitable and customer friendly result to operators. If you’ve been to an ICA Show lately, it’s become easy to search out the innovators through the new product showcase attendees that are viewed at the front of the exhibition floor. In the last piece, we discussed car wash partners and how to seek out and develop these relationships. If you’re a savvy operator or investor, you most likely will take notice of the companies who continue to push the envelope and develop new products. This not only shows a sign of financial strength but a commitment to overall industry and operators.

Most every manufacturer has certain patents that go along with the products they produce. If they don’t or previously did not, you are more than likely to see a “knock–off” or something that may look nearly identical. It’s nearly impossible to keep the “me too, knock off” products from coming out, however, the devil is really in the details. Just because a product aesthetically may look like another doesn’t mean it functions the same, has the same consumption parameters or even shares some of the same parts. The look might be real, but the feel is certainly not.

I’ll use for example, some items specific to the company I work for. We hold patents on such things as turbo nozzles, profiling booms, certain drying methods and other technologies that are all very important on their own but also as a group.

You won’t see us come out and advertise these patents individually or even as a group, but you’ll see us predicate much of our marketing dollars behind sending the message that all of these patents represent; efficiency and cost reduction for operators. You’ll see us put into print our consumption data which we believe is some of the best in the marketplace, if not the best, and that too is driven by these patents.

As I mentioned above, finding the real innovators isn’t as hard as it used to be, but it is more worthwhile than ever before. It will take some homework to get past who is the real deal and who is not. However, just poke around and you’ll find the pockets of innovators who are taking our great business to the next level and beyond.

Real Benefits

There is certainly a recognizable difference between what is authentic and what is not, however, the saying that goes “everything works great on the showroom floor” is dead on when it comes to what is real and what is not. Depending on your business model and how hands on you are, your list of what innovations are important and which are not may differ. However, one thing is for sure, don’t do your homework and you could end up getting burned and being left to struggle through problems on your own.

The first thing operators must recognize is that while someone may have a great new invention or idea that you believe in, it doesn’t mean they have the means to support it. We all know people who have invested in technology only to later find out it didn’t do what they said it was going to do; or it was a great product but simply had no after sale support which made diagnosing problems, getting parts or trouble shooting difficult and frustrating. There are also examples of operators who were “guinea pigs” on products new to the industry but were supported locally from the manufacturer and therefore have had positive experiences. Bottom line, after sale support is paramount when it comes to any innovation in the marketplace. This is truly what can make or break a product’s success in the marketplace.

There are a few companies out there that pride themselves on being “R&D” style companies. You’ll see most of these players at the trade show with booths touting one or more new products, in multiple segments most every year. Upon closer look, what you find is more evolution than revolution, however it’s nice to see companies dedicated to improving on what they currently have rather than scraping it completely and moving on. In many cases, good manufacturers will give operators the chance to retro-fit current designs with new innovations.

In the end, the real benefit that comes to the operator through these innovations is something that changes how they do business for the better. For some this will mean new software solutions, for others new chemicals which deliver a better product at a lower cost, and for others it will be efficient equipment that will drive top line revenue through menu building enhancements and drop bottom line expenses through lowering operating costs. Whatever bucket or combination of buckets you fall into, there is certainly something to be gained by finding the drivers of innovation. Just make sure they can provide you with after sales support that will make you continually successful.

Ryan is the vice president of sales for Mark VII Equipment Inc. He can be reached at rbeaty@markvii.net.

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