1-2-3 Thoughts From the 2026 Car Wash Show

One Size Does Not Fit All

Our team had the pleasure of being in Nashville last month to attend the 2026 Car Wash Show, which is always such a great experience reconnecting with our partners across North America and meeting so many new people. This year, The Car Wash Show was made up of 10,000 professionals representing hundreds of car wash brands. We saw so much innovation on the floor. We heard some truly inspiring talks about how teams are creating unique hospitality experiences  and how managers inspire their teams to connect to customers. So I was a bit surprised (and disappointed) to see some marketers claim they’ve unlocked a one size fits all approach to marketing. If only it were that easy.

Why would an entire industry want to opt into the exact same approach? It’s a recipe for disaster. After all, this so-called strategy only benefits the party pitching the idea. It’s a great way to scale their ad agency because it’s easy and doesn’t require any further thought. This makes the plan scalable and profitable for them (not you). Claims like these are the reasons most people hate advertising agencies and marketing professionals. Sure, a one size fits all approach sounds good in the short term. You can institute the ideas quickly, check the box, and go on to tackling your next issue. But long term, it’s bad for business. You’re likely just copying the same playbook as your competitor across the street, which is something the customer you’re going after notices. With no discernable difference between you and them, you’re likely getting into a pricing war to win their business (or worse, just offering up free wash after free wash hoping for a conversion that’s becoming more expensive by the day) and you’re failing to build any brand loyalty, which means high churn rates are the norm, and you find yourself in a never ending rat race to bring in new customers and pray they don’t leave. A one size fits all approach is lazy, expensive, and ineffective.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! You’re different from your competitors. (Hopefully, you’re even better!) How do you give back to your community? What local schools or sports teams do you support? How are you celebrating and empowering your ops team? What are those little things you do differently that make your customers care about coming back? And how are you telling and selling your story? 

When I think about where our industry is going, I think about McDonalds and Burger King. After all, we’re going after a similar customer. Our locations are even right by theirs. They have a drive-thru, just like us! But are they using a one size fits all approach? Are they using the same playbook as the other? Of course not! Their principles are similar, but their businesses are not the same. Sure, they’re both selling burgers that come out quickly. They’re even selling similar amenities; in this case, Coca-Cola products. But McDonald’s is famous for having the Coke mix perfect at all times, no matter where you buy it, while Burger King offers Coke Zero as an alternative to Coke, where McDonald’s is sticking exclusively to Diet Coke. And these little nuances matter to customers. Just look at this fun, compelling read on the Brand Civil War breaking out amongst Coke Zero, Diet Coke fans. You are not the same as your competitor. (You better not be, anyway) So there is no magic bullet, one size fits all approach to your marketing.

Two Way Conversations Are Essential

So, how are you telling, and selling your story? If you’re not using an omni-channel approach, you should be. A two way conversation is essential to any great relationship. And in order to do that, you need to meet your customer where they’re at. Yes, customers typically have a phone attached to their hand at all times, so you should absolutely consider texting them. But texting is a one way conversation. You’re telling them something, and they have no way to respond. Not very personal, is it? We all know the person who only reaches out when they need something. They claim to be our friend. But the fact is, they never check in on us or ask how we’re doing. They only text when they need something from us. I have more than a few of those people in my life. Sure, I tolerate them. But I don’t have a real relationship with them, which means I have no loyalty to them. 

We’re in the loyalty business. This is why two way conversations are so important. Of course your ops team needs to be trained in how to talk to customers, to make them feel at home, to make them feel seen and heard. And this attention needs to extend to your digital footprint – Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok. Everywhere your customers are. Same with text, you can’t just say something and then that’s it. This cannot be a one way street if you expect customers to be loyal to you by buying (and importantly, maintaining) a subscription. You need to answer their questions, the good and the bad. Earn their trust and keep it. The stats back it up. Brands that communicate openly with their customers on social media see the effectiveness of their paid ads amplified by up to 4x!

But what do you talk about? The things that make you different (and better!) than the wash across the street. And don’t exclusively talk about deals! (What relationship works when all you talk about is money?) Sure, deals are important, but customers want to learn more about the employees that greet them every day. How does your team help in the community? Why does your team LOVE washing cars? Even better – ask your customers questions! What is your favorite thing about our wash? How can we serve you better? What’s your favorite thing about our community? After all, we should always be thinking about the communities in which we serve. Which leads to:

Three Ways To Unlock Growth With Hyper Local Story Selling

Not only should each brand have their own marketing strategy, each brand should have a hyper local story telling (and selling) strategy. Car washes have always been about serving the community. Think about the local middle school band doing a car wash fundraiser in the grocery store parking lot. It’s a wonderful history unique to our industry, and those stories of nostalgia ultimately bind us to our communities in ways other businesses dream of. 

So how do you capitalize on hyper local story telling? One of our long term partners has grown to 30+ locations across the Midwest. So we need to think about how we communicate with those customers across a multi-state geographic area, but also, at times, within the same city.

First, this brand has locations in Fargo, ND (they LOVE winter) and Rockford, IL (they HATE winter). How we message them in the winter months must be differentiated to be effective. This requires more effort, but when executed correctly, lets our customers in both cities know that we care about them, which in turn leads to customer loyalty. We might proudly email our Fargo list to let them know that it’s -10 outside, and we’re open and can’t wait to help them clean up after yesterday’s snow storm. On the same day, it might be 0 in Rockford, and we email them to let them know that we’re closed to keep our employees (and you) safe. But we’ll be back tomorrow, ready with a smile to help you. In the meantime, stay warm, and we’re here for you.

This same brand has several locations in the Sioux City, IA market. When we began with them, we were communicating to customers exclusively in English. But when they built a new location in South Sioux City, NE (right across the river), we understood quickly that we needed to give that location its own marketing strategy. It was a simple switch – we just needed to converse in Spanish, because more than half of the population around our wash is Hispanic, and for most of them, their primary language is Spanish. Because we had monthly standup calls with local ops (just a quick, 15 minute check in to understand what happens on the ground and what their costumes care about) we knew we could easily translate the messaging we already had, using the right kind of slang when necessary, which meant we had to create two versions of everything, English and Spanish, but doing this simple hyper local activation led to exponential growth at the location, which led to loyal customers who love getting their car washed there  because they can have a conversation with the brand.

The partner I’m using in these examples does a good job telling that story to customers in each town they serve, which is more time consuming than taking a one size fits all approach. It takes more care, planning and segmentation, but that extra work bears fruit. I recently saw a different brand cut corners and use a one size fits all approach to their story telling, and it was cringe-worthy.

I was in Florida last week supporting a grand opening for a new partner. While there, I was served up ads from a competitor, who was spending (wasting) ad money to tell me how they support a very local charity. Sounds great, right? The problem is, that charity is four states away. You see, this competitor has locations across the Southeast. But instead of messaging in a hyper local way to each of their locations, they chose a lazy one size fits all campaign. Why does this matter? After all, they’re telling a compelling story about lifting up a local non-profit. And good for them. But they’re throwing away dollars telling potential customers about a charity they’ve never heard of, in a place hundreds of miles away. With slightly more effort, they could have empowered their local Florida team to identify a local non-profit from their own back yard to support and told that story to their local customers. That would actually mean something to their customers,who in turn would be more compelled to be loyal to the wash. Customers aren’t stupid. They know that many times, a car wash ownership might not be local. But they still expect their local dollars to stay local. Community matters. And as car wash marketers (as a marketer in any line of business) we need to be aware of that. 

In short, to create an effective hyper local campaign:

1. Tell geographically relevant stories
2. Use language appropriate to your customers
3. One size does not fit all

In Review

There’s no such thing as a one size fits all answer to marketing each of your individual locations, much less to an entire industry. (Wouldn’t it be nice if there was? If that were the case, you wouldn’t need to hire marketing people! Good riddance, right?!) But here’s the good news. There are principles that work that can be crafted to each brand and location. You must remember that brand building requires conversations with your local customers. And most importantly, conversations go two ways. Not one. Sure, it takes a little more work. And the work never ends. But the rewards for that work are massive. Loyal customers turn into raving fans. This means a reduction in churn. Which means lower costs. Which means higher profits. Which means job security. And room to grow more locations in the future.