Not flashy, but they get message across

PEMBROKE -- Michael Serode knows his business from A to Z. Each Tuesday he rearranges the letters on a changeable sign outside Salon Serode to attract motorists zipping along Route 53.

''There can't be much more than nine words because they travel so fast," he said. ''They have to get to the point." Like the message Serode posted last month to mark the one-year anniversary of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts: ''Assimilation is not liberation. Somebody wonderful marry me, quick. Happy anniversary."

Or the one commenting on Pope John Paul II's death: ''Save a seat for me, John Paul."

The offbeat lines do more than turn heads: They bring customers. Serode said his small business generates about $1 million annually. ''How many salons do that?" he asked.

While industry officials say flashy ''electronic message centers" are fast becoming the standard for outdoor on-premise advertising, primitive ''changeable copy" signs like Serode's remain effective. Even in the high-speed communications whirl of pop-up ads, phone text messaging, and television screen crawls, consumers still respond to boxy black letters against white backgrounds as viewed through an automobile window.

The signs are especially valuable to small businesses that cannot afford to mount major advertising campaigns, said Noel Yarger, chairman of North American Signs in South Bend, Ind.

''It's how they compete against the Wal-Marts; by telling people what they have as customer services that are unique," said Yarger, whose clients include Fidelity Investments, Nike Inc., and OfficeMax. ''Nonelectronic changeable letter boards are enormously important to our economy."

The technology for changeable copy signs is simple -- letters made of plastic or stainless steel, usually 6 to 8 inches high, slide into rows of horizontal tracks.

The dazzle, speed, and versatility of electronic message centers guarantees that they ''are truly going to be the wave of the future," said Janay Rickwalder, spokeswoman for the International Sign Association ''but I don't believe they're going to replace changeable copy signs."

The modest sign board at Plymouth Farm and Garden in Plymouth has become a minor local landmark that distinguishes the business from the nearby Home Depot and Lowe's stores. Owner Jerry Gallant said customers have been talking about his three-line messages since he posted the first one two decades ago: ''It's spring time, your mother called, she wants flowers." He quickly learned the sign was worth more as a promotional tool than to peddle products.

''I had people come in this week to say they drive by just to read them," Gallant said. ''A lot of people don't know the name of my store; they recognize us because of the sign."

The pitches -- whether electronic or manual -- have to be delivered within seconds, Rickwalder said. ''It's a matter of the distance [a vehicle] is from the sign, the size of the letters, and how fast the driver is moving," she said.

The ''emerging trend" for illuminating electronic message signs is light-emitting diodes, Rickwalder said. LEDs can be used to create colorful graphics programmed remotely by computer. Even mundane copy gets noticed when it moves, she said. Many national retailers use electronic signs to tailor and update advertising for individual stores. Achieving the same level of customization through print, radio, or television advertising is more complicated and costly, Rickwalder said.

LEDs, essentially small pieces of glowing metal fitted with hard plastic lenses, are more energy efficient and durable than neon and cold-cathode lights.

Despite advances in manufacturing since LEDs were introduced in the 1960s, however, even a 5-by-8-foot message center, with just two lines of 14 characters each, can cost $10,000 or more, Yarger said. Changeable text signs that size are $2,000 to $3,000.

Like most movie theater chains, Showcase Cinemas still uses changeable text signs. Owned by Dedham-based National Amusements Inc, it operates about 1,425 screens in the United States, including, almost 200 at 15 locations in Massachusetts. Brian Callaghan, a National Amusements spokesman, said that aside from the cost of electronic message centers, ''the problem is getting them to work in the daytime, especially with direct sunlight."

But updating film titles manually is labor intensive. At the 20-screen Showcase Cinemas off Route 1 in Revere, it takes two employees guided by paper printouts up to two hours to update each of the complex's two marquees, which are about 30 feet high.

National Amusements has been using similar signs since the 1950s and does not plan to scrap them any time soon. ''It's one of those technologies that hasn't changed dramatically over the years," Callaghan said.

And it is still susceptible to human error. Callaghan recalled driving by a theater years ago that was advertising a job vacancy. ''Grumpy Old Men" was showing. The two-line combination created an unintended message: ''Now hiring Grumpy Old Men."

Mark Pothier can be reached at mpothier@globe.com.