National Clothesline

The FabriCare Foundation plans to build on the success to date of its 2006 national publicity campaign with a video news release sent to media outlets last month that is targeted to young adults.

“Until now, as drycleaners, we have generally focused our communications to our primary demographic: females, ages 32-52. Although this is, and always will be our primary source for business, it is time to step into a new realm and hit a new market: young adults, ages 19-32,” said Dan Martino, president of the Fabricare Foundation. “TV shows like How I Met Your Mother and Bravo’s Emmy award-winning Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are fueling a new trend among young adults — wearing a suit and dressing up are now considered cool.”

On September 18th, the FabriCare Foundation began distributing the new video news release to stations across the nation in an effort to attract and capture this new, younger audience, which has the prospect of generating a lifetime of business.

“Our goals for this publicity effort are to educate consumers about the importance of caring for good clothes, the convenience of using a drycleaner and how to identify a professional drycleaner,” Martino said. “We will attract the media’s attention by focusing on our segment on Queer Eye, while also providing research statistics and interviews with industry experts.

The video release notes that combined sales of suits, suit separates and sport coats were up 53 percent for men between 18 and 24 last year, Overall in 2005, apparel sales totaled $181 billion, up four percent from the previous year.

In addition to a clip from the Queer Eye segment, the release also features Fabricare Foundation spokespersons IFI’s Chris Allsbrooks and Steve Boorstein, aka The Clothing Doctor. Allsbrooks emphasized the importance of seeking a true professional drycleaner who can be identified by of things as displays of the Award of Excellence plaque. Boorstein, noting that his 24-year-old son’s job requires wearing a dress suit every day, offered clothing care tips and advised that stains should be left to the drycleaner to remove.

The bottom line, the voiceover says, is that drycleaning not only saves time but also saves money by helping to preserve the wardrobe.

Stations can simply download the video release from PR Newswire’s web site via the following link: www.prnewswire.com/broadcast/25517/press.shtml. The link contains the full advisory, script and streaming video and a link to a broadcast-quality file that can be used in television newscasts.

Also on the publicity front, Martino, Allsbrooks, and Don Fawcett, past president of the FabriCare Foundation, are featured in regular “question-and-answer” clothing care columns in their hometown papers, including The Kenosha News, The Washington Times and The Patriot Ledger, respectively. These columns include answers to commonly asked seasonal clothing care questions as well as timely tips.

The FabriCare Foundation is supporting these consumer publicity efforts by communicating regularly to the drycleaning industry through trade show attendance, announcements in drycleaning trade publications, and distribution of a monthly e-newsletter titled First ImPRESSions, filled with tips and campaign updates. This e-newsletter is available to all industry members by signing up on the foundation’s web site: www.fabricarefoundation.org.

The FabriCare Foundation’s next steps are to raise enough money to continue its publicity efforts into 2007.

“We’d like to create a national giving campaign where drycleaners can partner with ‘Cops ‘N Kids’ across the country to collect books and generate publicity. We’d also like to create an image ad campaign that drycleaners can use to place ads in their local papers,” Martino said.

“However, we can’t do any of this without the support of our industry. The more financial support drycleaners can provide, the greater our reach and effectiveness will be. I’d also like to stress the importance of becoming a certified cleaner and joining IFI’s Award of Excellence program. Together, we can raise the bar for the entire industry.”

To make a donation, go to www.fabricarefoundation.org/become.htm. For questions or more information about the FabriCare Foundation or how to help, visit www.fabricarefoundation.org; e-mail Martino at danmartino@tds.net or phone him at (262) 694-7545.

The FabriCare Foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Since 1994, it has worked with drycleaners to improve services, offerings and customer relation skills continuously across the entire industry. The donations of supporters let the foundation fund the research and programs necessary to educate professionals and strengthen the industry.