A big bang for small bucks
Most cleaners don’t have an unlimited budget to apply toward a marketing campaign; in fact, the
opposite is usually the case. With little money to spend on advertising, it
does not even seem worth the time and effort. After all, the greater amount of
money you put in marketing, the higher the return, right? Not exactly. After
all, even big companies with large budgets can make mistakes on a grand scale.
One such infamous debacle occurred in 1985 when Coke spent a ton of money
announcing its New Coke product, informing the public that it was a
“better tasting” replacement for the original formula that had been around for a century.
Die-hard Coke fans protested the new incarnation and eventually the company was
forced to reintroduce Coca-Cola Classic. The blunder cost a lot of money and
alienated Coke
’s long-time loyal customers.
Spending a lot of money and yielding little results is not so uncommon, but what
about investing small amounts of money to generate huge results? During the
Clean Show this year, Al Lautenslager discussed the topic of guerrilla
marketing, which is, essentially, using time, imagination and effort... but as
few dollars as possible. Can it really work?
As an example, he offered Taco Bell’s clever campaign launched in 2001 when the Russian spacecraft MIR finished its
15-year journey in space. After the astronauts ejected from the spacecraft, it
was blown up and allowed to fall to Earth. Most of the 143-ton craft would burn
up on re-entry, but some 1,500 fragments of 40 pounds or more were expected to
land in a zone about 120 miles wide by 3,600 miles long off of Australia. Taco
Bell set up a 40
’ x 40’ vinyl target in the area with the company’s logo and the words “Free Tacos Here!” In the extremely improbable event that a chunk of spacecraft hit the target,
the fast food chain promised free tacos to all 281 million Americans. The
target only cost $2,000 and most of the publicity came free as it was a unique,
newsworthy idea. Taco Bell actually gained market share in the fast food
industry as a result.
Sometimes, cleaners with small marketing budgets have to make up for their lack
of funds with a smart program and an extra dose of imagination. This month,
Bill Bishop gives tips on effective low-cost direct mail advertising in his
column on page 12. Keep in mind, however, sometimes you get exactly what you
pay for. Regardless of how much you spend, make sure your marketing is unique,
honest and to-the-point. Your customers will respond better to it.
The choice is still yours
Over the next few years, many cleaners will be faced with finding a substitute
for perchloroethylene. Some will have their hands forced by government
regulations; others will need to switch because a landlord no longer wants perc
operations on the property.
Then there are thousands of other cleaners who, in the normal course of
equipment replacement, will be looking at buying a new drycleaning machine.
Even though there may be no outside forces pushing them away from perc, they
may still wonder, in view of the many available alternatives,
“Should I switch?”
Whether the decision to switch has been made for you or if you are in the
position of wondering whether to switch, the recently released White Paper from
the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute is the best place to start in evaluating
all of the currently available options. To that end, DLI has made the document
available not only to its members but also to the entire industry. To help
disseminate this information, we are
publishing it in full in this issue.
We emphasize that this document is a starting point. While it is the most
complete and detailed summary of the status of currently available systems we
have seen, it is not the last word. Much more is known about time-tested
systems like perc and hydrocarbon than about newer entries into the market,
such as Drysolv and Solvair. As time goes on, more will be learned and we
expect that the document itself will prove to be a work in progress as more
knowledge and information become available.
Nonetheless, we urge all cleaners to peruse this document, become familiar with
the many options and think about what would be best for their particular
situation. Whether your decision needs to be made this year, next year or not
for another five or ten years, a full understanding of the options will help
make that decision the right one.
