Who are these organic cleaners?
The desire to lay claim to being of a higher environmental consciousness has led
some drycleaners to say strange things about other drycleaners over the years.
We
’ve heard petroleum cleaners imply that their perc-using brethren are spreading
cancer and perc cleaners suggest that petroleum cleaners might blow up the
neighborhood. None of this negativity has done the industry any good and
probably hasn
’t helped the particular cleaners who use these tactics, either.
The latest marketing ploy in the “greener-than-thou” sweepstakes comes from cleaners who drape banners across their stores claiming
to be
“organic drycleaners.” This cleverly plays on the public perception that all things organic are, by
nature, better for the environment. The implication is that the cleaner has
some superior new process that makes him the greenest cleaner in town. The
reality is that the 19th century drycleaner, Jean-Baptiste Jolly, and his
kerosene lamp was an
“organic cleaner.” Practically every cleaner since, whether using perc, petroleum, carbon tet or,
for that matter, gasoline, was an
“organic” cleaner. They all used solvents that contain an element of carbon, hence “organic.”
While we are sympathetic to a cleaner’s need to distinguish himself in a competitive market, the notion that being “organic” puts one on a higher plain is really nonsense. It becomes dishonest when a
cleaner tells the public that he is more environmentally friendly than other
cleaners because he is
“organic.” It takes more than a banner and a clever marketing notion to be a “green” cleaner. And it takes much more than clever marketing to be a good cleaner,
which is what most of the public is looking for.
Drycleaning at home… isn’t
A little over eight years ago, billboards cropped up all over the U.S.
proclaiming the ominous words:
“Suddenly, Drycleaning Only... Isn’t.” Other ads hinted that the days of hauling large bundles of clothes to the
drycleaner were over. It was all part of a widespread hard-hitting marketing
campaign concocted by consumer goods giant Procter
& Gamble for Dryel, its so-called “home drycleaning” product that promised to freshen clothes between trips to the cleaner and even
remove stains.
The fledgling product generated a lot of media buzz in a hurry, and it received
a substantial PR boost when Good Housekeeping awarded it with a
“Good Buy” Award in its January 2000 issue. Dryel had all the makings of a juggernaut
product that could steal millions away from the industry.
Of course, Procter & Gamble insisted that its new product was not a “replacement” for drycleaning, but rather, an adjunct. The company scaled back its initial
claims, especially after numerous media outlets performed side by side
comparison tests between drycleaning and Dryel. Drycleaning won each individual
battle, though not always outright. Many consumer watchdogs recommended that
consumers use Dryel in order to go to the cleaners less and save money. After
all, a person who typically spends $4 to $5 per garment at a plant, would only
spend 70 cents per garment with the home drycleaning product.
It was not long before similar products followed the lead, including Drycleaner’s Secret, the Clorox FreshCare kit and a few others. Home drycleaning products
made an immediate impact in just a couple of years. They combined to rake in
$128.2 million in domestic sales in 2001. However, as time passed, so did the
novelty. By 2004, U.S. home drycleaning sales had shrunk more than half with an
annual sales figure of $54.4 million. These days, many of the products have
dropped out of the marketplace completely. Others can still be found, provided
you know where to look.
Looking back with hindsight, it is easy to see why the “revolutionary” products found only limited success. Drycleaners know the answer. The products
did not remove stains consistently and effectively, nor did they provide the
same quality finished garment. Now, there is a sense of irony to the whole
Dryel debacle. What once was considered a legitimate threat to the industry
inadvertently became a source of positive publicity for it. Consumers were
given constant reminders why they prefer going to their local cleaners in the
first place. It
’s quite simple, really: nothing else measures up.
