National Clothesline

According to current statistics tabulated by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a staggering 74 percent of American adults use the Internet. Of those users, 72 percent go online on a daily basis. While the highest number of Internet users (91 percent) use the information superhighway to send or read e-mails, the second most common reason for people to go online (89 percent) is to use a search engine to find information. In fact, 49 percent of adult Internet users in this country do precisely that on a daily basis.

So, if Joe Consumer (a distance cousin of a certain famous plumber with the same first name) wants to find a new cleaner, he isn’t going to hop in his car and drive around the neighborhood. He’d much rather sit down at his computer and use a search engine to find all the nearby options via zip code or his city’s name. Once that person clicks “search,” he will be inundated with numerous options, so the next step is to click on various links to all of the cleaners’ web sites so that he can learn more about them and make an informed choice.

The problem Joe will soon run into is that far too many drycleaners do not have web sites. Thus, his options will be drastically reduced. There is a high probability that if your plant does not have a site, then it won’t ever really be considered an option. After all, other cleaners have sites with detailed information, including their services, company history and awards and other designations. Those without web sites simply have a listing with an address and a phone number.

This month, columnist Harvey Gershenson offers a lot of helpful advice (see page 18) designed to get your plant moving in the right direction, including some smart tips on how to get a web site developed. If you do not have one yet, then you are missing out on an inexpensive marketing tool that can help you reach 74 percent of adult Americans.

Of course, even if you do have a site, that is not always enough to make you stand out from other cleaners’ sites. Keeping them fresh, pertinent and visually interesting will make sure that your site is the one that all the web visitors remember long after their computer is shut off for the night.

What started out as a clever marketing pitch may have run its course. A few years ago, cleaners began sprouting signs proclaiming themselves “organic,” a buzzword that appeals to the environmentally concerned and health-minded consumers who associate the word with organic food products and other environmental goodness.

As it pertains to cleaners, however, the word means nothing of that sort. It’s not that cleaners who use the word are lying. They are simply using it in the more general chemical sense of a solvent that contains an element of carbon. They are lying, however, if they say or suggest that their process is more environmentally virtuous than others because it is “organic.” By their definition of organic, perc cleaners, too, are organic.

This point was brought out in a New York Times article last month titled, “It May Market Organic Alternatives, But Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?” It was one of several recent articles in which the media has questioned the “organic” claim being made by cleaners and that is likely to lead to more customers questioning the claim.

The Times article quoted Alan Spielvogel of the National Cleaners Association saying, “I could clean garments with nuclear waste and I could call myself organic.”

Spielvogel told the Times that customers should look at more than just the cleaning solvent in searching for a “green” cleaner. Do they dispose of hazardous waste safely? Do they recycle hangers? Do they use biodegradable plastic and packaging, or fuel-efficient vehicles?

Perhaps cleaners who want to appeal to the green crowd should, instead of using the meaningless “organic” claim, call themselves “recycling centers.” You do recycle that solvent after every load, right? And you recycle hangers for your customers, no? And, most important, you recycle clothes, making dirty, wrinkled and unwearable garments like new.