National Clothesline

Aristocraft hopes to add the color pink to every drycleaning plant in the New England region this October.

The company, headquartered in Oxford, MA, recently unveiled a complete marketing program for cleaners to celebrate “Breast Cancer Awareness” month in October.

“Cleaners have always had a hard time building a bridge to their community,” explained Rick Ross, vice president of sales for Aristocraft. “We were looking for something to do that. We’ve come up with a full promotional campaign where we can provide cleaners with everything... posters and counter signs to poly bags, cape hangers, garment covers, pink wire shirt hangers, pink wire strut hangers. We can paint their store pink for the month of October.”

According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer affects one in eight women during their lifetime and kills more women in the United States than any other cancer except for lung cancer.

However, the American Breast Cancer Foundation notes that there are more than 1.6 million breast cancer survivors alive in America today. Early detection is the key. The five-year survival rate after early-stage diagnosis and treatment is over 90 percent.

Aristocraft hopes the promotion will boost cleaners’ sales while supporting a good cause at the same time.

“For every item drycleaners purchase from us, we are donating to the American Breast Cancer Foundation,” Ross added. “We’re also providing them with a couple of mechanisms where they can raise money and pass it on to the American Breast Cancer Foundation.”

One such mechanism is to resell pink “Key to Life” bracelets. Aristocraft will sell them to clients at cost for 50 cents and cleaners can choose to resell them, give them away for donations or sell them at a higher cost to bring in more money to the Foundation.

“We’ve got other customers who have come up with things on their own,” Ross noted. “I’ve got one customer who’s going to donate, I think a nickel, for every shirt he does. Other people are putting out containers for people to put money in and matching it dollar for dollar.”

So far, approximately 200 individual plants are participating in the program, which Aristocraft plans to promote heavily on the radio.

“What I think is different than something that has never been done before is we are advertising on WBZ Radio,” Ross said. “It’s a 50,000 watt station, which means pretty much it goes almost anywhere in New England. We’re advertising for a month leading up to and into Breast Cancer Awareness month to drive customers to participating drycleaners.”

For more information on the program, contact Aristocraft at (800) 875-0479 or vist them at www.aristocraftsupply.com.