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Dry Cleaning Plant & Route Marketing/development
Posted By: behappy1119 on 7/26/2006 7:02 PM (CST) 250 Points
I'm so excited to read the Q & A s on marketingprofs: brilliant, helpful. Seeing members reach out and help others is just ... great. Thanks much!

I just purchased a dry cleaning plant in San Jose, CA. What's the best way to increase our Over the Counter Sales? What's the advertising medium would provide the highest rate of return on my marketing dollar? Email, direct mail, store promotions, discount....??? Please be specific.

I also want to develop a route pick up & delivery. Again, what's the best way to start. If I have a limited budget, where's the most important place to invest first. Commercial and wholesale account, how to approach these? Darcy Moen has some wonderful feedback on the route subject few months ago, and I still have tons of questions, so please help! :-)

With the recent heat wave at 100 degree plus, it's steamy hot at our place. Any idea of what else to do (beside fans) to improve our work environment.

A happy and grateful person.

Posted by: W.M.M.A. Accepted Answer
7/26/2006 7:20 PM (CST)
You have chosen a very difficult business. As you know...highly competitive.

Through the years, I have discovered that cleaners must have a product "leader" .. something that gets them in the door. My suggestion would be to think about shirts...

All shirts 99 Cents or some very competitive, yet profitable leader. This is in BIG letters on your window and/or signage.

The best advertising, in my opinion is drip-mailers to surrounding zip codes. Autumn is coming, Holidays are coming...specials on drapes, table cloths...etc may be effective.

But, I firmly believe that your pricing for men AND women must be fair. A shirt is a shirt....a shirt is a blouse. Why should cleaners charge women more for a blouse than a man gets charged for a shirt.

If you want a differentiator, that can become a great PR campaign, this is it. There are cleaners around here (Houston), that charge $1.25 for a shirt and $3.95 for a blouse...c'mon...not right. You could bury your surrounding competition with that...the female anchors would be all over it...

Customer Club---use a punch card...X number of shirts gets a free Y.

Hold a drawing for FREE shirt cleaning for a year.

The health of your workers is very important. San Jose isn't always hot...But giant ceiling suction fans would work well. Also, no cost cold drinks and water and ice cream, would make you the boss of bosses.

If you were our client, I would "press" hard for you to be the leader. Do things that others are not doing. Care for your customers, and show them you do. Remember their names..."Good Morning Mr......medium starch, right?"

CRM is a buzzword/phrase/slogan...In the day, it was the way business was done.

We advise our clients that "Standard service is expected...Standard service isn't enough."

All the best. If we can be of any further assistance...just ask.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: behappy1119 Author Response
7/27/2006 2:47 PM (CST)
Thanks W.M.M.A for a fantastic response.

The reason men shirt is charged differently from women blouse is because of the amount of time & care put in each blouse. Most men shirts are pressed via machine, then being touched up. Women blouses are hand ironed and the fabrics tend to require more care. I did not understand the difference either until I'm in the business.

Thanks for pressing hard for me to be a leader. I firmly believe in excellent customer service too. Hope you can stay out of the heat in Houston.

Le

Note: I just sign up for this forum and did not have the time to learn how to use the system yet. I'm supposed to award points, right? How?
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Member Response
7/27/2006 3:54 PM (CST)
When you are ready to award..go to My questions...which is in the right column....click on that....your question will pop up, click on that and check which people get the point and click on Award Points...that simple..

Not ALL Blouses are special fabric.... some are cotton...like men's shirts...Good Luck.

If we can help....contact us.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
7/30/2006 12:10 PM (CST)
DO NOT DO 99 CENT SHIRTS!!! Its a cheap low ball offer, and only an idiot who does not understand drycleaning costs/marketing would recommend it.

Hi, I'm Darcy Moen, author and writer for Fabricarecanada.com, and a marketing consultant for drycleaners.

You should join the fabricare forum at yahoogroups.com
Ten years ago, a small group f drycleaners banded together and began the fabricare forum as a free and international forum for cleaners to exchange ideas.

Next, sign up for the National Clothesline. its a free trade magazine. Go to www.natclo.com and read it online.

You may also want to stop by www.dcadshop.com and have a look. This is my personal web site for marketing drycleaning services.

Now, lets get down to the nitty gritty.

The best way to increase your drycleaning business is by having a marketing plan that includes multi media.

You will need:
- direct mail
- email
- a web site
- a point of sale system

You will need to send direct mail to your entire market at least four times a year, with an offer that is just enticing enough to generate a response, but not so low as to cause you to lose money providing the services. It also has to be sent in such a fashion that only a portion of your market has a live offer in front of them at any time.

Your web site should be prominantely advertised on all direct mail, as well as inside your shop, and all packaging. This is where you can say as much as you want to say, and change what you want to say without spending too much money. See examples of web sites I've built for clients at:

www.annieslceaners.com
www.snedicors.com
www.davenportcleaners.com
www.leadingcleaners.org

You will also need to tie in email marketing. Your web site will help you build your list, as will your front counter staff. You will send a regular newsletter out, filled with information about fabrics, fashion, special offers on buying quality clothing from reputable clothing retailers. This is in itself an artform.That's why I'd recommend Steve Boorstein's (the Clothing Doctor) newsletter for your customers. Check him out at www.clothingdoctor.com

As for your point of sale system, you need to use it. I work with a selct group of clients to help them extract business from their point of sale system. Your POS records when customers come in, and that data can be used to predict when their next order will be...or better yet, show you who has not been in for sometime. I help clients create marketing campaigns to get customers to return, again and again. I also help you lead promising customers up the sales and loyalty ladder by monitoring and encouraging positive changes in their shopping habits.

99 cent shirts is simply a no brainer offer that every cleaner uses. Its not a market position, its not a strategy, its a knee jerk reaction anyone can copy.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Member Response
7/30/2006 12:31 PM (CST)
W.M.M.A. said:

'I firmly believe that your pricing for men AND women must be fair. A shirt is a shirt....a shirt is a blouse. Why should cleaners charge women more for a blouse than a man gets charged for a shirt.'

Let me explain it to you:

A shirt has specialized equipment (that costs 100,000 plus to buy) and can produce 35 to 120 finished shirt an hour with one or two operators. Most shirts are standardized sizes, and can fit on automated equipment that requires little manual labour to press. The cost to produce a finished shirt is somewhere between $1.75 to $2.50 each (depending on rent, utilities and labour).

A blouse is hardly ever uniform. It does not fit on automated equipment, and if you try to press it on such, it usually rips or destroys the blouse. There is no automated equipment for pressing a blouse. Blouses must be pressed by hand to accomidate all the intricate beads, sequins, trims, ruffles, darts, shoulder pads, collars and cuffs. A skilled blouse presser may be able to produce 25 to 35 perfectly pressed blouses per hour (depending on trims, ruffles, fabrics, etc). Equipment required to press a blouse is a form finisher ($8,000), a quality all steam iron with teflon show ($300), steam lines, boiler, return lines, water treatment system, drycleaning machine (which can cost 80,000 to one million dollars)...a blouse pressing station is just one part of the rest of the dry cleaning plant. Equipment costs vary, depending on the location and cleaning solvent used. Cost to produce a blouse is very difficult to determine because they vary so much. Labour alone to press a pleated front blouse, and remove and re-attach extensive beadwork that cannot be cleaned (yes, we sometimes have to remove beads before cleaning and re-attach after) can run up to 40 dollars PER BLOUSE!

A shirt and a blouse...are two different garments, and they require completely different processing.

So, W.M.M.A. you would like fair pricing....it is being delivered to you. Lets keep it fair, fair to the drycleaner too...let him charge what its worth. Perhaps it would be more fair to raise the price of shirts to $5.00 each. It would sure help offset the charges a cleaner absorbs cleaning and pressing difficult garments. Smart cleaners know what costs what, and the smart ones charge accordingly.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
and retired drycleaner.
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Member Response
7/30/2006 12:49 PM (CST)
Oh, I would like to add....real cleaners do no use GENDER based pricing.

A cleaner should not use Men's Shirts, Ladies Blouses in their pricing structure.

Men can wear skirts (we call them kilts).

Some men wear dresses, some ladies wear items typically worn by males (we call them cross dressers).

All prices are are determined by the garment, the fabric, the trim, the cost to produce acceptable finished quality and the risk involved in cleaning it.

I like to quote the old parable of the watermelon salesman. I buy them at a dollar a piece, and sell them for 50 cents each. I'll make up the difference and take my profit on volume.

Darcy Moen
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Member Response
7/30/2006 4:00 PM (CST)
So, Darcy.Moen suggests that I am "idiot" and do not understand the industry. DM, had you read beyond, you would have noticed "All shirts 99 Cents or some very competitive, yet profitable leader." Had she read previously, she may have read "My suggestion would be to think about shirts...".

Had she read the reseponse of the behappy1119, she may have noticed that this person explained several things to me related to the industry...in a most polite manner, I might add.

Being a consumer of cleaning services, I know what I like, and don't like. I know what I will pay, and what I will not pay.

Perhaps Ms. Moen hadn't noticed that this forum was for an exchange of ideas in the realm of marketing. Exchange ideas is what we do best. We, who are professional marketers, do not try to degrade our colleagues in any manner, even if we disagree.

I am a professional marketer, Ms. Moen...not a professional dry cleaner. You do not know me.

And, not knowing me, Ms. Moen, I would say you were way off base to suggest I am idiot. I take offense to your personal attack. If you wish to attack...do it off forum.

As to your responses...I disagree with all of the "shoulds" and "neet to" responses you gave to behappy. You know little about behappy1119, either. So, you do not know about the location, demographics, competition and other issues, professional marketers must know in order to assess and make proclomations, as you have done.

However, I defend to the death your right to say anything you wish. For many a fool has stood upon a soap box and called others fools.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: wnelson Accepted Answer
7/30/2006 8:38 PM (CST)
Moon Le,

Welcome to the forum! You are right in saying, "brilliant, helpful!" There are eons of experience on here from every area of business. And one of the best things you will get is plenty of opinions from every angle imaginable. There are no shortage of opinions and each of us is 100% right based on our individual eons of experience and our vast intellect. I know I am always right! However, like you have been doing, I also learn a vast amount more every day from my esteemed colleagues on here. Hey, how is that? I know everything already and yet I learn more? Hmmmm.

Ms. Moen has some very good advice for you. I marvel over her cleverness in customer service. I read her responses and often think, "Darn, why didn't I think of that! And Mr. Idiot (love ya, Randall...notice I used Mr. out of my respect for you)...is one of the best for practical marketing that works. He has been in the marketing consulting field for 35 years! So, one thing they have in common - Ms. Moen and Mr. Montalbano. They both started in business at age nine!

More on point, Randall and Darcy are violently agreeing on several points: An integrated marketing approach will get you farther than just one or two items. What Randall calls "drip marketing" is the same as what Darcy suggests as sending out direct mail quarterly. This suggestion is good because if you think about it, how do you remember things? For most people, it's repetition. Another thing that is common and important is that with any marketing action, you must have a "call to action." With your direct mail piece, you need to have a special offering. Randall suggested maybe with shirts. Darcy qualified this to say that you should pick something that allows it to be attractive without making you lose money. Shirts (blouses), suits, gowns....whatever you believe is the best vehicle to allow you offer some enticement that is very competitive but allows you to make a profit.

Let's get to some basics. Marketing starts with understanding your customer. Understanding their needs, influencers (images and words that prompt them to "buy"), and where they get their information about dry cleaners is key. Also, know your competition, their strengths, weaknesses, and how they satisfy their customers' needs as well as how they miss them. And then, understand your core competencies. What are you best at among dry cleaners in the San Jose area? Based on that, you can structure your strategy - strategic actions like position statement and brand strategy. As far as understanding customers, I would suspect that dry cleaning customers in the Saskatchewan province, Houston, Pittsburgh, or San Jose are pretty much alike. Observations from Darcy as an expert will carry a lot of weight. Randall and I fall more into the line of "educated customers" and when Randall says "price" is key or I tell you I go to my dry cleaner because of location, reasonable price, and that it is a "plant" - meaning that they don't send it out...take this into account appropriately. I find it easy to believe that you having a plant would make you more competent and more cost-effective then the "drop and pick-up places." You want to test Randall's and my feedback as "customers" a little more than Darcy's.

Once you have the basics down, you will devise a marketing plan. You will have a budget. You will have expected objectives - driving so many new customers into the shop. You will need to implement a tracking process to see what's effective and resulting as expected. You need to implement a review process to see how each marketing activity is doing versus expectations and then take corrective actions to bring those actions not performing back in line. With respect to what activities to undertake, based on your information on customers' influencers and where they get information on dry cleaning, you rank the activities and do as many of them as you can within your budget: Direct mail, website, eMail, telemarketing, sandwich signs on the sidewalk, bill boards, local coupons, ads in rest rooms (common in San Jose), etc.

As far as how to help your employees, there's a company here local that has a special vest that uses a gel that once wet, has a very cooling effect. Pretty amazing stuff, really. If you eMail me, I can provide contact information to them and maybe this can help your staff stay cool and comfortable.

I hope this helps.

Wayde
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
8/2/2006 7:00 PM (CST)
It was not my intent to offend W.M.M.A. Its a public forum, and I'm publically disagreeing with your opinion. My apologies for offending, but I will stand by my comments. The only change I would make in my post is instead of using the word idiot...I should have used the word ignorant (and in the true definition of the word)...of the drycleaning industry...(and I've probably offended you again).

I'm sorry you are upset by my words. I'll put my 16 years of DRYCLEANING EXPERIENCE of knocking f@rts out of pants and building a business from the ground up and becoming an internationally known expert in the field of drycleaning and drycleaning marketing against a consumer's opinion of the industry any day.

I'm very passionate about the dry cleaning industry, and I'm also very intollerant of folks who 'think' they know what's best when it comes to marketing the drycleaning industry. For the record, you may be a marketing professional...but you do not have any professional drycleaning experience. I am a professional marketing consultant specializing in marketing drycleaning services. Its a NICHE market of professional drycleaning marketing experts, and one where there are only 4 truely qualified experts (used to be five, one just died last week....feel free to apply for the open position).

I criticise your program offered, and point out the danger and havoc it will cause the client. In case other dry cleaners come along and read the archieves...I didn't want them picking up potentially disasterous advice as gospel. I offerd a more educated opinion as one who actively and extensively documented specialized marketing programs specific to the drycleaning trade for over two decades. Not to get into whose thing swings the furthest, or whose bladder is bigger...but a consumer based opinion is rather generalist, whereas my opinion is based upon real life drycleaner owner operator experience, field tested, balanced, blue printed and documented, and at work in over 250 dry cleaners around the world.

I fail to see how dissenting opinions, public ones, are un-professional. A professional marketer should be able to research an industry, and offer advice to PROFITABLY market a service or product...not drive it into bankruptcy. My own personal opinion of a professional is akin to a physician's mandate: 'Firstly - do no harm'

I must take a stand, and say to a customer, 'I'm sorry, but I cannot continue to sell you watermelons at 50 cents a piece when they cost me 1.00 each to produce'.
What you see as a competitive or marketing advantage because its your opinion of what the customer wants, is exactly what kills the drycleaning industry (or any industry for that matter). Its easy to cut price to encourage sales...its another skill altogether to sell features and benefits and preserve a fair and profitable price. Cutting price is cutting price....marketing is selling for a price! I will not sit idly by and let a consumer think (and endorse) selling 99 cent shirts as a profitable endeavour when it COSTS 2.00 to do the work. That's like believing you can drink yourself sober!

When I had my drycleaning shop, I had a low price cleaner open up. She began offering shirts at 69 cents each, cleaned and pressed .... to my shirt laundry service of $2.75 each. Frankly, for 69 cents, you got a shirt washed and hung on a hanger...no pressing...while my company turned out a shirt that looked brand new. While Winnie posted a huge sign on her rooftop 'We do shirts - 69 cents!'....I posted mine...'We fix 69 cent shirts!'

I could care less what the competitor charged, I knew what it cost me to turn out a good and acceptable product. She could run all the 69 cent shirts she wanted, and in time, I was right, she was subsidising the shirt laundry at the expense of the rest of her operation. In time, she too had to raise her price...or go broke.

I stick primarily to what I know, and what I've experienced first hand. I've DONE all of what I profess, and I've proven my ideas, advice and concepts at work in my own business, and many others before I post my advice on this forum. I walk the walk, and I'll call it out of bounds when I know its out of bounds. W.M.M.A. I respect your opinion, and you are welcome to it, regardless how wrong it may be...and even though I am a Canadian, with no consitutionally protected rights like you enjoy, I will still allow you your dissenting voice and opinion, as long as I may also offer mine.

And just for the record (again)....Darcy Moen has a stem on the apple. Yes, that's right, born a MALE! I'm a guy. Always been a guy, and plan to remain a guy.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Member Response
8/2/2006 7:46 PM (CST)
That's great!
Now, get over yourself, and let's move on.

This isn't about YOU.
 
Posted by: behappy1119 Author Response
8/3/2006 12:49 PM (CST)
Thank Darcy for a wonderful, specific answer on July 30. It's hard to believe I have these kind of input for ... free! I will check out the websites and resources that you recommend.

Sorry for the late reply. Being a new business owner, I still run left and right to put things in place :-)

Le
 
Posted by: behappy1119 Author Response
8/3/2006 1:16 PM (CST)
Bravo, Wayde. I was thrilled reading the responses from Darcy, WMMA, and You. Could not help laughing at all the directness, cleverness, sometimes ... heated opinions.

Beside the knowledge, I'm impressed at the time people put in it to write these long reply. Wow!

I'd definitely consider your feedback from a "customer" standpoint seriously. As far as keeping the place cool, the weather has cooled considerably. I still want to make the workplace an enjoyable one (if I can afford it).

Thanks Wayde for your great analysis.

Le
 
Posted by: behappy1119 Author Response
8/3/2006 1:27 PM (CST)
Hi W.M.M.A,

I'm having a big smile as the confusion is settled. Hope you continue your journey as giving back knowledge to the community.

Cheers!
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Member Response
8/3/2006 2:02 PM (CST)
Thank you for your reply.
Wishing you well. Call upon us at any time.
Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Member Response
8/5/2006 1:08 AM (CST)
Glad to be of service. As for free.....well, you will have to do something for us in return...nothing is free. You will have to join your local drycleaning association. If you can do that for me, I'll consider myself very well paid.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 


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