Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Marketing Dry Cleaning Pick Up And Delivery

Posted by Anonymous on 3/30/2009 at 11:13 AM ET 250 Points
Hi all,

I am representing a dry cleaning business. The business wants to expand its current sales with a pick up and delivery services, aimed at upper-class members of society - the type that often has a hired help that screens their mail.

My boss wants me to produce 500 names of upper-class clients in order to send them direct mail with a $100 coupon. The leaflet will also push our three USP's:
- Green dry cleaning
- No dry cleaning smell (due to our sandwater process)
- superior quality (and your clothes last longer)

Our prices are about 3 times as high as our competitors, but we don't want to compromise on this, as we have a good turnover and a superior product that justifies the price.

My boss is confident we can achieve a 20% conversion, meaning that we gain 100 clients from 500 targeted mailers. That seems overly optimistic to me.

My Questions:

1) How can we improve the conversion rate of our direct mailer (taken in account that hired helps screen the mail for these high earners)
2) Are there any other marketing techniques that perhaps would be more suitable at reaching these consumers?

Thanks for your insights,

John
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 3/30/2009 at 11:26 AM Accepted
    I would focus on superior cleaning. Clothes are an investment- some of my clothes I'd not trust to anyone but a higher end cleaner. I drive past 3 or 4 cleaners to take my special pieces to the guy I know will give them back to me in one piece. And the added benefit of pick up and delivery is important.

    $100 coupon would get my attention. No hired help would toss a $100 in the trash. In addition to your direct mail, think of who you could fusion market with. No bride would trust her gown to the $2.50 pay in advance guy. Interior Designers for bedspreads.
  • Posted by michael on 3/30/2009 at 11:27 AM Member
    John,
    Great! You know people who have their mail screened. I wouldn't do that no matter how much money I made.

    20% is not impossible. A great list always does better than the 2-4%. A simple follow-up call brings it to 10%. So you're already half way there.

    If you know for certain that there are people screening mail, target it to them. They're probably also the people who have to contact you to ask for a pick up; run errands. Give THEM a free cleaning with the first order.

    Michael

  • Posted by Lorenz Lammens on 3/30/2009 at 11:27 AM Accepted
    John,

    You have some strong USP’s. Congratulations with being able to charge up to 3 times more than your competitors. It means that you have clearly differentiated yourself in the market place and have demonstrated value.

    20% conversion rate is indeed a steep target and a $100 promotion coupon seems excessive to me. Anyone else agree?

    Before you start a direct mailer: have you considered leveraging existing channels?

    Start with a prominent sign in the retail store. This reaches customers already sold on using the company who might prefer to use the pick-up and delivery and then use the cleaning service more often. Have business cards or postcard made up for them to have the phone number at home and to pass on to neighbors and friends.

    Consider a referral program. Have the cards printed with a space for the person's name who referred them. Offer planting a tree scheme or contributions to a charity or something like that for all new customers who hand in the card with your name. For this to work the cleaner has to be computerized enough to be able to tell when someone is a new customer.

    Also consider some networking strategies: Use realtors, home decorating stores, etc. to gain new clients (families moving into the area.) Think like your target consumers and go where they go.

    After that, focus on affiliations: look into the service clubs (rotary club, women's league, etc) and offer up "special" discount cards to club members - sponsor refreshments at one of their meetings in return for the opportunity to hand out "invitations".

    Following that, target corporations: speak to the site managers at the larger office complexes and see if you can't sponsor a breakfast or coffee break in the dining rooms/cafeterias or at a minimum be allowed to distribute "business cards" (miniature fliers - upscale of course).

    As an afterthought: your pick up vehicles, personnel and storage equipment in your vehicles need to look ABSOLUTELY first class. Any dirt, dents or scruffy clothes will kill you and you'll end up in a price war where few make it out alive
  • Posted on 3/30/2009 at 3:29 PM Author
    Thank you so much for your answers.

    CarolBlaha, I agree with your comment that we should focus on the superior quality of our cleaning. It is a perfect message for our target group.

    The fusion marketing is also a great suggestion and we will be looking at working with affiliates such as
    - Bridal shops
    - Interior designers
    - Realtors (as suggested by Lorenz Lammens)
    - Home decorating stores (again, Lorenz)
    - Service clubs (rotary club, women’s league, etc - Lorenz again)
    - Premium fashion house (as suggested by yendieu)

    Yendieu, your idea to ask the affiliates for a customer list back in order to contact them afterwards seems like a strong one. I will have to think it through a bit more as I don’t want to intrude too much on our customers. Perhaps a follow up mailer would be better suited.

    Michael, your suggestion to target the people screening the mail by giving them a discount is much appreciated. But exactly how can we achieve this practically, considering we don’t know exactly which recipients will have their mail screened and which not.

    Lorenz Lammens, we will be creating a prominent sign in our stores. We will be considering creating take-aways that people can hand out, I’m not sure if they would, though. Ditto for the referral program. I am also not sure if we want to target corporations. I don’t want the company to grow too fast, as we wouldn’t be able to handle that. And of course our vans and personnel will look spic and span.

    PhilGrisoliamarketing, I agree that 20% is a tall order in the current market conditions, especially since we have not achieved this result in the past.

    Thank you all for your answers and I am looking forward to further suggestions.
  • Posted on 3/30/2009 at 3:32 PM Author
    Thank you so much for your answers.

    CarolBlaha, I agree with your comment that we should focus on the superior quality of our cleaning. It is a perfect message for our target group.

    The fusion marketing is also a great suggestion and we will be looking at working with affiliates such as
    - Bridal shops
    - Interior designers
    - Realtors (as suggested by Lorenz Lammens)
    - Home decorating stores (again, Lorenz)
    - Service clubs (rotary club, women’s league, etc - Lorenz again)
    - Premium fashion house (as suggested by yendieu)

    Yendieu, your idea to ask the affiliates for a customer list back in order to contact them afterwards seems like a strong one. I will have to think it through a bit more as I don’t want to intrude too much on our customers. Perhaps a follow up mailer would be better suited.

    Michael, your suggestion to target the people screening the mail by giving them a discount is much appreciated. But exactly how can we achieve this practically, considering we don’t know exactly which recipients will have their mail screened and which not.

    Lorenz Lammens, we will be creating a prominent sign in our stores. We will be considering creating take-aways that people can hand out, I’m not sure if they would, though. Ditto for the referral program. I am also not sure if we want to target corporations. I don’t want the company to grow too fast, as we wouldn’t be able to handle that. And of course our vans and personnel will look spic and span.

    PhilGrisoliamarketing, I agree that 20% is a tall order in the current market conditions, especially since we have not achieved this result in the past.

    Thank you all for your answers and I am looking forward to further suggestions.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/30/2009 at 5:42 PM Member
    Focus on prospective clients who are likely to care about your USP. For example, people who design or own green homes, people with organic gardens, or who send their children to local private schools. Ideally, advertise through these organizations, since the membership is likely to be interested in your message. That and your $100 coupon is likely to get attention.
  • Posted by kkahl on 3/30/2009 at 5:46 PM Member
    Another area that seems to be missing is their website! How are they driving traffic to it now.
    It should have a local presence. Offer the coupon and video of their facility for the up scale service.

    This can all be done for $50 per month, with on contracts, no hosting fees, zip code specific and full tracking results.

    [URL and phone number deleted by staff]

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 3/30/2009 at 9:47 PM Member
    Hi, Darcy Moen responding. I've been a dry cleaner myself for 16 years, and a consultant to the dry cleaning trade for 23 years.

    First off, a 20 percent conversion rate is pure fantasy. The absolute best response rate I've ever seen in dry cleaning direct mail is 33 percent and that was using advanced data mining techniques to an in-house list of hyper active customers. Going out prospecting for new customers is a lot like standing on the corner and asking for a date...likely one out of 100 will respond maybe. The best one should expect prospecting for customers is two percent. I'll bet dollars to donuts you get a 3 percent of less response rate.

    As for offering free dry cleaning or $100 free cleaning, DON'T! Free cleaning simply brings out a bunch of free loaders who will take you up on the freebie and leave you just as quick. $100 free cleaning is a strong offer, too strong. Considering that the average household in the USA spends just $65.00 on dry cleaning for AN ENTIRE YEAR, you are giving away a year's free drycleaning.

    With any marketing, the trick is to find the right balance of offer vs response. You want to give enough of an incentive to inspire the customer to try you, but no so much that you run into losses providing the service. Since dry cleaning is a low profit margin business, you really can't afford to offer more than 15 or 20 percent off an order. Yes, that's right, most dry cleaners are operating on less than 15 or 20 percent profit margins! Offering more than that as a discount, and you are giving your work away or working for a loss.

    What kind of customer are you going to get if you give all your work away? High end customers know and appreciate value. Offing big discounts and free isn't too likely to motivate the type of customers you want. Rich folks already have lots of money, so what is offering a discount going to do for them? Not much. So the big question becomes, how DO you sell value?

    As has been mentioned, high end folks have high end clothes. I think you'd go much farther offering Guaranteed services. The big fear is clothing becoming lost or damanged at the cleaner, so guarantee against percieved risk. Guaranteed cleaning is one way to demonstrate value and differentiate your business from all others.

    Customers who are attracted by price are just as easily repulsed by 'regular' prices. If you are in fact three times higher than other cleaners in your market, even after a discount you are going to cost more money. Again, I would stress the environmental benefits of your business to at least justify your already higher price.

    A web site is a helpful tool, but again one has to drive traffic to it. Check out www.feigenbaumcleaners.com and www.snedicors.com as a couple of examples of how dry cleaners are using the web to capture new customers.

    There really isn't a real cheap, quick, and easy way to build a dry cleaning business. It takes good old fashioned hard work and effort. Sorry to burst a bubble, but I gotta call it like it is.

    Darcy Moen
    Customer Loyalty Network and DC Ad Shop
  • Posted on 2/14/2010 at 9:22 AM Member
    John--the key to successfully mailing anyone is doing it more than once. I would keep mailing this list of people until it's not profitable. And when you do the mailing, I would hand address the envelope with blue ink and write "personal" on it. This way, the help won't open it up. You can also send them them some "lumpy mail" to ge their interest. You could enclose some aspirin in one of those little packs and relate the letter to something like..."I know it's a headache to go pick-up your dry cleaning, we can do that for you." Something like that. Anyway, use your imagination and creativity and you'll eventually get them. And one more thing, figure out what a customer like this is worth to you. If they spend $XXX/month over 5 years, they are worth $XXXX. That will give you an idea what you're willing to spend to get them. I hope this helped.

    Greg Colosi
    https://DryCleaningMarketing.com
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