National Clothesline

Flipping on the evening news can make you want to flip off the television when yet another self-styled “fashion expert” tells the cameras that drycleaning wears out clothes, or cleaners discriminate against women, or some other sensationalist remark that gives the business a black eye.

Two new consumer brochures from IFI offer cleaners a way to counter those faulty messages. Six of the worst drycleaning myths are exposed and the truth explained in plain English in the new six-panel brochure, “Fact vs. Fiction: The Truth About Professional Dry Cleaning.”

Another title, IFI’s redesigned “Who’s Responsible?” brochure, illustrates with its new cover the importance of maintaining a dialogue between cleaner and customer, while inside the copy discusses consumers’ options when a clothing item gets damaged. IFI redesigned its popular “All About Shirts” brochure as well to enhance its visibility and readability for readers.

In “Fact vs. Fiction,” each myth the brochure examines is presented in the same format. Here’s a boiled-down explanation of the six misconceptions IFI tackled. The actual brochure explains each of the phenomena in greater detail.

IFI subscribes to the philosophy that a well-informed customer is a repeat customer—unless, of course, the only source of information they’re getting is the industry-skewering evening news.

“While this brochure is not a cure-all for all of the industry’s ills, members armed with the ‘Fact vs. Fiction’ brochure will enhance their odds of convincing customers of the madness of retailers’ ‘dryclean sparingly’ advice,” Jay Calleja, IFI’s vice president of communications, said. “It should also help cleaners articulate to offending parties the flaws in their anti-dry cleaning logic.”

Cleaners must be a member of IFI to purchase packs of any of IFI’s 11 consumer information brochures. Brochures come in packs of 100. Volume discounts are available. Call (800) 638-2627 for more information.