National Clothesline

Sometimes, it’s not so much what you say, but how you say it. While the intent of advertising is to convey a message to potential customers, the trickier part is making sure you grab their attention first.

All of us are bombarded with ads constantly… every time we watch a TV program, listen to the radio or read a publication. We can no longer go online or sort through our mail without having a company prompt us to do business with them. We cannot drive down the street without a billboard telling us what we need. Heck, we cannot even answer our phones without checking the caller ID first or we could find ourselves subjected to an unwanted sales pitch.

The truth is, people value their time far too much to waste it. The only way people will respond to advertising anymore is if it genuinely stands out. Take this year’s Super Bowl, for example. Advertisers shelled out $2.3 million for 30 seconds of air time. That’s a small amount of time to make a big impact on 89 million viewers. Unfortunately, some of the “standout ads” weren’t even exciting. The next day’s water cooler talk was dominated by comments on the titillating halftime show and the game-winning field goal in the final minute. Nobody remembered most of the multi-million dollar commercials.

Fortunately, cleaners can spend much less and still maximize their advertising dollar more effectively by not falling into a similar trap. The answer lies in utilizing more care when packaging your message. Keep in mind, the message itself is still very important, but you have to make sure your customers are receptive to it initially. Think of it in fishing terms. Once your customers bite the hook, you can reel them in. However, first you have to bait the hook or they’ll simply swim right by it.

This month, columnist Bill Bishop recommends (see page 38) using dimension when sending out direct mail promotions to customers. An impressive-looking 3-D mailer will pique your audience’s interest and ensure that they receive your message. Because most people are burning with curiosity, they’ll want to discover what is so important that it needed to be presented in such an eye-popping manner. On the downside, such advertising will cost you a lot more time and money, but Bishop notes that 3-D mailings have the potential to increase response rates up to 75 percent. Did that figure get your attention? If so, then you’ll probably agree it’s worth the extra effort to try and get your customers’ attention, too.

We’re going to Texas. Then we’re going to Maryland. And then we’re going to Rhode Island. And then Georgia. And Illinois. And California. And New Jersey! Yeaaagh!!!

No, that’s not Howard Dean announcing his post-presidential campaign travel plans. But it could be anybody among the industry allied trades looking ahead to the travel that’s in store for this year’s cycle of trade shows. Anybody who intends to be at all the trade shows will be visiting all of those states over the next seven months. It starts this month in Texas, where the Southwest Drycleaners Association will be holding the biennial “Big Show” in Houston. Next stop will be suburban Washington, DC, where the MidAtlantic Association of Cleaners plans its CleaningExpo later this month. After a three-month pause in the itinerary, the pace picks up with shows in June, July (two on the same weekend, even) and August, then the last show of 2004 in October in Atlantic City New Jersey.

Many of those who feel obligated to attend most or all of them sometimes feel it’s too much. But recall that only a few years ago, there were about twice as many shows around the USA. While the demise of some shows may come as a relief to travel-weary exhibitors, it’s also a reminder of the negative growth the industry has experienced over the past few years. Two years ago, the trade shows that had managed to survive the downsizing experienced good attendance and participation from exhibitors. We hope to see the same this year since that is an indicator of the overall health of the industry.

On that score, some signs from abroad don’t look good. A trade show scheduled for the U.K. this fall has been canceled due to lack of exhibitor interest while the large-scale Texcare exhibition in Germany this June has reported the withdrawal of several major exhibitors. That show still plans to go on, but it appears to be less than what organizers had hoped for. We still have high hopes for the U.S. trade show circuit, but those expectations will soon be tested.