Have your wedding dress cleaned & preserved so it’s ready for you to wear next time.
Hangers Cleaners of Kansas City, known among its legions of customers-turned-fans for its quirky advertising and corporate sense of humor, has really outdone itself this time. “Have your wedding dress cleaned & preserved so it’s ready for you to wear next time,” says the email marketing campaign. Inevitably, customers do a double-take at that last bit. The next time? Is Hangers Cleaners that cynical? That pragmatic? No, they are that business savvy, while not taking themselves too seriously.
Founded by Hangers Cleaners owner Joe Runyan, Hangers Cleaners has been winning awards since 2002, and building a loyal following for just as long. And this is no doubt in large part due to Runyan’s down-home, doesn’t-take-himself-too-seriously style, which belies a business acumen and experience that includes an MBA from the University of Kansas (ranked by U.S. News & World Reports in the top 100 biz schools in the country).
Runyan clearly gets what his market wants, explaining on the Hangers Cleaners website, “At Hangers, we’re passionate about what we do. We’re changing an entire industry with our patented, environmentally safe cleaning technologies. But we realize that, generally speaking, there are more important things on your mind than dry cleaning. In fact, when it comes to dry cleaning, you probably just want to know that your clothes are being well cared for, and that you’ll have the convenience and services you need to cope with your busy schedule.”
But it’s his approachable style, and sense of humor (which he describes as “weird”, saying in a blog post “I have a weird sense of humor…if it offends you, you will have to stop reading”), which infuses his business style in general, and his email marketing in particular.
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This week’s Hangers Cleaners email marketing campaign is a perfect example. There is plenty of really good information in the email, such as “Your gown will be professionally cleaned & pressed, removing soil & “invisible” stains that, given time, will ruin fine fabrics, trims, & decoration.”
What is “proper care?” Your gown will be professionally cleaned & pressed, removing soil & “invisible” stains that, given time, will ruin fine fabrics, trims, & decoration. Then to prevent years of stress to shoulder seams from hanging, your dress is carefully packaged in a custom-designed, triple-sealed bridal gown package. It has a heavy, sealed plastic window to allow you to view your dress, but the chest is tightly sealed to protect fabric from air, sunlight, moisture & insects.
But it’s the next line that distinguishes it from garden variety email marketing:
The gown will remain in top condition until such time as you need to wear it again.
Raves email strategist and happy Hangers customer Jessica Best, of Emfluence, “One of my favorite emails to get in my inbox is Hangers Cleaners. To say that they don’t take themselves too seriously is an understatement. This campaign is a refresh of the one they did around this time last year that earned them some notoriety from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! It just goes to show that having a little fun to gain engagement with your email may just improve business, too.”
In a world of over-stuffed inboxes, where even email providers such as Gmail are coming up with new ways to deal with the email marketing tsunami, to be able to not only distinguish your email marketing, but to have customers raving about it (instead of at it) is no mean feat.
They also have an engaging, and interesting, Hangers Cleaners blog.
Well done, Hangers Cleaners!
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