Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

We just had our carpets cleaned in our new apartment. Let’s just say that the guys who lived here before us obviously never grasped the notion of hygiene. Thankfully our letting agent sorted it all out for us, but after seeing what a great job ChemDry did, it got me thinking about how I would have found them myself.

Services like carpet cleaning rank up there with decisions like what brand of salt to buy. That is, we grab the first one that catches our eye. If I had to source a carpet cleaner myself I would have just gone to the Goldenpages and got the cheapest one available.

Is it possible to make something like dry cleaning sexy? Well in a way it is, and it’s a lot simpler than you’d think. The best way I can explain this is by drawing a parallel with Chuck Palahniuk’s novel ‘Survivor’. Like all of Palahniuk’s protagonists, the main character has an unhealthy obsession. In this case his diatribes mostly revolve around cleaning. Examples of the tidbits of knowledge that he offers include always use a piece of bread to wipe up the little bits of debris left over when a glass breaks or how to clean blood stains (you can buy the book to find out about that one :D)

The sad thing is that this morbid fascination is addictive and it grows on you. People always love to learn trade secrets. Having the inside knowledge on something trips a switch in our brain that just drives us wild. There’s been an explosion of reality shows about things like antiques or cleaning, which on paper sound like boring concepts, but in reality prove to be insatiable viewing.

The reason why in my mind is because they demystify concepts which seem so foreign. People build up a mental block for things they ‘hate’: washing clothes, studying or doing housework. However, just like the Mary Poppins episode of the Simpsons, when people discover the half-assed way of doing things, they just love it. Just look at the sales figures for all those mind map books - here’s a hint, use the time you spend reading those books studying and you’ll probably perform just as well

I don’t think blogging is going to make ChemDry’s sales jump like wildfire, but it will help them connect with consumers and make dry cleaning sexy. Of course they could probably achieve that easily by offering a naked dry cleaning service!