Results and Effectiveness

We only targeted people whose clothes were already worn and in need of replacement, and we got the attention of the consumer right when he iwas holding the worn clothes in his hand! We treated them with respect, by conveying the message in the privacy of his house- not in public and thereby embarassing him. To undertake this activity with 1065 Dhobis around 16 park Avenue outlets, we spent just USD 500. Of the 50,000 people contacted, over 5000 visited the store, and actually purchased something. That's a conversion cost of just USD 1.6 per person!

Creative Execution

The ‘Dhobhi’ or Ironing/washing man, is a unique phenomenon that colors the Urban Indian landscape. He collects the clothes than need to be ironed/washed, and returns the bundle pressed-to-the-sharpest-crease every evening. We decided to enable him to alert his clientele that their shirt of trouser is getting old and needed to be replaced. We created a set of packaging material that duplicated the packing that new clothes come with – cardboard collar shaped cut-outs that kept the neck in shape, a rectangular backboard around which a shirt is folded, and buttonhole tags that could go onto shirts. Each such tag carried a discount offer which could be redeemed Park Avenue outlets. Whenever the dhobi spotted a worse-for-wear piece of attire, he used the material as part of his normal folding and packing. Thus our communication ended up directly in the consumer's hands, as he unwrapped his ironed shirt/trouser.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

As India's premium lifestyle clothing brand, Park Avenue caters to formal clothing needs for men and women. The company had been facing stiff competition from numerous brands, especially in the city of Mumbai. While the company was ready to run the standard promotional offers, they couldn’t help but notice that a) the competition was also doing the same and b) the promotions weren’t really working. Men were generally averse to replacing their clothes in time, and tend to keep wearing their faded frayed-at-the-collar shirts. However, we noticed that all it needed was a gentle reminder for the male ego to take over and for these men to replace their old clothes with new ones.