Shaffer Dry Cleaning & Laundry Case Study

Shaffer Logo

The Shaffer family has owned franchises of Martinizing Dry Cleaning since 1969. Currently they operate 10 locations in Tucson, AZ. After serving and getting to know a community for over 30 years, they came to the decision that they wanted more autonomy to make local business decisions than a franchise offered. The Shaffer’s decided to leave the Martinizing franchise. This created an opportunity to develop a new name and brand strategy for the organization. The Shaffer’s retained Bromberg Consulting to assist with this effort.

The rebranding effort included a multi-phased approach:

  • Research
  • Positioning development
  • Name development
  • Validation
  • Identity creation
  • Launch
  • Living the Brand

Research
The research played a significant role in the project and was comprised of a paper-based questionnaire to current customers and non-customer and multiple focus groups. The objective of the research was to assess the importance of various attributes of the dry cleaning business from the customer perspective and gain insights into specific brand attributes and brand loyalty.

Positioning and Name Development
Brand positioning was developed based on the findings from the research which drove the direction of the name generation process. The final positioning and the top 8 names were then tested in additional focus groups, revealing that customers (existing and potential) preferred the use of the family name for the business. Using the family name supported the brand position and it communicated that there were ‘real’ people behind the business, confident enough in the services they delivered to put their name out in front.

Identity Development
The logo was designed to convey key characteristics of the brand strategy and features that were important to the customer -- friendly and caring. It was created to be clean and easy to read, with colors that leverage the predominant blue color in the stores and to introduce green to communicate the use of environmentally friendly solvents and programs.

Launch
Shaffer Signage The launch included internal and external activities. Internal activities included upgrading the store interiors to reflect the color palette, new uniforms, new service programs and employee programs to help the staff embrace and interpret the brand. External activities included new signage for all locations, public relations campaign for local publications and local print advertising campaign.