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Goodbye to Drab Wire Hangers
April 1, 2007 By: Mark Arzoumanian Paperboard PackagingWhy not make them from recycled board and use them as a marketing tool?
When you get home tonight, take a look inside your closet. Of course it is filled with lot of shirts, blouses, pants, and skirts. Most of them are on wire hangers.
 Hanger Network's EcoHangers get multiple exposures in the home that run as low as 4 cents per impression. Notches in the shoulders can accommodate evening gowns or lingerie. |
Ever wonder why these wire hangers leave indentations in the shoulders of your shirts and blouses? Board hangers can be diecut to eliminate this problem. Not only that, but you could print advertising and even coupons on board hangers. They could go from being merely functional to marketing tools.
Board hangers have been around since the 1920s. So why didn't they become popular? They couldn't compete with wire hangers on price.
Until recently, there was no real incentive to use board hangers. Wire hangers dominated. Board was first thought of for packaging and protecting food and many other consumer goods. But today, a recycled board hanger can be printed in multiple colors, stand out in any closet, and promote a product.
 How Are EcoHangers Distributed? |
Three-and-a-half years ago, board hangers weren't on JD Schulman's entrepreneurial mind. It was Thanksgiving 2003 and he was carrying a plastic garbage bag in his home when a wire hanger inside it tore the plastic. Gravy dripped all over the floor. That's when the computer and Internet industry veteran said to himself, "There has to be a better way to make hangers." The idea of making "new" board hangers was born.
"For years, packaging was the stepchild of the marketing department," says the coo of Hanger Network In-Home Marketing, the New York City-based company he started in November 2004. "We're now changing this. Why can't a packaging guy say to a marketing guy, 'This [board hanger] is cool. Why aren't we doing it?'"
But before he left the Internet world for selling ads on board hangers, Schulman did his homework.
From Wire to Board
Each year, the United States uses about 3.5 billion shirt wire hangers. Schulman estimates that if these wire hangers were converted into board hangers, it would result in the need for 35 million additional tons of recycled boxboard annually. That translates into 673,000 tons on a weekly basis. This hasn't happened yet, he admits, but at a time when everyone is concerned about sustainable products, such a transition isn't as impossible as it might first seem. And what board producer or folding carton converter wouldn't want this additional business?
Schulman explored at least 50 hanger designs before he came up with a winner that he could patent. He worked closely with designers at the Standard Group (SG), an independent carton converter in Queens, N.Y.
These designers understood that this board hanger had to look like a traditional wire hanger and work at dry cleaners. Even though dry cleaners receive the hangers for free, if the hangers don't work for them, it doesn't matter what material they were made from.
Schulman also had to make certain that the corners of these new hangers were smooth, not pointy. Then he had to test them at dry cleaners in multiple states, allowing the Hanger Network to continue refining the product. This was followed by market research on the dry cleaning industry and how it operates. The product was branded EcoHangers and has been granted a U.S. patent.
"Consumers like the idea of using a recycled product made in the U.S., versus using wire hangers, 95 percent of which are made in China," he states. "In addition, 'Made in the U.S.' means we're keeping American factories with American workers employed."
But Hanger Network is not in the hanger manufacturing business; its niche is advertising and distribution. To produce EcoHangers, it turned to SG.
Schulman was introduced to Lou Cortes, SG's vice president of manufacturing, through a mutual industry contact who thought the two companies would work well together on this project. SG was able to bring Hanger Network what it needed in terms of size and scale. Schulman saw in SG an entrepreneurial spirit he admired.
"We felt we could partner with this converter on a day-to-day basis," he states.
The value of recycling and helping to employ more U.S. workers are great selling points for using recycled board hangers. But are they enough to get consumers to take notice? What the Hanger Network adds to the mix is hanger advertising; it worked with SG to print colorful ads and even coupons.
"Who wouldn't want a coupon for a free medium Dunkin' Donuts coffee?" Schulman asks.
Ads in New Places
For Bob Kantor, ceo, Hanger Network, selling ads on EcoHangers is all about positioning, adding value, and showcasing the product where it hasn't been seen before. Who pays for EcoHangers? Advertisers. Programs start at $25,000 and can reach millions of dollars, all depending on the size of the market they want to reach. Dry cleaning operations throughout the country get the EcoHangers for free.
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"Our clients are targeting adult men and women with household incomes over $65,000, but these adults don't watch a lot of TV or read many magazines like they used to," he says. "Getting to them is difficult at best and not efficient. We're able to reach more adult consumers by running ads [and coupons] on EcoHangers than any other media. It's more targeted.
"The urgency with which advertisers want to reach their customers is rising," Kantor continues. "If you're advertising a product that's targeted to adults, there's slippage and inefficiencies. In addition, packaging costs are rising now and direct mail is being hit by postage increases. But with EcoHanger ads, you have 100 percent focus."
When an advertiser buys a magazine ad, it's buying a subscription base, he adds. The Hanger Network is delivering its ad messages through the dry cleaning community on a zip code basis that allows it to target specific communities. Kantor has 20 sales reps throughout the country who work with agencies and clients to target customers. These EcoHangers are giving consumer goods companies direct access to the bedrooms of affluent adults, every morning. When they're looking into their closets each morning, deciding what to wear, there's nothing else in front of them.
"I heard about an executive with a skin care company that picked up his dry cleaning one night, saw the EcoHanger with advertising, and the next day brought the EcoHanger into his office and asked his marketing guy, 'Why aren't we doing this?'" he says with a smile. "The marketing guy called me that day and said, 'My boss wants to do this.'"
Jumped at Opportunity
Some companies see the opportunities quicker than others. Take Dunkin' Donuts, for example, which jumped at the opportunity to have coupons for a free cup of coffee printed on EcoHangers.
 Hanger Network's Kantor (left) and Schulman proudly display the Gold Award its EcoHanger manufacturer, The Standard Group, won last year in the Paperboard Packaging Council's annual National Paperboard Packaging Competition. |
"It wasn't a hard sell," Kantor says. "Our EcoHangers are the only medium where we know what you're doing while you're consuming it: getting dressed."
These EcoHangers are invited right into the bedrooms of adult homeowners. The advertising platform lasts for two months, Kantor says, who adds that advertisers who have coupons printed on the hangers have seen significantly higher redemption rates than direct mail coupons.
Direct mail has an open rate of less than 10 percent, he states. An average piece of direct mail costs $1, so it costs an advertiser $10 to get someone to just look at an offer.
"We have a 100 percent view rate for pennies," he stresses. "We get multiple exposures in the home that run as low as 4 cents per impression. Pennies versus $10."
But not all EcoHangers have coupons. They might advertise a car or suntan lotion. How does the Hanger Network measure response rates for these products?
"We've had several advertisers who've done their own, independent research," Kantor says. "In each of these instances they've gotten extraordinary results and have expanded to additional markets. In addition, a store or dealership will use the hangers to drive traffic to the Web to find a specific location."
Schulman points out that the average person drops off and picks up three shirts at his or her local dry cleaners. So it's possible for advertisers to use these colorfully printed EcoHangers to sell different products within the same brand and with different creative images (or even different coupons) each time. Traditional mediums limit advertisers to one shot.
 Can 'Brilliant' Be Sold? |
For Hanger Network, it's all about quickly reaching consumers where competitors aren't located and when it matters: first thing in the morning.
"Billboards are great, but when you're driving by them at 60 miles per hour you can't take action," states Kantor. "We put the billboard in the closet. Television, radio and magazines are now awareness vehicles only. We ask our potential EcoHanger customers, 'Why are you using awareness vehicles when you already have awareness?'"
