Carpet Cleaning Issues - Carpet construction, upholstery cleaning, stain removal, equipment, events, etc.
New organisation to represent carpet cleanersPosted by woodman (woodman), 1 October 2003
I see that a group of carpet cleaners are gathering support for a new Carpet Cleaners Association with the emphasis being on promoting carpet cleaning to the general public via TV & Radio advertising. A very ,very expensive enterprise indeed you would need minimum 1000 members paying a minimum £500 per year membership to generate half a million pounds to get any where near enough air time to make it work.
Good idea in theory but the costs invloved in putting it into practise would be IMO prohibitive.
Does any body know how many members the NCCA has.Posted by Mike_Boxall (Mike_Boxall), 1 October 2003
Hi Woodman
I'm sure Derek would know about the number of members. I've seen that topic as well and it strikes me that, as with a lot of trade organisations, there are a few anti NCCA 'protesters' - I do think it is something the NCCA should look at as TV advertising isn't as expensive as you might think (I recall Carlton TV promoting TV advertising from £5000 recently)
I've found that the people that generally moan about trade organisations are the ones that aren't prepared to get involved and once they pay their money thats it - they dont attend the meetings, they dont contribute their own time and they expect others to do it all for them.
Whether it be the Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesess, NFMWC or the NCCA, etc, they are all a waste of time and money unless you make use of what they offer and get actively involved.
Regards
MikePosted by Derek (Derek Bolton), 1 October 2003
Hi Mike
You are so right in your comments...
I too have seen the suggestions on the Cleantalk site and I have met many of the people concerned...
What they seem to be trying to emulate is a franchise operation... we already have some good franchises!
In various organisations I have belonged to over the years this kind of talk comes around every so often.
I had to smile to myself at the suggestion that each member has a vote....trying to get a group of ten to agree is difficult enough without throwing it wide open... anarchy prevails!
Who is going to divide up all this work they are going to get?
Over the years there have been several alternate Associations formed...the NCCA is still there
To answer your question the NCCA currently has around four hundred and fifty member companies comprising of single and multi techicians.
On and off I have been a Director of the NCCA for a good many years and we have a good group of core members.
Many cleaning companys have a short life, in fact it has been said that the average life of a carpet cleaning company is four months... I am not sure where they get their figures from.
Kind regards
Derek
Posted by Nigel_W (Nigel_W), 1 October 2003
Yes Derek, but what are the NCCA doing/going to do to raise the publics awareness of carpet cleaning?
I think that the idea suggested for marketing carpet cleaning is a good one but it only makes most sense to me if it is implemented through the NCCA. Are you/the NCCA against the idea of actively marketing carpet cleaning to the public?
NigelPosted by woodman (woodman), 2 October 2003
Hi Mike
Yes I agree that the NCCA should look at the possibilty of raising customer awareness.
As you point out a regional tv company advertisement would be in the region of £5000 ,but by the very nature of the membership this would have to be national. Multiply that £5000 for the various regions, then quadruple that for the london regions plus employing a professional agency to make up the appropriate ad' then getting it on in the appropriate time slot etc etc.
You can start to see the problems.
A national paper advertising campaign in the Sunday papers ,Daily Mail, Express and so on would be far more realistic and beneficial.
I think the NCCA should be looking at this, what do you think Derek.Posted by Derek (Derek Bolton), 2 October 2003
You guys sure know how to put a guy on the rack 
There has been a lot of sensible comments in the last few posts and I can say that some of the points that you have made are being looked at and others are already in the early stages of becoming reality.
As soon as I have some information for you I will surely post it here...if I am allowed! This should be in a matter of weeks rather than months.
The NCCA are currently working on several exciting strategies all of which will address items raised in previous posts.
Forgive me for being cagey but I have signed confidentiality clauses ...penalties are rather painful 
I am away for the weekend so talk amongst yourselves.
Kind regards
Derek
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