Article - Corporate Branded Shirts to Maximise Marketing Potential and Employee Loyalty
10 Jan 2018
Corporate Branded Shirts to Maximise Marketing Potential and Employee Loyalty
Business owners can confirm that getting everything possible from every marketing effort is crucial. With essential expenses to be paid, businesses have limited advertising and marketing budgets. They cannot afford to make mistakes and pay for campaigns that don’t bring in the leads or sales hoped for. At the same time, they need to invest in branding, but branding can be an expensive endeavour.
The idea behind branding is to create familiarity with the company’s logo, image, culture, products and services. It must make everything from the company stand out, memorable and associated with quality. Branding takes various forms including logos, letterheads, billboards, magazine ads, online marketing, sponsorships and more. Not all the branding efforts provide the desired return on investment. And the downside of branding is that it is not always possible to identify which branding effort led to the business growth.
However, when the costs of magazine ads, their short lifespan, the limited reach and competing factors are taken into consideration, smaller companies are often unable to use printed media such as newspapers and magazines to the fullest as branding vehicles. They need something that will stick, will provide a return daily, and will be highly visible, memorable and durable.
This is where corporate branded shirts come in. Unlike normal ads that run for specific periods in particular media, corporate branded shirts are worn by the employees daily. These employees are the assets of the company and act as ambassadors. They are able to answer questions about the brand and thus become interactive branding vehicles. This is especially important at tradeshows and corporate sponsored events.
A brief look at the benefits companies gain from investing in corporate branded shirts will show why the uniforms or clothing branded in the company colour and style are amongst the best branding vehicles one can invest in.
Reach More Consumers
Marketing efforts are often geared towards reaching the largest possible group of consumers in the firm’s target segment. With corporate branded shirts every employee has the potential of interacting with ten or more customers daily at the business. In addition, the employee will be seen by members of the public outside the business premises. As such the potential reach is immense and best of all – the branding effort is cost-effective. The employee is seen wherever he or she is. That means that the brand image sticks in the minds of people they encounter.
Creating Opportunity for Interaction
People talk and can answer questions. Robots can be programmed, but they lack the enthusiasm of a loyal employee. The branded shirt gives the employee immediate identification and an entry point to conversation. Just one question is needed to get the employee to elaborate on the brand. Employees not proud of their employer are not likely to wear their corporate branded shirts in public. But the ones that are loyal will do so and they are the perfect ambassadors for the brand.
No Distribution Plan Required
Getting brochures, flyers or magazines out means needing a distribution plan. With branded corporate wear there is no need to pay extra for logistics. The employees distribute the message and thus save the company money in advertising. Of course, when employees hand out pamphlets, promotional items etc. at sponsored events or tradeshows and they have branded wear on people are more likely to take the marketing material and to keep such.
Giving Authority
It brings us to the next point – authority. Customers and members of the public are more likely to have confidence in an employee’s knowledge or marketing efforts if the employee wears a company shirt or any piece of company branded item. The employee is introduced by the clothing. The first part of the sale is thus already taken care off.
Building Loyalty
Remember the loyal employees being good ambassadors? Now think about it – if you wear your own shirt and promote a product for a particular brand will you be very loyal? If, however, the company provides you with well-branded apparel they show they believe in you. This will make you more loyal. The same applies to employees at the workplace. They want to know that the company sees them as part of the team. Corporate branded shirts certainly show that the company invests in its employees and this builds loyalty to the brand.
Use the branding vehicles at your disposal – maximise the potential of corporate branded shirts. Let our experts help you select the items from our product list and handle the printing professionally for the best possible marketing return.