Why Branded Apparel is Important for Your Company

For all companies, branding is important. Every marketing piece, commercial, website, etc., is representative of your brand and makes up your brand image. In addition to branding that your company is presenting there are individuals outside your company that admire your company and would be interested in telling others why they like your brand; these are your brand advocates. Online you can easily find your brand advocates, as these are the people that may be blogging about you or Tweeting about their experiences with your company. While online it’s easy to tell who your advocates are, offline it may not be as easy. How are you able to know who your brand advocates are by just looking at them? You can when they walk around wearing something with your logo! Branded apparel is a great way for a company to get their brand in front of others. Here are some branded apparel items that we think are great for your brand advocates and also your employees (who we hope are brand advocates too)!

Shirts

Shirts are our favorite branded apparel item. From t-shirts to polo shirts there are many styles of branded shirts, which make these appropriate for many different settings. Shirts are not only our favorite branded item because of the versatility, but also because consumers keep promotional shirts! According to a Global Advertising Specialties Impression Study by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), “t-shirts are the item that is most often owned by promotional product recipients in the U.S.”1. 58% of U.S. consumers who participated in the study stated that they own a promotional t-shirt. Polo shirts were said to be owned by 33% of respondents to the study.

In addition to providing branded shirts to consumers that love your brand, make sure you are branding your employees especially at high profile events like conventions and tradeshows. For these types of events even when you are not at your booth or with other company employees, others will know who you represent which can be a great opportunity to speak about your brand. Shirts are perfect for everyone and are sure to start up conversations with your employees and brand advocates about your products.

Outerwear

In addition to shirts we like branded outerwear apparel! In the study mentioned above by ASI, 50% of consumers that took part in the study stated that they owned a promotional outerwear item. We like outerwear items such as jackets and sweaters, which can come in various styles and thicknesses for all types of weather. As with other branded apparel items make sure to get items that are well representative of your company; if your branded items do not look great a negative image may be felt about your brand.

Hats

Perfect for a sporting event, a sunny day and more, various types of headwear are great branding tools. Promotional caps and headwear were stated to be owned by 41% of those that participated in the study mentioned earlier. We like hats for your giveaways and freebies at events, but we also think this is a great branding tool for a company outing. Not only will your employees wear the hats at the event, but each time they wear the hat elsewhere your brand will be noticed. In addition to traditional hats, we like branded visors as giveaways at golf tournaments.

These are just three branded apparel items that we like but there are many other items that may work for your company. One popular trend we are seeing is companies looking to purchase “Made in the USA” products and there are apparel options out there that are Made in the USA! What branded apparel items does your company use to promote their brand?

Want additional information on branded apparel? Contact me at jamie.douglas@menudesigns.com.

Source:

1 - Global Advertising Specialties Impression Study by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI). Accessed January 25, 2016. http://media.asicentral.com/resources/impressions-study-2016.pdf