Wearing Your Brand on Your Sleeve: How Promotional Clothing Can Benefit Your Marketing Strategy

Since the 1960s, people have loved slogan tees as a way to sport their favorite bands and political affiliations. And with the advent of promotional clothing, this has also become a new way to show off your favorite brands. 

How can you design promotional clothing that people really want to wear, and boost your marketing efforts along the way? Logos can look good on everything from hats to shirts to gloves, but branded apparel takes some strategy.

In this guide, we’ll go over the reasons promotional clothes are a good investment. We’ll also give you what you need to know to make effectively branded apparel that people really wear. Keep reading before you place that order for promotion clothing!

How to Design Great Promotional Clothing

Some companies just want promotional clothing so their staff has something to wear to work. But if you want to make it a part of your marketing strategy, what does it take?

One of the most important things is knowing what company image you’d like to promote. Think about what kind of company you are, and what your ideal customers are like. This will help you design products that really resonate with them.

For example, you probably have recognizable brand colors and a logo. But take this recognition a step further with recognizable brand style. Do your clients usually dress in casual workwear? Then make sure they can wear your brand clothing — branded cufflinks probably aren’t right for them.

You’ll also want to source from a great company that makes high-quality products. If your customers put a lot of wear and tear on their clothes, you need to know that your branded apparel won’t fall apart on them. 

The better you understand who will be wearing your promotional clothing, and in which contexts, the better you can design for them. Now, let’s take a look at how venturing into promotion clothing will help your business. 

Top Reasons to Start Using Branded Apparel

Branded apparel does more than just give people something to wear. Here are the reasons your marketing team will love this approach.

1. Build Brand Awareness

Promotional items are a great way to build awareness about your brand.

When someone wears a branded shirt out and about, for example, other people might ask, “Hey, what’s that on your shirt?” The more interesting your products look, the better they’ll work as conversation starters. And when you can start those conversations, you get people talking about your business.

This is an easy way to make new people aware of your business. Often without realizing it, the people sporting your merchandise have become brand ambassadors. You’ll expand your reach at a much lower cost than many marketing efforts.

2. Increase Brand Recognition

Along with this brand awareness comes brand recognition.

Dressing either your customers or your staff in branded merchandise puts your company name and logo out there for all to see. When people come into contact with the logo more than once, they’ll start to develop recognition of your brand.

That way, if they see the logo in another context such as online, it will already mean something to them. This makes it much easier to make a sale, since they’re not encountering your brand for the very first time.

3. Create a Sense of Team

Among your staff, and even among your customers, branded apparel can help build a sense of being on the same team.

Your staff definitely should feel like a team. Wearing apparel with matching logos or color schemes can help enhance this feeling — especially if they love the apparel. And giving your employees useful things to wear is an easy way to show you care.

But promotional clothing can also help your customers feel like they’re on that team. The most successful brands don’t just sell products — they sell lifestyles. What lifestyle are your customers buying into? The right branded products can help the lifestyle your brand offers feel complete.

4. Involve the Senses

The more senses you can involve in your marketing efforts, the better.

Certain senses, such as smell, are closely linked to our memories. But other senses, like vision and touch, can also help boost memories by creating connections. 

An online ad or an elevator pitch doesn’t involve many senses. Even handing someone a business card doesn’t add much more sensory appeal. But branded merchandise creates a tactile experience that makes your brand memorable. 

That flyer or business card you hand out is likely to end up forgotten at the bottom of a desk drawer, or even in the trash. But a piece of branded clothing forges a valuable mental connection to your brand.

5. Stay Top of Mind

Making people aware of your brand is a good start. But one of the big challenges brands face is how to stay “top of mind.” 

This means being the brand that customers think of first, rather than getting overshadowed by the competition. Branded apparel helps give those valuable reminders, so customers are always thinking of you. If they forget about the brand for a while, coming across your branded hat in their closet will give them the reminder. 

6. Add Value to Events

At large industry events, it can get even harder to stand out among competitors. But if you get your team and some customers in branded promotional items, the event will have much more marketing value.

You can also hand out promotional apparel at events, creating that tactile impression with potential new customers. Every benefit on this list goes even further at an industry event where lots of possible customers are in the same room.

Which Promotional Clothing Should You Choose?

Now that you know the value of well-designed promotional clothing, you just need to decide which items to invest in. 

While it’s easy to print a t-shirt, it’s harder to find high-quality niche items to promote your brand. Why not try a pair of logo gloves? Learn more about why they work here!