Company Branded Apparel: 4 Supercharged Benefits for Your Brand

by Molly Joyce

"If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good. If you play good, they pay good."
— NFL Hall of Fame Cornerback Deion Sanders

Deion “Primetime” Sanders may have been referring to professional football, but he hit on something that works in the business arena, too: How your employees look affects how they feel and how they do their jobs.

Likewise, how your customers look affects how they feel about your company and its products.

When both your team and your tribe look good, they feel good. When they feel good, they work harder for your brand. And all that hard work pays off in increased sales.

One of the easiest ways to make everyone look good is with branded apparel. Today, we’re going to show you 4 ways branded apparel’s good looks can affect your company’s bottom line, by:

  • Increasing brand awareness
  • Improving team spirit and company culture
  • Building better trust, credibility, and customer relationships
  • Creating brand loyalty and increasing sales

All that from a few shirts and hats? Absolutely. Let’s discover how.

1 - Increase Brand Awareness With Branded Apparel

Picture it. The guy from the local advertising company comes into your office with an “offer you can’t refuse”.

He’ll set you up with a billboard out by the highway for the low-low price of $5000 for one month. He can even work you a deal for a second one, smaller, in town, for an additional $3500.

Now, picture this. You have a dozen or so billboards visible around town every day. They don’t cost you half of what his “unbeatable” offer would. And they last a whole lot longer than 30 days.

What could that be? The shirts and hats on your employees. Or the special branded apparel you gave away to certain loyal customers. They might even be the items you’re currently selling on your website or in your store.

Branded apparel worn by both your team and your tribe of customers creates an awareness of your company and helps to build unmatched trust.

How?

  • Portability - Billboards, posters, and flyers are stuck in one spot. But branded apparel goes wherever the wearer goes.
  • Multiplicity - You can only put up so many billboards, posters, and other ads. But you can have dozens or even hundreds of people wearing your brand.
  • Longevity - Advertising campaigns come and go. Branded apparel is long-lasting—even last year’s shirts or hats are still effective at showing off your brand.
  • Curiosity - A catchy phrase, a funny graphic, an interesting color scheme or slogan—all raise more interest than any old print or digital ad. And there’s a real-live human being wearing it to answer their questions. No Google search required.

Branded apparel can boost your community’s awareness of who you are, whether you’ve been in business for years or are the newest kid on the block. And it can do it in ways other forms of traditional marketing can’t. 

blue shirt with inspire discover elevate on it

 

2 - Branded Apparel Improves Team Spirit and Promotes Company Culture

Everyone wants to belong. It’s a basic human instinct and psychological need. We require connections and relationships. We need to feel as though we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Branded apparel can create that sense of unity and belonging among your employees. When they wear your company’s shirt, it tells the world that they are on your team. They have a place and a purpose and a position within a special group.

That “special” belonging often fosters a sense of unity and pride among your team members. Especially if you develop a culture of “we’ve got your back” and “we won’t let you down”.

Your branded apparel shows the world that you take pride in your people. You are a business they can be proud to be a part of. And they have your support the same way you have theirs.

The type of branded apparel you choose can also send a message about your company and its culture. A polo shirt or button-down style says “professional” and “serious about doing business”, for example.

T-shirts, on the other hand, tend to show a more laid-back, relaxed, casual approach to your business and can spell fun to both those who work for you and those who deal with your company.

Baseball caps and beanies can also add a fun touch to your company’s image. They’re also quite useful for employees and customers who do a lot of work outside. Hats can ooze old-fashioned charm, a certain ruggedness, and even a sense of adventure.

Branded apparel can pull everyone together and make them feel as though they are on the same page, on the same side. It can give customers a feeling of belonging, too, as part-time members of your team.

That’s team spirit and company culture that no weekend retreat or ping pong table can ever develop. 

3 - Build Better Trust, Credibility, and Customer Relations With Branded Apparel

Now that we’ve discussed what branded apparel can do for your team and your company culture, let’s take a look at it can do for your customers and your customer relations. 

toledo metroparks shirt with multi-colored logo

 

Building Trust and Credibility

Customers tend to view branded apparel as a sign of high-quality service. After all, you’re not going to put your name, logo, and whatnot out there for all to see and recognize unless it’s worth the recognition, right?

Branded apparel also makes your team the appearance of legitimacy. They’re the “real deal,” capable of delivering the higher standards of service customers have come to expect from today’s business world.

In short, branded apparel helps build a sense of trust and credibility between your company and its customers. That trust creates a connection and a solid relationship, between all involved. 

branded apparel

Improved Customer Relations and Service

By making those connections, building that trust, and fostering those relationships, branded apparel helps your team improve customer relations and service nearly effortlessly.

There’s no need for customers to hesitate to ask for assistance or to doubt whether an employee can help them when employees are easily identifiable through their branded apparel.

There’s no room for employees to offer shoddy or slap-dash service, either, when their branded apparel makes them quickly and clearly identifiable to a supervisor or manager.

Your employees are walking billboards for your company’s values and vision. By encouraging them to do their best to live up to those values and that vision, they’re influenced to do their best for your customers.

Your customers see this, expect this, and know when it’s offered and when it’s not. By wearing branded apparel, your employees are in the spotlight and expected to do their best by both customer and employer. 

Increased Customer Loyalty

A great way to increase both brand awareness and customer loyalty at the same time is with a branded apparel giveaway. Happy customers love to show off their support for a “good” company with “good” service. Let them do it in your style.

Giveaways are great for recruiting new customers, as well as rewarding loyal, repeat customers. Everyone wants something for nothing, right? And who doesn’t like to be rewarded for doing something they would normally do anyway?

By offering a free hat or t-shirt to a customer for making purchases or signing up for your social media account, you foster more of that relationship and build those all-important connections.

And in doing so, you create a more loyal, more profitable customer.

local coffee is better shirt

 

4 - Increasing Brand Loyalty and Sales

Can a simple t-shirt, hat, or tote bag increase brand loyalty and ultimately, your bottom line?

Absolutely.

How?

Let’s look at some stats in this table, gathered by HubSpot.

What Branded Apparel Can Do Effect on Customers Effect on Company
Build emotional relationship
  • They recommend the company 71% of the time
  • Spend more
  • 306% lifetime customer value
  • $699 annual average sales
Improve customer service
  • 69% will spend more with a company with good customer service
  • A 5% gain in customer retention results in 75% gains in profits
Word of mouth advertising
  • 53% of customers use social media to praise companies
  • 92% trust recommendations from friends and family over advertisements
  • Less spending on marketing and advertising
  • Ability to create new relationships and customers quickly and easily

Give away those hats, those t-shirts, as we mentioned above. And when they get really popular and are considered the latest hot thing to be seen in, add another profitable aspect to your branded apparel by offering it for sale. 

You might not become the next Gucci or Michael Kors, but you’ll make some extra cash, increase your brand awareness, and start the branded apparel benefits cycle all over again.

Large or Small, Every Business Can Benefit From Branded Apparel

Maybe you’re thinking that branded apparel is just fine for bigger businesses like Target or Pepsi. Maybe even the local car dealership king is big enough to outfit his people with shirts and giveaway hats. 

But you? You’re too small or too new, or both.

You, too, can benefit from branded apparel and its benefits. Outfit your few staff with polos or t-shirts. Give shirts or hats to your first 50 customers. Or your first social media followers. Build the awareness and confidence a small, new business like yours needs.

The positive effects of branded apparel on any business can’t be bought with any amount of paid advertising. They go beyond marketing and into turning customers into family, in a loyal and loving tribe to last a lifetime.

Watch this video to see what our branded apparel can do for you and your brand. 

At Jupmode, we will create all the branded apparel for your company. From shirts to hats, jackets to tote bags, whether outfitting your team or your tribe of customers, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s what one of our tribe had to say about us and our service: 

testimonial from Kelsey S

Contact us today about getting your company the benefits only branded apparel can provide.

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