What Can Apparel Do For You?
As marketers, we talk a lot about brand identity and exposure. We even sell promotional products in an effort to help our clients establish and maintain brand recognition. But one of the most effective (and often overlooked) ways to generate brand exposure is through custom printed apparel – especially t-shirts.
Custom printed t-shirts can provide insanely high impression numbers for a relatively low cost. But not just any old shirt will do. If you want to have marketing success with custom apparel it needs to be on garments that people actually want to wear!
Design Tips
All shirts are not created equal. So, if you don’t want your custom apparel ending up in the rag pile it needs to be well designed with a quality design professional printed.
You could buy the cheapest, scratchiest shirt; build a clipart design; and get it printed at the cheapest screen printer. But at the end of the day, all you’ve done is throw your money away. Cheap shirts don’t get worn – it’s as simple as that!
When you’re looking to craft apparel that people actually want to wear, there are four main things to consider:
- Quality – This is far-and-away the number one factor. It is tempting to buy the cheapest shirt possible – but resist! Cheap shirts make good rags, and that’s about it. If you want people to wear your brand invest the extra few dollars to get a retail-quality shirt. Look for soft and thin and printed tags.
- Bold – T-shirts are a time when people get to express their personality. Capitalize on that desire by making your design bold. That doesn’t mean obnoxious – just don’t be timid either!
- Simple – Simple doesn’t mean bland, but it does mean you shouldn’t clutter your design with useless information. It might be tempting to include your name, email address, physical address, company motto, and favorite pet’s name; but nobody wants to be your walking business card. Keep it simple!
- Colorful – This applies to both the shirt and the design. Keep it tasteful, but don’t shy away from some eye-catching colors. For the shirt, know that a lot of people don’t like white (it tends to make you look bloated) and they show stains and dirt like crazy. For the design, colorful t-shirts are popular and let the wearer show off a little personality.
Great Shirt, Now What?
So, you’ve got a pile of beautifully designed and comfortable shirts. What now? Those shirts aren’t going to distribute themselves, so let’s look at a few ways to get your material out in the wild where it belongs. Everyone loves t-shirts, so it doesn’t take a marketing whiz to get them out – but some distribution methods are better than others. Consider the following:
- Employee Gifts
- Customer Appreciation
- Brand Advocates
- Contests
- Conferences and Trade Shows
- Charity Events
Basically, think of shirt distribution as you would lead generation. There is a time to cast a wide net, but the best bang for your buck comes when you’re targeting qualified people. This means you need to get your shirts on the backs of your target audience. That is why customer appreciation, brand advocates, contests, and conferences are consistently the best ways to distribute custom printed apparel.
Design & Print Together
Custom apparel is a great way to increase brand awareness and loyalty. And at Fusion Group USA, we can design, print, and deliver your shirts. Our in-house graphic design team can adapt your logo or create something totally new, and we ensure that all our printing and embroidery is high quality and ready to last for years to come.
Contact us today to see how we can use custom printed apparel to grow your brand!
