Love, Loyalty, and Branding: The Power of Custom Uniforms
Our clothes say a lot about us. They’re a form of personal branding, revealing hints about our personalities, our jobs, our socioeconomic status, our confidence levels, and even our musical tastes. Whether we like it or not, people judge us by what we wear.
Just as clothes say a lot about individuals, so work uniforms say a lot about the company’s they represent. Like it or not, customers will make snap judgments about your business the first time they visit your website, step foot in your store, or lay eyes on your employees. One way to make a good impression is to brand and personalize your uniforms so they better reflect your company and its values.
Why are custom uniforms so important? Whether you run a coffee shop or a car repair shop, here are a few questions people will ask the moment they encounter a representative of your business:
Are You Professional?
When John D. Clark started Prudential Overall Supply, he wanted to boost the image of automotive workers in the Los Angeles Area, many of whom didn’t have the time or resources to properly care for their uniforms. He realized that by giving them spiffy new clothes, he could make them look more competent and, thus, more trustworthy.
Times may have changed; uniforms may look different nowadays, but people still judge your business based on what your employees wear. They want to know: Do you care about cleanliness? Do you care about your employees? Do your employees care about them?
How do you say yes? How do you let people know that you pay attention to detail, that you’re unique, and that you’re willing to work hard to win their trust and their business? By supplying all your workers with clean, smart uniforms and then adding logos, name tags, and patches (e.g., American flags).
Are You Loveable?
Yes, people can fall in love with brands. Psychology is a powerful driver of consumer choices; maybe even more powerful than price or quality. Don’t believe it? Consider a famous study, which looked at the soda preferences of Americans.
In spite of the fact that people preferred Pepsi to Coke in a blind taste test, they kept buying Coke. A brain scan revealed why: They associated Coke with positive memories. Over the years, Coke had endeared itself to the American public, and that attachment remained long after a competitor had beaten the company in the taste game.
What made Coke so loveable? In addition to childhood memories, Coke’s popularity was built on a series of small but powerful images—the logo, the bottle design, the advertisements. Your company may not be as big, as old, or as beloved as Coke, but you can still take advantage of psychology to grow your business.
The bottom line? Give your customers positive experiences, and they won’t soon forget it. A branded uniform can go a long way toward doing just that. It may not seem like a big deal, but that image will stay in their minds (and possibly their hearts) long after they’ve left your store.
Are You Sincere? Excited? Competent?
Each brand has its own personality but, according to Jennifer Aaker, you can separate businesses into five big personality types, depending on whether they convey:
- Sincerity
- Excitement
- Competence
- Sophistication
- Ruggedness
Your choice of uniform says a lot about your view of the world and your approach to business. Logos and embroidered decorations say even more. People can tell, just by looking at your employees, whether your company is formal or informal, fun or sincere, sophisticated or rugged.
Tell the World Who You Are
Want to improve your brand image? Want to endear yourself to customers? Want to make sure you’re sending the right message with your uniforms?
Let Prudential Overall Supply help you spruce up your uniforms with logo emblems, custom embroidery, and personal nametags. Don’t have a logo? No worries. We can create one for you.
Contact us to learn how.