It isn’t a bad problem to have, fending off the sun rather than the rain. But as December comes and falls away and we all stumble forward, probably more than a little tipsily, into the blinding sun of 2019, more than a few of us will be feeling the heat.
It’s easy to spend Christmas week cooped up inside, nursing a nice port and eating yourself into a food coma, but then it’s time to get out and let the fun of the sea and surf wash away the accumulated kgs. Or at least move the eat fest to the beach.
Either way you’re going to need a spot of shade, and with the holiday season being a time of friendship and family, you’re probably going to need a lot of the stuff. Beach umbrellas are a mainstay in the arsenal of any sun lover. The stars of postcards and boardwalks, you can’t have a beach without a beach umbrella. Easily stored, carried and large enough to keep everyone cool and relaxed.
Large but also lightweight, the Bahama Beach Umbrellas eight panel design fits all the necessary specs for safe fun in the sun. Boasting a reflective silver lining with a UPF 50+ protection, short setup time and a nifty carry case, it’s a product that’s going to get around.
With options for screen printing and digital transfer, branding is exceptionally easy. Beaches are wide open, easily accessible spaces that provide a lot of visibility and footfall. With a striking design and logo on the showerproof polyester canopy, it’ll be easy to stand out, come rain or shine.
The trusted t-shirt first debuted during the Spanish-American war between 1898 to 1913. They were worn under the Navy uniform and to the delight of all the t-shirt fans, undergarments they did not remain.
The prices people are willing to pay for t-shirts has blown out in a big way. This isn’t a new thing. A Run DMC Adidas t-shirt, produced on the back of the 80’s hip hop music movement had willing fans spending $13,000 on a DMC (in collaboration with Adidas) concert t-shirt. A 100% pure cotton t-shirt, round neck-line, short sleeves. Made for comfort… and made for value! T-shirts as an investment strategy, something to think about??!!
So what’s so appealing about the t-shirt:
Easy entry level – to design, manufacture.
In Australia – we are in t-shirts 9 months of the year – so usage is high.
It crosses all demographics and socio-economic groups.
It provides high-end brands to produce less expensive products to reach a wider audience, though still charge a premium.
The versatility of the t-shirt – can be dressed up or dressed down.
T-shirts are becoming increasingly ‘all occasions’ socially acceptable.
Promotional T-shirts to promote your business, brand, product, message:
Is a very good idea. If you put thought into who will be wearing it, the design, the quality and creating a tee that they want to keep wearing versus storing in the bottom of the drawer. The initial costs per person may be high if comparing to other communication mediums, but the engagement opportunity could far outweigh this. Not only is the person completely engaged with the t-shirt and consequently your brand, but the number of people they cross paths with whilst wearing your t-shirt can create many more impressions of your brand for years to come. Then you can go further to social media, if they are posting images wearing the t-shirt, this will further grow your reach.
The catch is – relevant message, good design, good quality.
Quality says just as much about your brand as does the design and message. So don’t surpass such an important component.
T-shirt fabrics details
Combed cotton – Fine brushes are used to eliminate short strands and straighten fibers, making the fabric stronger, softer, smoother and perfect to screen print.
Jersey – A stretchy knit typically made from cotton or a synthetic blend, it’s very flexible and comfy.
Organic Cotton – Cotton grown with minimal fertilizers and pesticides. Usually softer and more expensive than treated cotton.
Pigment dyed – A coloring process that coats the outside of the fibers, it can create a faded, worn-in look.
Polyester – Maintains its shape well and resists shrinking and wrinkles. Traditionally polyester is non breathable unless moisture wicking / cool dry treated making the fabric pull heat and sweat away from the skin for rapid evaporatio out of the fabric.
Polycotton – generally a polyester and cotton blend.
Rayon – A breathable man-made fibre made out of trees, cotton, and woody plants. Has a silky hand, yet wrinkles. Also called viscose.
Bamboo – tees made from bamboo fabric are beautifully soft, sustainable, easy to straighten, dye and the fabric has a splendid colour effect of pigmentation. Can also be known as rayon.
Rib knit – A ridged pattern that creates a thick, structured garment with a lot of give – usually this fabric can be used around the neck and sleeve to provide more structure.
Look for the WRAP accreditation label. Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) is an independent, objective, non-profit team of global social compliance experts dedicated to promoting safe, lawful, humane and ethical manufacturing around the world through certification and education.
Do your homework and/or work with someone who has a sounds knowledge of the ins and outs of global manufacturing, so you receive the right product for your business – particularly if your business/brand chooses to align with ethical and environmental compliant business.
You have your strategic plans, your 12 month plans, now put this to the side and focus on what you can make happen in the next 12 weeks. Sometimes we stay in the big picture and forget about the small things that can make a massive difference. They also keep the ship moving. We just want to make sure that’s it’s moving in the direction you want it to go.
Here are some questions to get you thinking about how you can make small changes in how you approach the year and create an edge that takes you beyond what you produced last year.
What do you want to achieve for the first quarter of the year? Two things. Customer growth, Value growth, brand awareness, internal morale, database growth, etc.
Now take it a little wider and look at the remaining quarters, what are the 1 or 2 things you can achieve in quarters 3 & 4 that will make for an impactful 2018?
How can you build on the customer experience through-out the year? You might break it down into, as an example: Quarter 1 – Education, Quarter 2 – Inspiration, Quarter 3 – Participation, Quarter 4 – Reflection
How can you increase your knowledge of your customer? What do you know about them, what don’t you know about them? How can you find the answers? By asking, social media, research, etc.
Is there an opportunity to improve your communication to your customer? Is your customer interested in what you are saying? Do they look out for it? Does it add value?
What can you do around your brand to keep it fresh, contemporary and relevant? A brand will continue to grow if you water it. So keep watering it. It might not need a lot of water, but it still needs water.
What systems in your business need to be refreshed? Systems could range from how you launch products to how you work with your agency partners. Shake them up, in a good way, to see how you can improve on last year and ignite a new level of momentum.
Brand intimacy – what is it? Creating not just a connection, but an intimate connection with your brand, sounds potentially farcical, but before you judge, just listen and observe. People can and do get very close to brands. Why on earth would someone buy a $400 T-shirt from Gucci?
I once was asked, by a marketing team (of course!), if a brand was actually a person, who would I want to share my bed with? Sounds ridiculous, until you start to think about how you would answer the question! Then your inner dialogue starts, and you are thinking maybe this brand, maybe that brand!
We all use brands in our life to demonstrate to ourselves and the entire world who we are, how we think, what we like and what we don’t like. Social media has only exemplified this form of aligning ourself with brands, giving us a platform to scale our associations.
So knowing this, how can we build on the relationships customers are having with our brands, so they become more intimate? So they become an extension of the person. This is not limited to fashion brands. All brands can find a way to build deeper relationships with customers by finding the balance between resonance and aspiration.
Promotional items can definitely help with this. It’s a great way to invigorate a brand … but first dedicate the thinking around selecting the right item and the message.
Find the sweet spot, that encourages your customer to get that bit closer.
Marketers are always looking outside their walls to see how other marketers are bringing their brands to life. With this comes lots of opinions as to what is right, what is not right, what you would do, what you wouldn’t do, how far you would go…
At times you may find yourself wishing that you didn’t have the brand guidelines or the long approval process. That you could just go with it.
You are the brand manager, marketing manager, marketing director, general manager – shouldn’t you be the one to make the final call? You could well be the closest person to the brand. You are the person in the company that protects every inch of that brand.
Then you find yourself having a conversation with yourself about whether the loss in time due to the lengthy approval process is worth the loss in motivation, brand exposure, speed to market? Who are we protecting the brand from? People in the business or people outside the business. Given the volume of brand and messages in general, are we overthinking the details versus the objective and impact?
H&M and Kenzo, now that’s an interesting collaboration. I wonder if it was in the Kenzo brand guidelines?!!
And then you see examples of a brand execution that feels far from right!! You think – what, why, how did that get out the door? The realisation or reminder that positioning and guidelines play a vital role in building brand surfaces.
The art of marketing…. Finding the best way to simultaneously cut-through, resonate, be efficient, stay on brand, keep to budget and evolve. That’s when it pays to talk with someone who gets it – brand plus execution – and knows how to get it right.
Brand intimacy – what is it? Creating not just a connection, but an intimate connection with your brand, sounds potentially farcical, but before you judge, just listen and observe. People can and do get very close to brands. Why on earth would someone buy a $400 T-shirt from Gucci?
Marketers are always looking outside their walls to see how other marketers are bringing their brands to life. With this comes lots of opinions as to what is right, what is not right, what you would do, what you wouldn’t do, how far you would go…