Small can be good too :-)

Quality branded clothing with a discreet logo can be more appealing than lots of cheap T-shirts with a big print. In this video from 2010, I talk about merchandise people actually wanted to use.

Quality branded clothing with a discreet logo

I’d received sunglasses from Vinterservice.com. The name was written across the part I needed to see through. It was funny in a video, but made the glasses harder to use.

It got me thinking about branded clothing generally. If the clothing is poor or the logo is so large you don’t want to wear it, you won’t necessarily get much out of the large quantity you’ve ordered.

I’d seen it in our own company. Big logos didn’t always make employees more interested in wearing the clothes. Better quality and a smaller logo could be more appealing.

Fewer things that someone wants to keep

My thought was to make fewer items if that left room for something decent. Something an employee, customer or business partner might want to use for a long time.

It didn’t have to be anonymous. The logo still needed to be visible, but it didn’t need to dominate the entire garment.

The Jubii logo was inside the jacket

At Jubii, we’d bought Nike ski jackets as corporate gifts for people at media agencies. The logo was embroidered inside by the pocket where you kept your wallet.

The idea was that the recipient could be reminded of Jubii when wearing the jacket without having to walk around with a big company logo on the outside.

I hadn’t measured the effect on advertising sales. But some recipients said it was one of the best corporate gifts they’d received. That was the reaction I noticed: Think about quality, usefulness and where you put your logo. Also read Iværksætter til jeg dør about my experiences of building and marketing companies.

Also read about small extras for customers.

And thanks to Vinterservice.com for the lovely glasses. Your business must be going well 🙂

You also needed to be able to see through the glasses

I start by taking off the sunglasses from Vinterservice. Vinterservice.com is written across the part I need to see through. That fits nicely with the snow I hear is covering Denmark, but I can’t really see through the writing.

So I’ll either have to stop using them or scrape off the text. That’s a bit of a shame when someone’s spent time and money putting the name on. Otherwise, the glasses are excellent quality, and if I scrape it off, I’ll bloody well use them. Thanks in any case.

It’s part of the little gag I’ve got going: Entrepreneurs can send a T-shirt, sunglasses or something else silly, and I’ll wear it in the video, roughly in the order it arrives. It gives a little marketing exposure. In that particular context, I understand wanting the name clearly visible.

When the cheap T-shirt becomes an expensive cleaning rag

The glasses bring me to another thought about branded clothing generally. I often think companies either fail to consider quality or choose a logo that’s far too big.

Of course, you can get a cheap T-shirt with a big print. I mention 35 kroner each in the video and say myself it might be even cheaper. That’s my price example from 2010.

Then you order a hundred and think it’s great. But if the quality is crap and the shirt loses its shape the first time it’s washed, it’s not much use.

And who wants to wear the big logo? Unless the recipient happens to be the company founder’s mother, perhaps it’s not very interesting. So the shirt ends up as a car-cleaning rag and is then thrown away. Suddenly, that 35 kroner was quite expensive.

We learnt that with the clothing for our employees

I’d experienced it myself with staff at companies including Jubii. We had clothes printed with big logos, but employees didn’t want to wear them.

Later, we started buying better clothes and making the logo more discreet. I point out that agencies and businesses producing branded clothing and merchandise could also source brands you’d normally see in an ordinary clothes shop.

I use a polo shirt costing 700 kroner in a shop as an example. A supplier might charge half or a third of that. I mention around 300 kroner for something otherwise costing 700. That’s my experience and approximate figures back then, not a current offer.

Then you need proper embroidery. In the video, I guess at 50, 75 or 100 kroner and admit I don’t know exactly what it costs.

The point is that you can get nice clothing with a logo that doesn’t annoy you when you’re out. Employees may also appreciate getting a fashionable brand. I throw out a few brand names myself while also admitting I have no idea what’s fashionable right now.

The logo still needs to be visible, of course, but it doesn’t need much more than that. Then you can get something employees, customers and business partners want to wear for years.

I compare a good polo shirt that might quietly display your logo for three years with a T-shirt the customer throws onto the back seat on the way home and never thinks about again. That’s the difference I want you to consider, rather than just counting how many shirts you get for your money.

The Nike jackets were meant to remind media agencies of Jubii

What I think was the coolest corporate gift we made was at Jubii. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for the idea. We wanted to do something for the people at media agencies who sold advertising on Jubii.

One year, we bought some great Nike ski jackets. I say they cost around 2,000 kroner in shops and we could buy them for about 1,000 kroner including embroidery. Those are the figures I remember for that gift.

The Jubii logo was embroidered on the inside by the wallet pocket. Every time the recipient put their wallet away, they’d see the logo and be reminded that some advertising money could also go to Jubii.

I couldn’t say whether it worked on sales. I hadn’t done a major measurement. But several of the men and women who usually received lots of things said it was the best corporate gift they’d ever received. That’s not the worst praise to get.

They could wear the jacket without displaying a big, irrelevant company logo. Other people, including their bosses, didn’t need to see where the gift came from. Even so, the recipient was reminded of us whenever they wore the jacket.

My point was quality and a discreet logo

Along the way, I cough and complain about having caught a rotten cold after five days in Las Vegas. But my point about the clothing is simple: Think quality and discretion, and make fewer things people will actually use.

I also remark that, in my view, branded clothing for yourself could be tax-deductible once a logo was added. I explicitly say you should talk to your accountant about that. It’s my comment in the video from 2010, not a determination of tax rules.

I want more from the money spent on logos and marketing. To me, a gift that’s kept and used is much more interesting than a big print on something nobody wants to wear.

Best wishes, Martin