Stand Out
Smart marketing is about catching you off-guard, doing something that makes your brand stand out from the crowd.
Think of it as a quest for prime real estate: putting your logo in the best location to garner the most eyeballs. If investing in promotional apparel is all about maximizing exposure, is left chest really the best place for your logo?
To an extent, it is. The left chest is where people are trained to look and it also works because individuals shake with their right hand, thereby distorting or covering logos on the right chest. There's no sense having a logo if no one can see it. But is the left chest enough? Isn't smart marketing about catching people off guard, reaching them when they least expect, doing something that makes your brand stand out from the crowd?
"By playing it safe, marketers are missing out on a valuable opportunity," says Trimark President Will Andrew. "A lot of people overlook this, they don't think about different ways to decorate. When you put a logo in a different location, it catches people's eyes and when you want to extend your brand, that's what you're looking for."
Placement of logo on promotional products should be given as much consideration as selecting media for an ad campaign. When it comes to maximum reach, few brand managers would settle for the tried but tired television when there's online, outdoor, print and on-site to consider. If you think apparel as a media canvas it seems short sighted to do the same thing over and over, especially when everyone else is caught in the same rut.
Remember when baseball caps simply featured logos on the front until some genius realized that in this hurry-up-and-wait world people spend an awful lot of time staring at the back of one another's heads? Branding the back of a cap is now commonplace, but what's happening with other forms of apparel, such as shirts, jackets, fleeces?
"People are finally starting to consider other options," says Justin Rieder, Creative Service Manager at Trimark, adding that complementing the left-chest location with messages on the right cuff (visible during a handshake) along the back of the collar, on the front or back hem and so forth ensure your logo or message is visible from a variety of angles, thereby maximizing exposure. The goal is to be creative but, but appropriate.
People often assume that straying from the left chest will cost more, but it doesn't. You're paying for a logo and it's up to you where you want it.
In the quest for eyeballs, it's those who stand out from the pack that win. When investing in apparel, common sense dictates that breaking from tradition, be it the left-chest logo ore one-dimensional embroidery, is a smart and cost-effective way to maximize brand exposure.
*article quoted from Trimark Sportswear