You’ve worked hard to build a brand that stands out even in a sea of competition. You understand that branding is a comprehensive and all-encompassing discipline. You know that it’s not just about your logo. Everything you and your employees do and say is a contributing factor in your branding. Your brand is in everything from the colour scheme of your business premises to the wording in your homepage. It’s present in everything from the way you answer the phone to the way you handle customer complaints.
Your brand is the promise that you make both to your customers and to your employees. It is built upon your mission statement and the values and ideals that make your business unique. And when your employees wear their workwear, they are quite literally embodying the values, ideals and promise implicit in your brand. Not only does this help them to be at their best in every sense while at work, it also allows them to create free advertising for your brand outside of work.
Your employees are walking billboards
Brands spend a fortune on trying to increase their visibility both online and out in the real world. As such, if your employees are wearing their uniform outside of work it behoves business owners to think of themselves as a valuable resource even before they’ve arrived on the premises.
Properly educated and motivated, your employees can be great advertising for your business outside of their working hours.
Looking smart and acting smart
Your employees need to know that when they are wearing their workwear outside of work, whether they like it or not, they’re representing your brand. And they should conduct themselves appropriately no matter where they are. This means looking smart and acting smart. Looking smart means ensuring that their uniform looks exactly as it would if they were on duty, and ensuring that other clothing (such as coats and jackets) reflects a personal persona that’s becoming of your brand.
They should also act smart.
This doesn’t just mean conducting themselves in the same professional and personable manner that they would if they were on the shop floor, it also means identifying opportunities to educate people about the brand and even start sewing the seeds of new interest in your brand. The best sales professionals, for example, instinctively know when an interaction outside of work has the potential to lead to a closed deal.
Make sure your employees are properly prepared with business cards on hand so that if people see your logo and start asking questions they can give all the right answers and encourage people to find out more about your brand.
Think about what your logo says, and what it asks
When employees wear their custom embroidered workwear on their way to or from work (or even on their days off), they take your logo with them wherever they go. As such, it’s worth having a think about what your logo says to the untrained eye. How could it be perceived by people with no familiarity with your business.
It’s important not just to think about what your logo “says” visually but what it asks. Does your logo invite questions? Does it encourage the barrista who serves your employee their morning coffee or the attendant who pumps their petrol to ask questions about you? Does it provoke interest and intrigue?
If your employees are going to be about their day-to-day lives in your workwear it behoves you to think long and hard about what what your logo says to passers by and the kind of questions it invites.
Make your employees brand ambassadors
Of course, this is a potentially big ask for your employees, but when they’re wearing your workwear it’s imperative that they conduct themselves in a way that effectively advertises your brand. Most of the time this is just a case of being themselves. After all, their pleasant, helpful and effervescent personalities are the reason why your customers love them so much in the first place.
Still, it’;s worth considering what incentives you can offer your team for acting as brand ambassadors for your business, advertising your presence to everyone they meet and potentially bringing new leads your way.
How we can help
We can’t train your employees for you, but we can bring you the kind of high quality and completely customisable workwear that will make your brand shine. We can ensure that your team look smart and professional both inside and outside of work so that they become free advertising for your brand in your free time.
Want to know more? Click here to get in touch!