What can apparel do for your organization?

Great apparel offerings expand your brand awareness through additional public viewing.

Do you know why?

Digital advertising through your web and social media platforms can only be seen when users are online. However, apparel can be viewed anywhere, at any time. Blanketing your target market with apparel is a great way to increase the visibility of your brand.

That’s only half of it!

Imagine having a great story to tell behind the shirt that you are wearing. Repetitive views make a brand more recognizable, and a great story makes the brand memorable. Make sure that your apparel is available for everyone to see and share the stories around the community.

How do you Grow?

The most important way to grow your organization through apparel branding is a great partner. A great partner will ensure a great experience, end to end, from browsing products, to placing the order, to making payment, and finally receiving and unboxing their product. An outstanding experience increases the chances for reorders and more apparel out in the community.

That great experience can be reinforced by having great brands. In a study by the Athens Journal of Sports from 2016, not only do brand names play an influential role but so does social influence. The study went on to further correlate increases in purchases with sports involvement, and the opinions of their friends and peers.

The aforementioned study focused on the role of social influences on the purchasing of sports apparel. However, commonalities can be inferred between social influence on sports enrollment and social influence on apparel purchasing habits.

Where to Go from Here?

Look for amazing partners that can provide you with great products. Make sure that a product can get into your members' hands to invoke conversations. More memorable conversations have great stories, so make sure that apparel reaches your championship teams.

Hopefully, your partners include multiple colour options in varying styles that can be customized with names, nicknames, or numbers. Create great stories and conversation pieces.

Having seasonal stock is one way to keep your members looking fresh in the newest styles. Buying ahead of the season, and then stocking products with one of your executives is one option to help reduce costs to your members. Looking for your partners to keep a stock of frequently bought apparel is another option. Finally, having your partner manufacture on demand is one last option that is a decent mix of lowering costs, and offsetting your executive team's workload.

Another creative way to push apparel is through a pop-up shop. These shops run on an extremely limited timeframe and only sell exclusive products. Exclusive apparel is a great way to build hype around an event such as Christmas, or your club’s big year-end event.

In Conclusion

Use apparel as part of your marketing strategy to grow awareness of your club and program. Use great stories to create future dialogues about the apparel your members are going to wear. Make sure you keep it fresh, and updated, with multiple options -- but not too many that they can’t choose something. Customizations and choosing some colours can make the apparel individualized without losing the identity of your organization’s brand.

Take advantage of the opportunity to have others market your organization for you in places where you can’t reach. People want to be a part of something great and interesting. Make sure there is apparel available to everyone in your community. The interesting stories will be shared perpetually and, the legacy of your organization will be solidified.

The Role of Social Influence in Purchasing Sports Apparel - December 2016 -  https://www.athensjournals.gr/sports/2016-3-4-4-Chew.pdf