It may seem easy to brand your corporate clothing. After all, all that’s needed is to choose one colour for everyone and then put your logo on a shirt or hat, right? Unfortunately, by only concentrating on your logo, you are missing a very large piece of the branding and marketing puzzle.
The truth is that a lot of thought should be put into your new staff clothing, specifically into the colour of that clothing.
Reinforcing Your Brand
Your staff will reinforce your brand every time they interact with an existing or potential customer. This could mean anything from walking by someone on their way to work to shaking hands or conversing with a person. Any interaction is an opportunity for your brand to gain additional exposure. Really, your staff are walking advertisements for your company.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to plaster them with logos like an F1 driver. Instead, consider how you can gain attention using colour; specifically, one of the colours that already exist in your company logo.
How Colour Branding Positively Affects Company, Customers and Staff
Interesting fact: the brain registers colour before it registers typography or images. And colour can increase the recognition of your brand by an incredible 80%, according to a study by Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, USA.
There are three distinct ways in which colour can have a positive effect. For your company, colour-branded clothing increases brand recognition as well as helps your team to look professional.
For customers, colour helps your staff to be easily accessed, as they are more easily identifiable. This also helps to build trust in the customer.
Last but certainly not least, your staff benefits from colour branding in the sense that wearing the same colour promotes equality and camaraderie. This boosts morale, which increases loyalty, productivity and ultimately, revenue.
Even if you are the only one running your company, you will still be wearing some sort of uniform when you interact with customers and colleagues. So colour still matters, even if you are flying solo!
Choosing the Most Effective Colour
Deciding which colour to choose for your staff uniforms can be daunting, especially if you are incorporating brand recognition. First, it’s important to understand that we are conditioned to seek out uniforms in a particular colour. For example, we know that UK police are usually outfitted in black or dark blue, sometimes with high-visibility vests. In a hospital setting, a surgeon will wear different colours than an orderly.
Integrating Your Brand’s Colours into Staff Clothing
Ask yourself whether your current and potential customers are already conditioned to seek out your business’s brand colours through other means, such as your business card. If not, you’ll have to take three steps.
First, you will need to identify which colour is your core brand colour. This can be done by researching colour psychology online or consulting with an expert.
Next, you will need to decide where the colours will be placed on your uniforms. For example, your core colour could be on the body of the clothing, while a secondary colour could appear on the seams or piping.
Finally, you will need to ensure that the colour of the fabric matches your brand’s colours exactly. Otherwise, you may confuse your customers.
When using your staff clothing to increase the recognition of your brand, you will need to shift your perspective. Instead of thinking of colour as a decoration, you need to think of it as a language, one that speaks subliminally to your customers. When used in this way, staff clothing in your core colour can give your business the competitive edge.
