How Much Marketing Power is in Custom Clothing?

[caption id="attachment_1707" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Image source: Darmano.typepad.com[/caption]   Custom clothing is a great way to spread the word about your business, but the only problem with clothes-based marketing campaigns is that it can be difficult to evaluate how successful they are. After all, it's easy to tell how many views a YouTube video gets or how high the ratings are on a TV ad, but how many people will see a shirt with your company logo? There's no real way to answer that with absolute certainty, but we're still going to take a close look at marketing campaigns to see just how much bang you can get for your buck with custom clothing.  

The Marketing Potential of Custom Clothes

  Obviously, the type of clothing has a huge impact on how many people will see it. For example, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that more people will see a customized baseball cap than a customized thong. An article of clothing's marketing potential is also heavily influenced by the wearer's lifestyle. A guy who throws on a t-shirt and stays at home all day certainly won't meet as many people as somebody who rides the subway or goes to a football game.   On the low end of the spectrum an article of clothing could potentially have only one viewer if the wearer bums around in his home all day. Over on the other side of the spectrum a person could potentially cross paths with hundreds, possibly even thousands of people in a single day. And if somebody wearing an article of clothing happens to make the news, that number could jump to hundreds of thousands. Realistically, though, the average person probably meets about several dozen people in a day.   [caption id="attachment_1708" align="aligncenter" width="425"] Image source: Tshirtwatch.com[/caption]   If you have a $15 cotton t-shirt, that translates into approximately 1-2 viewers per dollar spent.  

Billboards

  The value of billboards varies by location, but billboard marketers can expect something in the ballpark of $2,500 for every 50,000 views. That means that for every dollar you spend you're netting roughly 20 views.   [caption id="attachment_1709" align="alignnone" width="1936"] Image source: Chamuconegro.com[/caption]  

TV Commercials

  This year, CBS charged companies a whopping $4 million for every commercial during the Super Bowl. That's a hefty price, but it's much more reasonable when you consider that 108 million Americans watched the big game. So, TV marketers earned about 27 views for every dollar spent.   http://youtu.be/o2prAccclXs   On the surface, it seems that custom clothing doesn't hold up to conventional marketing tactics. Once you take a deeper look, though, you'll discover that the value of customized clothing rivals other heavy hitters.   What makes custom clothing so valuable is that an article of clothing can last indefinitely. You can reasonably expect a person to wear an article of custom clothing dozens, possibly even hundreds of times. This is especially true for t-shirts and hats, which can make their way into a person's regular rotation. Unlike commercials, which require you to repay every time it's aired, custom clothing will continue to rack up views for years. Eventually, every $1 spent on custom clothes could translate into hundreds of views. If somebody snaps a photo of a person wearing your shirt and posts it online, then that number could jump to thousands, especially if the article of clothing somehow go viral.   The other major advantage of customized clothing is that it adds a face to the product. It's not just an impersonal billboard announcing your product to the world -- the wearer is advertising your brand to friends, family members, and coworkers.   Don't underestimate the marketing power of custom clothing with your company logo. Investing in custom clothing could easily be the best marketing decision you ever make.