Does Clothing with Logos Make Other People Respect You More?

[caption id="attachment_1911" align="aligncenter" width="468"] Image source: Treehugger.com[/caption]   Short answer: yes.   For the long answer, we have to take a look at a recent series of studies that was published in the Evolution and Human Behavior journal last year. The study found that expensive designer clothing with brand name logos could have a major impact in how people react to you.   The researchers performed a couple of different experiments but each one followed the same basic pattern. They would have a person perform a task twice -- once while wearing clothes that had brand name logos and once while wearing clothes that didn't have a logo. The results speak for themselves:   -When soliciting for charity, the person wearing brand name clothing earned approximately twice as many donations.   -When comparing two potential job applicants, the person wearing the brand name clothing was rated as more deserving of the job and worthy of a 9% pay bump.   -Viewers rated a man wearing a designer logo as having a higher status than the same man without the logo.   -A woman asked people to fill out a survey. With the logo she had a response rate of 52%, compared to 13% without the logo.   We all knew that logos have a psychological effect on people, but who ever could have guessed that logos are so powerful? It turns out that teenagers aren't just being fickle when they demand brand name clothing.   What appears to be happening here is that people attribute wealth, class, and respectability to people who are wearing brand name clothing. It might also simply be an issue of effort: people who spend money on expensive clothing are presumably more interested in appearing approachable, so strangers are naturally friendlier.   Obviously, brand name clothing is very different from customized clothing designed for marketing. People wear brand name clothing because they want to look good and be fashionable; people wear the marketing clothing because they want to promote a company or a cause. Unfortunately, we can't say for sure that people wearing company logos for marketing purposes also provoke a positive psychological effect. What we can say, though, is that the type of clothing that you wear has a powerful impact on how people perceive you.   [caption id="attachment_1913" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Image source: Newdandyism.com[/caption]   If a person is wearing Gucci clothing, then that person might appear to be fashionable and modern. If someone else is wearing Nike's logo, then he might seem sporty and athletic. A person wearing the NPR logo might appear worldly and intellectual. Whenever you create customized clothing with your logo, you imbue a fragment of your company's personality into that article of clothing. You can use custom logo clothing as a powerful marketing tool, especially if your customers prefer a specific lifestyle or group identity. You aren't just giving your customers an article of clothing with a logo -- you're giving them a veritable new identity that could dramatically affect social interactions.