NOW WEAR THIS

Consumers are what they wear – a simple fact that has marketers looking to put more logoed apparel into customer wardrobes.

Ever since Ralph and Calvin helped make it chic for the populace to parade around in clothes emblazoned with miniature polo players or stamped with company names, consumers have become nearly obsessed with showing off which corporate outfits are responsible for their outfits.

Brand marketers continue to tap into that obsession by spending billions of dollars annually – as much as $4.7 billion in 1999, according to industry estimates – to hand out apparel sporting their own names and logos.

Granted, a Chiquita banana sweatshirt hardly carries the same cultural cachet as a Hugo Boss top. But today’s consumers are extremely receptive to wearing merchandise stamped with brand images or logos – many, in fact, don’t wear anything that isn’t branded. And they are more fashion-oriented then ever, primarily due to the advent of off-price retailing, which has given the shopping masses who previously couldn’t afford designer brands a greater chance to slip into some haute couture.

That’s why the promotional apparel industry has been thriving in recent years, as companies bolster efforts in the corporate incentive and business-to-business segments and increase initiatives to bestow their brands on the public.

As consumers have become savvier about what they wear, so have the promotional apparel components of marketing plans. T-shirts remain a staple – they’re cheap, easy to dispense, and most people stock them by the drawer-full. But more companies are turning to higher-ticket items to fulfill promotional needs. Others are turning whole-heartedly to branded goods, or spending time and money on more creative endeavors such as coming up with unique items.

But all are taking promoting with apparel more seriously. and devoting larger portions of their time and budgets to what Gregg Billmeyer, director of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch’s promotional products group, calls a “very effective way of extending the message and reach of a promotion.”

Liquor distributor Bacardi USA has a stand-alone department inside its Miami headquarters to handle consumer and b-to-b apparel sourcing globally. The company’s distributed merchandise ranges from T-shirts for on-premise giveaways to high-end polo shirts for trade accounts.

“Apparel is huge for us,” says Henry Torres, the global purchasing coordinator inside Miami-based Bacardi USA’s stand-alone apparel sourcing department “We’re talking about millions of dollars a year.”

Stitches in Time

Traditionally, buying apparel for a corporate campaign or consumer promotion was, if not an afterthought, then at least an end-of-the-process decision, often accomplished with whatever was left in the marketing budget after every other component was funded.

“Apparel is often the last thing marketers think about,” says Jose Beguiristain, president of B-Line Apparel, a Miami-based company that handles large orders for such clients as Bacardi, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Ryder Truck Rental. “But that’s changing.”

Brands are now paying more attention to what they’re handing out, and looking to better support their branding initiatives with quality soft goods, Beguiristain says. The biggest change B-Line and other suppliers have seen in clients is an enhanced interest in quality – and an accompanying willingness to pay for better stitching or alternative materials such as twills, nylons, and heavy-strength cottons.

Last winter, producers of the annual Grammy Awards show on CBS handed out stitched leather jackets to show staffers and awards presenters. Upscale leather bombers were part of the prize pool when Time Life Video recently ran a promotion backing a new World War II book/video series. And each new Marlboro Gear catalog seems to feature better merchandise than the last.

“In the last two years, the quality in this industry has improved dramatically,” confirms Stephen Paradiso, president of Gloucester, MA-based Cyrk’s corporate promotions group, which handles apparel efforts for the likes of Marlboro, M&M/Mars, and Sony. “Clients are demanding quality for anything they’re putting their name or logo on.”

This is true of both b-to-b and consumer promotions, Paradiso says. On the consumer side, apparel is a mainstay of premium incentive menus, self-liquidating offers (see story, pg. 84), and contest prize collections. Mystic, CT-based Mystic Pizza is currently running an offer for a heavy T-shirt like the ones worn in the Connecticut pizza parlor (made famous in an eponymous 1980s Julia Roberts movie) on the backs of frozen pizza boxes sold in grocery stores. Goodyear just wrapped an SLO that gave shoppers who bought tires a branded leather and nylon jacket for $50. Pepsi’s new Fruit Works juice brand is running a weekly sweeps on fruitworks.com for apparel giveaways. And Compaq Computer is handing out apparel as part of its 2000 branding campaign.

Apparel as giveaways and contest prizes is evolving, with brands increasing use of high-quality fabrics such as fleece and silk. “The majority of our business these days is fleece, denim, and outerwear,” says Susan Kohout, marketing manager with Lee Printwear, Martinsville, VA.

Lightweight outerwear is popular as well, as is leather and corduroy. “Some of the things that we hand out now we wouldn’t have attempted four or five years ago,” says Jules Bauduc, marketing services manager with Volkswagen, Auburn Hills, MI. “We started with the basics, and now we have an extensive line of goods.”

Volkswagen’s ongoing mobile marketing efforts prove an easy vehicle for distributing branded apparel. (Consumer initiatives account for 60 percent of VW’s apparel budget.) The company sets up tents at co-branded events with partners K2 and Trek, and also uses its advertising muscle to tag along at Self Magazine’s outdoor wellness events. VW also ships cases of clothing to other special events and targeted locales.

Business-to-business campaigns now include everything from entire outfits to $350 suede jackets. Fueled by increased corporate relations initiatives, more company events, and a solid economy, American businesses are strutting their stuff by handing clients and employees top-tier merchandise. Enterprise Rent-A-Car distributes hundreds of high-end golf shirts each summer at the annual company golf outing. The YMCA is currently outfitting staffers at its 2,000 summer camps nationwide with clothes. VW is constantly shipping merchandise to its 750 dealers and 165 field staffers, says Bauduc.

Color Coordination

Marketers are also getting creative by looking for unique clothing designs and products. More brands are putting on their thinking caps to identify items that fit the season in which the promotion is running or the event at which the apparel will be handed out. White Plains, NY-based Triarc Beverages delivered heavy long-sleeve shirts last winter when it brought its new Elements beverages to college kids at ski mountains and other alternative Pacific Northwest events. The shirts had pictures of Elements bottles running down the sleeves.

Westport, CT-based Allied Domecq this summer is backing the launch of its new Kahlua Rum Cola mixture with apparel giveaways at night clubs. One of the items, a pique combed-cotton polo shirt, features the campaign’s “Anything Goes” tagline stitched on the back of the neck instead of on the front chest – simply to offer a slightly different look. To herald its name change to Sesame Workshop, educational programming company Children’s Television Workshop mailed out shirts with permanent markers so recipients could color their own tops.

New items feature pastel colors, animal prints, and other merchandise that rival what’s sold in specialty stores and boutiques. “Clients definitely have a better eye for design now,” says Maurice Voce, vp-marketing with Redwood City, CA-based MadeToOrder.com. “They’re doing their best to stay on top of what’s hot.”

Peoria, IL-based Caterpillar Corp. distributes corporate apparel to its dealers. The company hands out the usual caps and shirts, but has recently taken a fashion step forward, introducing branded specialty lines such as golf apparel and other event-specific items. “If it doesn’t have a retail-quality look and feel, we’re not interested,” says Sharon Hoerr, program manager of promotional products, trademark merchandising, and licensing. “We’re not a flashy company, but we’ve gotten more sophisticated when it comes to our promotional apparel.” Several other specialty lines will be rolled out in the coming months, says Hoerr.

In another move to create unique merchandise, many apparel items that were unisex before are now identical but gender-specific. New jackets, shirts, and even some fitted caps look the same but have different cut, stitching, or slightly different fabrics.

Are You Putting Me On?

In other trends, the private label versus brand debate continues. In the past, it was easy for marketers to pass on brand-name promotional apparel, since clothes with recognizable monikers such as Cutter & Buck, Greg Norman, Antigua, Nike, and Ashworth cost 200 percent more than private-label items. But more brands are coughing up the cash and opting for more expensive clothes, reasoning that the up-market stuff matters to brand-conscious consumers.

Apparel manufacturers acknowledge the need for both branded merchandise and affordable price points. Many have introduced lower-priced lines to cater to more clients. “Whether brand is important depends on the [promotional] application,” suggests Howard Headden, vp-corporate sales with fashion-forward apparel outfit Tehama, Boston, which supplies merchandise to IBM, GTE, Seagram Beverage Co., and Anheuser-Busch.

Still, private label accounts for only about 15 percent of promotional purchases. “But that’s a growing 15 percent,” says Cyrk’s Paradiso.

While marketers are demanding unique goods, they evidently don’t care where that uniqueness is created. Surprisingly, American-made merchandise is not a frequent request, since Asian-made apparel is still much cheaper. Domestically manufactured apparel is something many marketers would prefer, but “it’s virtually impossible to find quality merchandise at a low price in the U.S.,” says one promotional product supplier. Another admits that, “Even the brands you would think would be sensitive [to getting American merchandise] have given up looking in the U.S.”

Wherever it’s made, it’s being distributed in the good old U.S. of A. by the truckload.

“With the right brand and product, consumers will walk away with your name on their backs,” says Volkswagen’s Bauduc. “Anyway you look at it, that’s great exposure.”

And a great opportunity to cover up the country.