Staff uniforms are better marketing than the internet

The marketing world right now is full of new tools like social media, email marketing and pay per click advertising. The problem for most businesses is figuring out whether they should be using these new ways of marketing and to what extent. With so much buzz around social media and digital marketing, it’s very easy for companies to wonder if they’re missing out on big opportunities if they’re not using these tools. But for the most part they aren’t, particularly in the B2B world. In the majority of business to business companies, traditional marketing tools like trade shows are still the foundation of effective marketing plans. And a recent study from Boston-based Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University reveals compelling data that supports companies sticking with traditional tools over newer online tools.

The Sawyer study compared the effectiveness of staff uniform programs (i.e. providing front line staff with branded uniforms) with six other forms of marketing (Internet, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Billboard and Yellow Pages). 267 companies from 14 major industries participated. The results were perhaps intuitive for some B2B business owners who are skeptical of social media and potentially disruptive for online marketing companies currently offering their services. More than two-thirds of the companies who responded agreed that uniform programs are more effective than any of the other 6 types of marketing. For some forms of marketing the difference between the two tactics was even more dramatic:

- 76% said uniforms are more effective than billboard

- 74% said they are more effective than radio

- 72% felt they are more effective than newspaper

- 56% said they’re more effective than Internet

- 55% stated they’re more effective than printed Yellow Pages

So before you fall head over heels with the idea of marketing your company through Twitter or Facebook, think about some of the basics – like uniforms – that you can put in place to get your message into the heads and hands of your target market.