What do You Look for in Suppliers of Corporate Wear?
Any marketing manager worth their salt will have a list of corporate wear suppliers a mile long, but just because so many are available, certainly does not mean they are any good at what they do. If you need to make an informed decision, rather than a quick one, what should you look for in the person, or company, that supplies the corporate wear you need?
Many people and businesses have specialities in certain areas. This is certainly true of those that supply corporate wear and if you are hoping for a company that will give you amazing quality, you first need to identify what you want. People tend to lump together businesses in certain industries.
A digital marketing provider is just as good as another and someone who makes shoes can probably make any type of shoes, right? Wrong – companies that specialise know that they are good at one particular thing, and they do it well.
What Do You Need?
Corporate wear suppliers will be able to assist you with the best quality if you approach them based on what you want, and what they can do. So if you are using the same company to create mining helmets as the one you use to make your executive golf shirts, you may need to re-assess the situation. Some businesses just do not have the working capital to outsource their different clothing needs to many different suppliers.
If your budget is bigger, you may want to consider keeping at least two to three suppliers on your books and getting them to pitch at least once a year. This keeps a healthy sense of competition going and ensures that they don’t con you with any old products, when what you need is quality. By now, you probably know how much your corporate wear should be costing you.
The More You Need, the Better
You probably also know about economies of scale, but this should not be a motive for you to print thousands of shirts when you only need three. Think about quality rather than quantity. Sure, you probably have to answer to the CFO when the time comes to answer for the cost of the corporate wear, but quality and value sometimes trump cost. Imagine giving a potential client, the marketing manager of a huge bank, the same old shirt you would give to a shelf stacker.
Being smart with your company’s money means you need to stay on top of quality, wear-ability and even perceived value, so that you don’t settle for what any corporate wear supplier will give you. You have to think beyond the cost and beyond the occasion and get corporate wear that will serve you in the long run. If you have identified what you need, how you need it and what you are planning on using it for, you essentially have a strategy in place.
That means you will never have to opt for corporate wear suppliers that can give you their ‘best for now’. You’ll be able to get the best, every time you need it.