We were delighted to learn that one of our embroidered lab coats had made an appropriately gruesome appearance on a national television show. As we looked at the clip several times, we realized it was validating a theme we have hit upon in earlier blog posts and conversations we have with our logo wear clients.
We have put the link to the full 48 Hours video segment at the bottom of this page. But before you dive into that, let us illustrate our point from some screen shot images of the video. Assume you have never seen the show and are unfamiliar with its regulars. Now ponder these questions:
- Which is the reporter and which is the subject matter expert?
- On which clues are you relying to form that impression?
Imagine how the conversation would flow if you had each of these strangers show up unannounced in your office and dressed as-is. If it was the one on the left with the blank lab coat, your mind starts to try to figure out who this is, what organization or agency does he represent, why is he here, and is this person a threat? While you are trying to assess all of that, the gentleman has launched into his introduction, of which you’ve then missed the beginning.
Remember the adage that one has 30 seconds to make an impression in an interview? Do you want your customer-facing staff spending the first 10-15 seconds of that time trying to establish their identity and credibility? Of course not!
Outfitting your staff in quality logo wear establishes to your customers your staff’s identity and purpose, which allows your staff to get into the key theme of their message before those precious first thirty seconds have elapsed.
What the embroidered lab coat also reveals in this video segment is an attention to the details…of branding. And attention to detail is precisely what you would expect from a forensics expert! While the reporter does introduce Karen Green and her firm, the lack of signage anywhere in the video meant that the only opportunity to visually imprint the company’s brand upon viewers was to have it right on the coat. While the camera does not do a zoom in shot of her logo, if you see her brand again, it will seem familiar and authoritative.
By the way, this is not the only client of ours who is in the field of forensic investigations. So take a lesson from the CSI folks, who spend their days looking for clues amid patterns unexpected breaks in patterns: outfit your staff in logo wear to gather “assumed authority” and imprint your brand even where there are no other visual branding clues in sight. Embroidered and screen printed promotional apparel is the ultimate in personal branding.
Here is the link to the full 48 Hours story on the CBSNews website.