Company Uniforms and the Aftermarket
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Company Uniforms and the Aftermarket
BY DANA NELSEN
While at a recent distributor show, I met a dealer from Montana who told me of a really interesting new program he has implemented regarding company uniforms at his shop.
The dealer contacted a variety of aftermarket companies and asked them to sponsor a particular day of the week by supplying employee shirts for that day. Each day’s shirt features both the aftermarket company’s logo and the dealership’s logo embroidered on the shirt. Each week day a different colored shirt with a different aftermarket logo is worn by employees. A weekly schedule was given to the employees to explain what shirt should be worn on what day to ensure everyone matches.
Not only do the employees look professional with an ever-changing but matching uniform, but the dealer saves on the expense of providing uniforms. The aftermarket companies that supply the shirts get high-value advertising at a next-to-nothing price. It appears to be a win/win situation for everybody.
There is a whole host of shops out there with company uniforms but this is the first time I have heard of this done with the aftermarket. Can you image walking up to an shop employee to ask a question about tonneaus and prominently seeing a “Penda,” “Truck Covers USA” or “Leer” logo on his, and every other employee at the dealership’s shirt? Would that influence your buying decision? What about the employees? Would they be more apt to steer customers to a particular brand if they were wearing that brand on their clothing? I think so. It would be hard to recommend “Brand A” when “Brand B” is on your left front shirt pocket.
Customers would naturally ask questions about the brand and employees would learn a great deal of product knowledge about that company merely out of necessity. Expert product knowledge would equate to increased sales and more profit for the shop.
My question for shops is do you see this as a positive and innovative idea or are there downsides to it? Would wearing the logo of a single company cause problems with distributors that offer competing brands? Would having more than one brand on a single shirt be appropriate? They sure don’t seem to have a problem with it in NASCAR. What are the pros and cons of a program like this?