Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

IPOGUKLTD,

Welcome aboard the KHE forum. We really are happy to have you aboard now and please join us by feeling free to get involved. Again welcome!

INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS EVERY CHANCE U GET...
Let me begin with a way you can immediately begin to increase your brand awarness even right now ((( Take the time to Fill in your Customer Profile here on KHE ))).

It appears that to your customer the type of brand does matter. And that's a good thing because it also helps you to recognize that when you claim your stake in this territory people will buy from you (maybe automatically i.e. emotionally) just because they are familiar with your brand.

DRAW NEW CIRCLES & BRING OTHERS INTO YOUR CIRCLE,,,
Don't worry about "circumventing the issue" to me what's more important is that you begin to bring "new ways" of marketing to your industry that others are not using. So how do they market T-shirts as a standard rule in the T-shirt industry? Maybe from those approaches we can come up with some more other suttle changes that could cause people to want to work more with your organization.

Do you offer maybe a quicker way to get the T-shirts to people?

Or do you create a different ease of service that others are not looking at?

You could also USE SOME STAR POWER,,,
Have you ever thought about bringing a motivational speaker like myself into or anyone with some notiriety or star power who can begin to give your visual marketing of the image some umph (ugly miles per hour). Seriously you might want to consider getting someone on the way up whose not looking to reck your budget but is willing to create a "Host Beneficiary" relationship that gives you another angle. I've got some ideas that might be quite interesting to add a spin to your t-shirts that others are not doing. I've shared with you some above. You can always send me an email U can get off of my customer profile. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

PS
wait for some of my other expert friends to chime in...they normally have some great ideas to share.

I have a client that sells printed (and embroidered) T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, etc., so they would be considered your "end-user" customer. (They are NOT really the end-user, as Tate points out.)

They give their customers what they ask for. When the customer wants a brand-name shirt, they give them a brand-name shirt. When the only thing that counts is low price, they give them a no-name shirt. I'd estimate that 90% of their customers want the brand name and are willing to pay for it. (Besides, the cost of the shirts is a relatively small component of the total selling price. The design and printing costs are generally more than the t-shirt itself.)

You need to figure out what your niche is and why a printer should buy your t-shirts. If it's just price, you have a losing strategy in this market. You'll either have to become a printer (i.e., vertically integrate) and add value that way, or start to establish your brand as being different from and better than the Big 3 in some way. That may be a long and expensive process, but there's no easy way to fight this one on price.

Good luck.

P.S. My client only sells to a niche market in the US, so it probably doesn't make much sense for me to put you in touch with them ... but I can if you think it might help you understand their thinking.

I wonder if www.zazzle.com is worth pursuing as a vendor?

Sorry I can't offer anything more verbose... I'm on "Mommy Time" right now. ;]

Shelley