Can you guess what this will be about? Do you think it has to do with being the same and confirming to the rest of the brands around you? No… it doesn’t. This is truly about uniform marketing or in other words, marketing and the selling of uniforms for an athletic organization. In this case, it is for my son’s karate dojo.

Saturdays, in the winter, are days when the students and athletes don’t have to wear their gi top – of course, they have to wear their belt and the gi pants (we don’t want half-naked little kids and especially not big kids running around the studio) but they don’t have to wear the gi jacket.

So, this week we were reminded about this policy via e-mail and the piggy back message was that long-sleeve shirts are in stock. Kazam! There you have it – the real message and intent behind the e-mail.

Not, “Oh, we’re being flexible and letting you join class with partial uniform” but really “Hey, we have branded shirts for sale, and since it’s winter, you might want to buy a long sleeved tee to wear!”

Subtle yet oh, so very effective. Even though my son does not NEED one more karate t-shirt, he WILL buy a long sleeved one today. Why?  Because I am rewarding clever marketing when I see it, not only by blogging about “uniform marketing”, but also where is matters for the retailer or the service provider or the organization, with my purchase.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl