Free Hats and Bad Hair

Just this week my stylist tells me that she will no longer color my “stress highlights” until I learn to lay off the straightening iron. This was very untimely since I have naturally frizzy hair and the humidity here has been hovering around 100%. Now, I know you guys (and girls for that matter) really don’t care to hear about my bad hair days but hang with me because I do have a point…eventually. Hey, I’m female so it takes a few more words than you’re used to… so back on track… Consequently, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to look presentable and in the process have found a new respect for the mounds of promotional headwear that I’ve collected throughout the years. Notice I said collected and not worn. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: I work for a headwear company! But I’ll be honest, caps and hats have never been a wardrobe thing for me- until lately. Now, because of a flat iron hiatus, I’m sporting all kinds of headwear from the military to the baseball and yes, even the plaid bucket (okay, I was canoeing but still).

Which brings me to some interesting statistics (and more importantly, to my point). I read in the Impressions Study conducted by ASI Central (http://tinyurl.com/6ffsqdq) that that promotional headwear is the third most owned promotional item in the United States! This excites me not only because my livelihood depends on it or because my hoarded mound of promotional headwear has been validated as normal but because it’s an effective and affordable medium to include in most companies marketing mix! According to the study, the cost per promotional product impression averages 0.005 cents with 83% of the promotional product owners able to identify or recall the advertiser. In my humble opinion and as a person that is in charge of some marketing dollars herself, that’s a pretty impressive ROI. But alas, there’s more! The study also revealed that 41% of the promotional product recipients viewed the advertiser more favorably and 2/3 of the recipients passed along the promotional product to someone else if they didn’t plan to use it. So the impressions are carried onward and elsewhere!

I’m almost glad my stylist banned me from my favorite styling tool so I could become a participating member of the promotional headwear marketing cycle. Now if I could just find a fedora that matched my… well, anyways… Don’t forget about promotional headwear when you’re out selling!

Kicking Off with Camo!

With the Fall season upon us, I chose camouflage as the topic to launch my calling as a "blogger" and now I’m not sure how long my calling will last when you consider that camouflage has been one the most challenging aspects of my career here at Outdoor Cap. Heck, I even misspelled camouflage for years! Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan. However camouflage or “camo” is a large part of Outdoor Cap’s promotional headwear business and therefore I was encouraged to learn all things camouflage or at least have references handy. With that said, I’d like to showcase…uhmm… I mean ‘share’ some of my hard-earned expertise and genuine new respect for the camouflage patterns.

So, the first thing I’ve learned is that depending on the geographical location, camouflage evokes as many opinions as there are patterns. Specifically, licensed camouflage patterns have a grass-roots almost cult following of die-hard, loyal fans. Just check out some of the comments posted the Mossy Oak and Realtree Outdoors Facebook pages and you’ll get the general idea. Take note of the amount of fans that follow their pages too - pretty impressive.

Which brings me to my second hard-earned lesson; camouflage patterns make great promotional headwear. It’s no longer exclusively reserved for the customer that enjoys hunting in the woods. Camo fashion is everywhere and worn by a variety of people in just as many venues. Just perform a simple Google Image search for famous people wearing camo and see what you get back. Amazingly, you don’t have to be famous to appreciate camo either. We have a joke here in Arkansas that there’s such-a-thing as “going to church camo” and it isn’t too far off reality. I personally know someone who incorporated her favorite pattern into her wedding décor! Granted, she may be the exception, but the fact remains that camouflage is a great option for promotional headwear and reaches far more customers than credit is given.

Now maybe you’ll consider a camo style in your next mix? We’re here to help if you have any questions!

Here is a link to Outdoor Cap’s licensed camouflage patterns http://www.outdoorcap.com/Catalogs/CamoGuide.pdf

And feel free to check out all the promotional camouflage headwear styles here: http://www.outdoorcap.com/PromoProducts

Does anyone have a camouflage promotional headwear success story they’d like to share? I’d love to hear it!