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Comment by lsc | Hacker News Reader

1) Wear your Company T-shirt

heh.

I've actually thought about this a lot. I always wear a company shirt, yeah, but I also tend to wear the same clothing all the time, too, on the theory that it makes me more recognizable, and that being recognized is good.

My theory (which may, of course, be wrong) is that in branding? being consistent and recognizable is far more important than looking good. But then, I'm trying to generate word of mouth for small customers, not trying to get investors, so the rules may be different... but it sounds like she has a similar philosophy.

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Maybe it's just me, but I always thought wearing your company t-shirt makes you look obnoxious, specially if no one has heard of the company.

it is just you (kidding). How would they hear of you? Why not wear a t-shirt! T-shirts are a pretty low-cost investment in promotion. I can buy a black shirt with a single color imprint for $3.50 in small runs. A good pen with the company name on it would cost the same. (source: I have been buying giveaway crud for 20+ years)

Giving away a metric ton of shirts can have some other interesting effects. In the early days of my manufacturing company we gave away many shirts to people within the industry. We started getting calls about 'our people' attending events that we did not attend. It turns out that some of our customers really saw other customers at trade events, but there were so many people with our company shirt on that they impression was that we were attending in force - we werent at the trade event.

After giving away 20,000 shirts in a four year period, our customers started complaining about having too many shirts. So the technique does not last forever. It did always amaze me the delight a grown adult would show when they were given a $3 shirt. Almost always a better investment than a pen.

Best ideas: Have a decent looking shirt that people want to wear; change base shirt colors so people can have an option. Some people like blue, some like red. Give them what they want, it doesn't change the cost of the shirt.

Where do you usually get shirts?

well, for $3.50, you aren't getting a good T shirt, so it'd be better to compare it to the $0.25 pens.

Personally, I spend about 3x that, maybe 4x on small runs, and get nice T shirts. But then, it's rare I see people that I don't know/ that don't know they will be seeing me wearing the shirts. (and I've only given out a couple hundred) so it's possible that the 'blanket 'em with cheap shirts' strategy works better.

I think wearing your company t-shirt is a good way to get conversations started and would be especially effective if no one has heard of the company.

I worry about that, too. The way I see it, if it's your company, it does scream "I /really/ want to talk about my company" which is certainly obnoxious in some contexts... but not in others.

The difference, if it's a well known company, is that the talk is much shorter. "Oh, you work for Yahoo?" you know, they have the whole back story there. with my shirt? The conversation is longer, even if the level of enthusiasm is the same.

But yeah. It's a good point. And I'd probably have a better non-professional social life if I put some effort in to different outfits for several situations.

You wear the same clothing everyday so you are more recognisable?

That's not normal and is certainly not required.

>You wear the same clothing everyday so you are more recognisable?

>That's not normal

that's... kindof the point, no? I'm trying to be abnormally recognizable.

(I mean, to be clear, I'm not a stinky hipster who goes for months without washing his jeans; I have a whole bunch of these things, and I wash them. They are just all the same.)

But yeah, I was joking with someone else I met a bit ago. "Yeah, I wear the same thing every day. Got a whole closet full of these. You know, like Steve Jobs... but without the good taste."

Seriously, buy some different clothes...

so... break it down for me. What social advantages do I gain by varying my clothing day-to-day?

(I mean, I understand the advantages of fitting your clothing to the situation; that's not my question. My question is, if the situation calls for a suit, what's the problem with wearing the same style of suit every time the situation calls for a suit? the same style of T shirt when the situation calls for a T shirt, etc...)

Or, maybe you are just telling me to fit my clothing to the situation. Which I'm not doing right now, mostly as a conservation of effort thing, which is to say, I'm too goddamn lazy to bother. But I understand why, at least.

If I wore the same clothes everyday (steve jobs style), I'm pretty sure my girlfriend would start to complain and people would start to notice. I don't think it's a good reputation.

You're that uninteresting guy from the office that always wears the same clothes.....

>You're that uninteresting guy from the office that always wears the same clothes.....

But, uh, yeah. I mean, I'm still thinking that the opposite is more true. I mean, fictional characters often do exactly the same thing[1], really for similar reasons. And, as you point out, it's somewhat unusual, which is not boring, even if it might be offensive to some people.

On being more interesting... heh. I should re-arrange my closet like the tvtropes photo below, and post photos.

[1]http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LimitedWardrobe

You seem to relying on wearing the same clothes in order to make yourself stand out and / or differentiate yourself from other people. Why not do that by being good at what you do and friendly to everyone instead?

The whole same clothes thing you have going on is just odd. You don't need it and it just makes you strange rather than cool and interesting.

You're not a fictional character.

>The whole same clothes thing you have going on is just odd. You don't need it and it just makes you strange rather than cool and interesting.

Seriously? you think /that/ is what makes me strange? I'd be "Cool and interesting" if I just learned to dress a little nicer? Oh man. You Java folks really /are/ different.

>You're not a fictional character.

No... but the popularity of cosplaying[1] in our culture aside, stories and archetypes are how we understand humanity. Marketers try to build the public perception of their company into a sort of archetype that consumers can understand and relate to. It's a model for understanding and predicting behavior. (Personally, I don't know if it's a good model... but it is... poetic?) To the degree that I try to construct a public persona, I keep that in mind. (Not that I have done a very good job of staying within an archetype... I suspect doing so would require changing myself more than I like? But acting more consistently, really, is not a bad thing.)

[1] Seriously, like half my friends go to those anime conventions. I think it's kinda weird. My buddy runs http://i360.com - a cosplay photography website. He assures me it's not pornographic... but personally, I think that makes it more weird, not less.

Something along those lines is perfectly normal for people with faceblindness.

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