In a recession having locked-in customers like this is all the more valuable. Seeking out sectors where there is less competition has to be a way to defend margins. It will be instantly apparent that this doesn't mean high volume business where competitive quoting is automatic, but I well recall a former MD saying that the way to survive a downturn is to have your eggs in lots of baskets.

So I took a look at my local Yellow Pages and visited a local business club. The businesses I contacted were, I concede, a small sample (dozens rather than hundreds) but I asked them all the same questions and got some interesting and, I thought, surprising answers. What I wanted to know was did they use printwear (I had to explain what it was every time); if not why not; did their competitors use it; had they recently had anybody trying to sell it to them.

Now, the county of Kent may be totally anomalous but I can't think of one reason why it should be. So I'd suggest that the outcome is pertinent to most parts of the UK.

The blindingly obvious overall reaction was that printwear was off their radar. They didn't know what it was; they didn't know any of the benefits; they neither knew nor cared if competitors used it; they couldn't remember seeing a salesman of the product and their overall cost perception was that it was rather expensive. Those responses came through in at least 70% of cases. As a control I also asked if they had advertising sales people contact them and 100% said ‘yes', some ‘every day.' The ‘they' in question were typically owners or sales managers.

This is a mixture of good news and bad. The bad news is that overall potential customers don't know the printwear benefits story - they don't ‘think printwear'. The good news is that there are untapped markets waiting to be exploited.

Personally, I find this surprising because, being printwear conscious, I seem to see people wearing it everywhere and every day, but I now suspect I'm wrong. What I'm seeing is the highly visible few rather than a sample of the many. Again this is good news because, if a relatively limited number of users gives an impression of universal use, then the printwear proposition is clearly working.

So I suggest that the industry needs to rethink and go back to basics. You're all busy providing a valuable marketing tool with applications to every business and they don't appear to understand what it is you're offering. The primary issue is the fact that business owners appear not to know the generic benefits of printwear. That's a great start point because the industry has a very strong story to tell.

Apologies for teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but the core benefits are as follows in my view:

• it's highly visible publicity;
• the cost is low;
• it works every hour it's worn;
• it makes a business look more professional;
• it is personal;
• it offers a large canvas to tell your message;
• it helps develop team spirit.

Those benefits are worth restating because it's easy to ignore elements that are important to some customers but which don't come up regularly.

Overall, my favourite reason for recommending printwear is that it turns wearers into talking billboards. Here is an advertisement that can actually answer questions, give out business cards and take note of personal contact numbers. For that reason, I strongly believe that the industry should aim to turn its output into something more aggressively advertising orientated. While the ‘logo on left breast' is fine for corporate uniform, it doesn't shout "stop me and buy one" and I think printwear can and should do that.

Let me quote some examples. About 20 years ago there was a diet programme being aggressively marketed with the line "Lose weight now, Ask me how". I confess I don't recall seeing it on printwear, but it definitely should have been. More recently, Tesco staff have been wearing shirts with the message "Here to help". That's necessarily a bit generic, but it's the right approach. The British people are diffident - we'd rather not ask for help, unless it's openly offered. Wetherspoons pub staff wear shirts promoting current and up-coming events and products. They change the message regularly, too.

This then should be the sales message for printwear. While looking smart and distinctive is good news, this actually generates enquiries. More than that, they're qualified enquiries. If your customer is told "I'm looking for a new gym" or "I need a Volkswagen specialist" he or she will find out a lot of pertinent detail, fast. It also establishes a personal rapport which is essential to creating sales. Although a little flippant, there is also the basic point that everybody has to wear something to work, so it might as well be something that brings in business.

Coming back to my piece of micro-research, the response that they thought it expensive was, I suspect, just a gut-reaction. In a recession business owners are inclined to regard all purchasing as expensive. However, it's a standard sales objection and one that is very easy to counter, because printwear is not expensive, especially compared to other media.

PR experts will tell you that their work helps drive word-of-mouth advertising. Well, OK, it does, but since they don't all own Ferraris, it doesn't drive a vast lot of it. But I assure you I have never met a small or medium sized business owner who didn't boast about getting work through referrals where it applied. Apart from the warm feeling it creates, this is almost always non-competitive. An enquiry generated by a message on printwear is next door to word-of-mouth - let's call it ‘word of shirt'.

There is another important benefit. That customer responding to the message on a piece of printwear is partly prompted to do so because the wearer is obviously proud of his business, and that's exactly the sort of company everyone wants to buy from.

Tight targeting is the great god of direct mail and most businesses just don't do it at all well. What they tend to do is write a standard letter and send it to all and sundry, often with a brochure. It is transparently better to focus attention on a small sector. Let us say you aim at landscape gardeners; you know a number of common factors they all share: they work outdoors; there's a design element (maybe a big element) in what they do; referrals will be important to them; it tends to be a young industry. Hence, your letter can talk very specifically about the needs of landscape gardeners, which will prove to them that you're the right supplier. This also has the advantage that some product features become benefits eg different cloth weights for different seasons, lots of sturdy pockets and so on.

I hesitate to recommend business sectors to attack, but those selling skills and expertise to the general public are first choice. I would also aim at anyone who solves emergencies. The public need to know a washing machine repair man before it breaks down or a pest controller before the rat turns up. In all such cases printwear can prompt the request for card or phone number. Incidentally, the recession may be gouging some industries, but not all. A friend of mine (who, incidentally, is a fan of printwear) is a kitchen specialist and he has work booked for six months.

The same principle can apply in mainstream press advertising, although it's more difficult. Talk to your local newspaper about any features they have planned addressing specific business sectors. While those features are aimed at driving readers' custom to the advertisers, they will also be studied by the people in that business sector, notably those advertisers, but also other competitors. A little less targeted, but still relevant, is the ‘local experts' section most papers have. These are tradesmen of all sorts but they are all potential customers. Again, business owners check their own ad and what competitors might be offering.

Apply a bit of lateral thinking and you may be able to do the same thing based on location, rather than business sector. Tenants at a small, out-of-town retail park have the same interest - persuading people into their cars to shop there. Printwear can sell that message in the town centre and do it 12 months of the year, not just when they run an advertising feature. Big garden centres are a potential source of this business because many of them have concessions on-site. Granted, this is not the easiest business development activity, but for that very reason, competition is unlikely and it can develop multiple new accounts. 

A final point: do you use printwear to death for your own business? You should. If you and your staff are not walking, talking billboards for at least eight hours a day, how can you expect customers to buy into the proposition? If your shirt said "We print selling messages on shirts; this one creates enquiries for us - we could do the same for you" anyone reading it and getting the message will be tapping you on the shoulder.

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