# Marketing / Free Shirts - Feedback



## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

Ok people here’s the plan, the line is called Pitbull Guerilla, I'm marketing it as a high end designer line, we have been working on setting it up for the last year and will start selling shirts early spring/summer 2007...for marketing I have bought a gorilla suit and I've ordered a hand made gorilla mask from the UK… http://www.rubbergorilla.co.uk/masks/shopPics/gorilla%20mask.jpg

…the gorilla will be the mascot, who will be at events and also random appearances through out the city giving away free T-shirts and promo packs, to help introduce the line… what do you think?

Also I have a couple questions…

1. Has anyone used a mascot before, if yes, how did it work out, what we the responses like, do you feel it helped build brand awareness?

2. When giving away shirts, how much is too much, or too little? I know its all about budget, just looking for 
feedback from others more experienced, also feel free to share your experiences. 



Thanks

Mike

PGCC


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## m26gil (Jul 21, 2006)

I think it's a cool idea, but you may scare some people with that gorila. Boy, that's a scary one . 
Succes with your business. 

Another thing, the free domain is not a good idea, I don't know but maybe you just keep it for experiment but I couldn't acces you page because of that ad page and the link wasn't working.


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## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

We wanted a very real gorilla, its part of the look, but he's wearing a tee and sneekers so it should be ok...

yeah the tk site is just for testing, but its not the re-direct that goes down its the awardspace host.....I just removed it from my sig...


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

I wouldnt give out very many free shirts. Maybe a couple as part of raffles..something where they are getting big exposure. I would give out something els, like stickers, or key chains. 

Once somebody has your shirt, why are they going to need to pay for one. It just doesnt make sence to go around giving out shirts.

Maybe give out shirts with your company nameon them. Certianly do not just give away alot of the shirts you are actually selling.


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

Sounds like a great idea to me. Its something we have been tossing around ourselves. Mind you we dont plan to get into a gorilla suit lol

I can tell you, that if you came up to me in your suit, handed me a free t-shirt (Im assuming you will have your info on the shirt) Id be online checking to see what your company was all about. Kinda the goal isnt it?

As far as getting yourself out there and known, this will go alot further than an ad in the newspaper, or mail outs. This will get you noticed


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## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

jdr8271- Agreed, the shirts are the generic Logo Tee, its to promote the brand, we wont be giving any of the other shirts, the promo package includes a mini catalogue, sticker, and business card.

Robin - Thank you, thats just the type of feedback I need, image ...when was the last time you saw a gorilla walking down the street? lol

Do you think 20 Shirts per event is that too little?

Is 50 too much?


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

your thinking 20 or 50.. I would figuire that you will get a 1-5% responce from it. If you do 20 or 50, you would be lucky to get one sale out of it in my opinion. Its seems like a very expensive, and not very effective way of marketing to me. You are selling a product on the internet, so you should market it on the internet.. T-shirts are impulse buys..A spur of the moment kind of thing. You are counting on people seeing your gorilla, and then going home, remembering your website and going on to buy a t-shirt. I just dont see it working.


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## sarafina (Jul 27, 2005)

What are you hoping to achieve?

I work in promotions and event marketing and get to be involved in alot of sampling promotions.

The companies that benefit from sampling promos are usually i. already established companies introducing a new product line (kit kat introducing kit kat peanut) or companies introducing a new and highly unique product altogether (shirts don't fall into that category). These promos are usually coupled with an incentive or indication of where to buy the new goods. Your sampling promotion needs to have one of the two. Since you're opening next year, the latter isn't possible. You need to tie an incentive to these free tshirts. Also, if you're tyring to go for a high end market, don't cheapen yourself. You need to make it very clear that this is free but very limited (exclusive) in order to maintain the high end appeal.

Also like I asked initially, what are you trying to achieve? Brand awareness shouldn't be your answer at this stage. Try to get something valuable in return (email address, newsletter opt ins, feedback, demographic data) from this campaign to make it a success.


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## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

This is just for local marketing and promotion of the product, the plan to generate sales is different, it would be a waste if that was the sales plan.

End of the month we are attending a music artist showcase, that night we will give away at least 20-30 shirts through the course of the night, remember this is just to introduce the line.


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## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

sarafina- thats some great info you posted, looking at the plan we have come up with do you see any other gaps?

Dont be shy, please be honest as possible...


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## sarafina (Jul 27, 2005)

My biggest issue with your plan is that it 1. lacks creativity and 2. doesnt have a purpose.

You've already established this is diferent then a sales plan. *So its not generating you sales*. Just to put this in perspective. I was involved in a sampling promo this summer. We gave away 7000 boxes of chocolates each day...for 5 weeks. THAT is how you create brand awareness. Not 50 shirts at a local festival. I'm afraid with those numbers, *its not generating you brand awareness*. So again, what was the purpose? With that being said, i'm going to give you your new plan.

1. Go to the festivals and hand out flyers. Have them say "Wanted: Gorilla etc" It should include a url for a promo website and detail a prize that people recieve if they participate. Ie. First 50 people to go to our website, tell us where you saw him, get a tshirt. Bring a sample or two. DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM. Now you have an incentive and a sense of urgency. Cost incurred: photocopy charges.

2. Create a website. This should serve two purposes. 1. Tell people about the details of the promo and company. When your launching, where to get, show product pics. 2. Gather information about participants. You need to know about these people as they're the ones interested enough in your garment to participate and are likely interested in your clothing.(your target market.) You can also use them to keep in touch as your official launch is next year. You simply give away free tshirts and everybody and their mom is gonna want it. Doesn't really help you out.

3. Get in your monkey suit and hit the town. Remember that festival where you handed out the flyers? Go there soon after. Make yourself VERY obvious. Maybe you could stage a scene. Have a beautiful women act as the gorilla girlfriend of sorts and let them get into a big fiasco. I know i'd be curious as hell if I saw a gorilla and a woman in a lovers quarrel. It may be more successful if you went to the locations and made a scene BEFORE handing out the flyers. I'm sure more people would hold onto it then.

These ideas may seem off the wall and thats what you need. If you're clever with it, you should be able to get local trade attention. ie. not the national news but a local fashion mag or fashion website blurb.


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

sarafina said:


> These ideas may seem off the wall and thats what you need. If you're clever with it, you should be able to get local trade attention. ie. not the national news but a local fashion mag or fashion website blurb.


This comment says it all... _*Think outside the box*_

I can tell you from many years of experience, if you do what no one else does, it will get you noticed. If you do or go against the grain, hard work and persistence, it will work.

I love your ideas, but I do think you need to launch the gorilla outing, only when your website is up and running, and you are ready to do business. Because I would forget, and not put my free t-shirt and your website (next year) together. kwim?

......a thought....if you still want to give away t-shirts(I still love this idea) hand out the flyers, with your web address, and an invitation to receive a free t-shirt. This way, they have to go to your site, will have to imput their address, and email (which you will add to your files). Have a set number (limited quantities...hurry) of t-shirts you are willing to give away. This way however, you will have to deal with mailing costs. That might be a down side to your offer. I would find the cheapest way to ship, and only charge "cost" of shipping if you really want them to have your t-shirt.

...another thought....if you are going to have a booth at this function, send out your gorilla with flyers to visit your booth to receive their free t-shirt, and maybe a 5$ off coupon for your "art" t-shirts. Say the free shirt will be ....I dont know, some cool graphic on the front and then your logo blasted across the back of the shirt. All the other shirts, are the stock you carry, that they can apply the coupon to.

.....time to shut the brain down now lol


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

I don't think giving out t-shirts is a great way to promote your t-shirt business. I mean, a car company or a cell phone maker will give out logo tees, but they are not in the business of selling t-shirts, they are in the business of selling cars and cell phones. They don't go around giving cars and cell phones to people!

I would go with some of the other suggestions - stickers, flyers, buttons, etc. Even having the gorilla go around with a bag of banana-flavored lollipops with your website address attached would be fun. If you spend $500, you can get probably 2,000 stickers, rather than 100 t-shirts. Think about it.

I don't understand why you are saying that you are doing this for "brand awareness". How much more "aware" of your brand are people going to be because a guy in a gorilla suit gives them a shirt? How much can they actually learn about your brand from that 2-second interaction? It will be a funny thing to tell their friends the next day, and then they will totally forget, unless they see the gorilla all over town every day for a month, with his face plastered on billboards.

Honestly, the main issue here is the ability to follow up on that 2 seconds you have with your future customer. It is useless to spend even $1 on raising "brand awareness" if you are not going to have a website where people can at least learn more about your brand. Having products for them to buy is even better.

Bottom line is, no matter how awesome a marketing idea is, if you have no way to measure the results, you can't really know if it was successful or not.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

sarafina has some excellent ideas, IMO. Rather than just simply giving away product, you want to be able to collect contacts; whether a person physically writes down an address/email address or signs up on a website, or whatever. You want to be able to hit up interested parties for possible sales once you're up and running; I think this is the most important thing to keep in mind. VERY few will actually remember to check back themselves.


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## RisingBlue7 (Oct 8, 2006)

If you want people to remember the line, why don't you wear a diaper with the gorilla suit or wear a jersey with the gorilla suit with the website printed on it, you would for sure gain notoriety...that would be something to remember...lol...someone would say, "Hey I got this really cool shirt from a diaper wearing gorilla", who and where do I get one.


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## PGCC (Oct 10, 2006)

Thanks for all the feedback, I agree with some of the mentioned points others I do not, but the help is great, this is what I need to hear, to make it a sucess..

if anyone else has any suggestions , please share..

or getting back to my first question, has anyone ever used a mascott??

Mike


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## Naddy (Jul 6, 2007)

We still havent started, but we were thinking of adding a mascot to our designs. No idea how it will pull off, but im thinking that if you implement your mascot to your designs it should be good... Something like johnnycupcakes? He uses a cupcake to somewhat make it a mascot.. Thats what you need for brand awareness.. Someone should be able to tell that after looking at your particular gorilla, they should know its Pitbullguerilla clothing.
We were also looking into giving out t-shirts, but everyone seems to have a point.. especially this one


> I don't think giving out t-shirts is a great way to promote your t-shirt business. I mean, a car company or a cell phone maker will give out logo tees, but they are not in the business of selling t-shirts, they are in the business of selling cars and cell phones. They don't go around giving cars and cell phones to people!


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## dominici (Apr 22, 2007)

If you are called pitbull guerilla, and you have a gorilla on your t shirts, and you are using a gorilla to market your business, why not get a pitbull involved? Obviously a real live pitbull if slightly too far!! but something like a gorilla suit and a pitbull mask would turn heads for sure. or double team it with a gorilla man and a man dressed as a pitbull cruising round events?


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

RisingBlue7 said:


> If you want people to remember the line, why don't you wear a diaper with the gorilla suit or wear a jersey with the gorilla suit with the website printed on it, you would for sure gain notoriety...that would be something to remember...lol...someone would say, "Hey I got this really cool shirt from a diaper wearing gorilla", who and where do I get one.


On that same line, why not just print a promo shirt big enough to put over the gorilla suit?


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

tim3560 said:


> On that same line, why not just print a promo shirt big enough to put over the gorilla suit?


 
I like that idea and the gorilla should too --- 

I like your gorilla mascot idea, and as someone else mentioned, why not give him a pet - a pit bull should do


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## rrobinlive (Aug 5, 2007)

This thread has some great posts to it, gained alot of marketing tips from it. By the way, that's a nice one RisingBlue  !!


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## Robert H (Mar 27, 2007)

Speaking of giving away free shirts, what is the best method of keeping track of these for tax purposes? Free shirts are a write-off. Do you need to collect the persons name/address?


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