There’s a huge debate going on in Parliament right now, about uniforms – the Ministry of Defence is under attack for the quality of uniforms provided to British soldiers and for the slowness with which they are supplied.

It may seem a million miles from the battlefront in Afghanistan to your business, but it’s not.

A uniform is more than just a set of clothing – it’s a way of investing in your workforce, a way of expressing things about your company and brand, and – most importantly – a system of supporting your people as they go about their work. And just like soldiers, your staff are influenced by the uniform you provide.

If you choose well-fitting durable uniforms and offer exciting and attractive promotional clothing to support a sales period or special offer, your staff are motivated and well-equipped to take your business forward. But if you supply them with shoddy clothing, and don’t give them an incentive to get out there and sell, deal or serve the customer, they are demotivated.

Uniform also needs to be adequate to the task. Those whose work is demanding need high quality clothing that allows them to bend and twist, doesn’t ride up, and can be laundered easily so it’s always clean and attractive. People working in an environment where presentation is important need to feel confident that the garments they are wearing are stylish and attractive, or they don’t want to be seen in them.

Even if you only give your staff a branded T-shirt or an apron with your logo on it, you show them that you’re investing in them, and they feel more valuable to you than staff that don’t get a uniform.

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For a business to succeed, it needs to have a brand, and that’s as important in the food industry as any other. But just having a brand isn’t enough – you need to support that brand by using your corporate identity to remind people of your restaurant or food. And even that isn’t enough – you have to ensure, if you’re in the food or hospitality industries, that your staff meet the demands of legislation in terms of health and safety and hygiene and the demands of your customers who want to be served by clean, neat, professional looking people.

Enter the promotional apron. Food servers, table-clearers, cooks, cleaners, bar staff and so on … they all look neat, hygienic and ‘ready to work’ when they are wearing a smart apron. Add a logo or brand to that apron and you’ve got a perfect promotional device. Also, an apron can easily be removed and replaced with a clean, fresh garment if something goes wrong, unlike uniform wear which is size specific and therefore often can’t be easily removed and changed if a member of staff spills something down themselves. This ensures that you can always meet the health regulations in your area and need never fear the visit from the Health Inspector.

Also, promotional aprons make brilliant gifts. If you have a loyalty card that your customers get stamped each time they visit or purchase from you, why not give them a promotional apron when they fill their card – they will love this idea of taking their favourite food-provider into their own kitchen whenever they cook and if you make a little ceremony of the presentation of the apron, you get great publicity out of the event. You can also give promotional aprons as prizes for competitions or as corporate gifts. Why not sponsor a healthy cooking contest or provide a chef to cook food at a local charity event – when everybody is wearing your aprons as they toss pancakes or watching your chef produce good food, you can expect the local press to give you great publicity.

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The key point in selecting promotional items to be given as gifts is to ensure that you balance the relationship between the client and the promotional item. If you have a loyal customer who’s been buying from you for several years, then sending him or her a T-shirt or a mouse mat might not have the required effect – in fact, you might cause that customer to wonder if you really value their custom!

In such cases it is better to give either a gift of more substantial value, such as a really good briefcase, or to supply a wider range of smaller, cheaper promotional items that the customer can distribute to their workforce – baseball caps are ideal for this purpose as they are small, easily transported and fun.

Then again, you have to balance the costs of your promotional campaign with your projected returns. There’s not a lot of point giving sweatshirts to people you’re trying to persuade to buy chewing gum!

Remember the range of ways that promotional items can be used: you can use gifts to launch or promote a new product, in which case the gift as to reflect the product and create interest in it. Bags with your logo and ‘designed to hold X’ where X is the name of your product are an ideal example.

You can also use promotional merchandise to support your customers. If you make kitchen equipment, why not give a free apron with every order over a certain amount? That encourages your clients to buy from you, gives you a free promotional activity in their workplace and allows the staff to keep their clothes clean – everybody is a winner which creates a happy buzz around your brand image in their minds.

You must also ensure the promotional gift will be useful for a long time. Durable high quality items reflect well on your company, but shoddy clothing or bags that fall apart don’t. Always buy the best T-shirts you can afford, for example and be sure that the printing won’t fade or crack as you don’t want your image to look old, tired and dated. A good supplier can advise you on the best printing options for your promotional campaign.

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Pig farmers and pork processors in Wales are to be given a support strategy to maximise their profits. The package is called – unsurprisingly – the Pig Initiative and it’s been created by Hybu Cig Cymru to help ten regional producers market their products.

In the long term the initiative hopes to achieve a quality and assurance mark for Welsh pork. The only pork eligible comes from pigs that were born, reared and slaughtered in Wales and the package brand identity, website design, leaflet design and printing and professional photography of the producers’ products.

The package may hope to build on the strength of the American pork market which has been supported by a major initiative over several years including recipe packs, T-shirts and other promotional wear including barbecue aprons given away at agricultural events and food fayres, and advertising campaigns on regional TV featuring a guitar playing pork loin (I kid you not!) over the slogan ‘The Other White Meat’. The rock-star pork loin appears on the promotional clothing too and has developed a clear brand recognition for American pork which is also used as an export brand to South America.

‘The Other White Meat’ baseball caps are particularly popular with American Football fans, having achieved cult status along with the aprons which are worn to tailgating barbecue parties that precede games.

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