There is a vast amount of promotional companies supplying corporate clothing/uniforms to businesses in Cape Town. How do you as the customer choose your supplier? Do you base your decision on the price, quality or service?

Price and Quality

Due to my experience as a supplier, I can say that for many smaller businesses the price element is usually the primary decision-making factor. This is understandable because the budget for a smaller business is usually more limited when compared to larger companies and overspending in any area wouldn’t be wise. There is a tendency amongst small businesses to choose the lowest price, which is not always the best decision because lower priced products could mean lower quality products. Can your supplier make sense of why the product they provide is the least expensive, but still maintains high quality standards? If not, move on and find someone else .

What to look out for when choosing garments:

Workmanship : Whether you are purchasing t-shirts, formal shirts, trousers, tracksuits or any other type of clothing, you must ensure that the garment has been assembled correctly. This garment is going to represent your business, university or sports club and should be flawless and well constructed. Thus, when examining the garment check for loose threads, broken seams and irregular seam tension. The absence of these faults indicates that the manufacturer has a good quality system in place.

Fabric : Fabric accounts for approximately 60% of garment cost and manufacturers normally look to cut costs in this area. Find out about the fiber count (grams) and content. A higher fiber count will usually last longer because it is more durable and natural fibers such as cotton is more comfortable to wear.

Dimensional stability : This refers to the shape of the garment and its ability to retain that shape after wearing and washing. Will the product shrink or distort after a few washes?

Colour Fastness : This refers to the ability of the garment/fabric to retain its colour after washing or lengthy exposer to light.

If you take the above characteristics into consideration you may understand why a few extra Rands could keep you looking good for longer.
Can quality garment be less expensive?

Yes, my t-shirt manufacturer does produce quality garments at lower prices. This is because he produces the fabric; assembles the garment and operate to a strict quality control system. Owning the system from materials production to garment production means that a the middleman has been removed thus cutting the cost of the fabric. And at the same time he has control over the whole process. This company has also been the number one t-shirt supplier in South Africa for many years and are extremely efficient and effective at what they do.

LavaInk is hot and flexible just like the name suggests and that is why we are always looking forward to events like the Sign Africa Expo. Even though we classify screen printing and promotional printing as our core business, it does not suggest that our expertise stop there. An event like the Sign Africa Expo keeps us up to date with the latest technology that develops in the world of digital printing and signs. Attending such an event improves our knowledge and capabilities in other areas of our business such as events supplies and displays.

Sign Africa Expo 2007 will be held on the 16th and 17th of May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTIC). So I’ll see you there.

For the full details of what will be happening and information about the Sign Africa Expo in Johannesburg go to signafrica.com

To be a visitor, you must register.

In my previous post I noted that blogging was a great and inexpensive promotional tool. To be honest with you, a few months ago (for me) blogging was just a term that popped up now and then. I wasn’t curious about it because there are too many new things happening on the internet. I guess that’s why its good to have a webaddict like rafiq as a friend to guide me and share his invaluable wisdom, because that’s what he does. Anyway, to all of you who do not know the purpose and advantages of blogging, here’s some great advice and experiences by David Maister:

A few months ago, I was having dinner with an acquaintance, a world-famous professor at one of the most eminent business schools, who asked me: “What’s a blog?� I was, at first, surprised. But then I realized that it was really only nine months or so since I had first learned the term. The world is moving fast, and we all have to both learn and teach simultaneously, doing both at an ever-increasing speed!

(My professor friend is now up and blogging, but as a possible service to others, I will include a few definitions in this article to assist those exploring the topics for the first time.

Two features set apart a blog, or web log, from other kinds of websites: ease of publishing and reader interaction. Blog software is designed so that people with no computer experience can easily put their writing online, in their own blog or by adding comments to those of other people.

The conversations that arise can be both lively and informative. If you aren’t familiar with blogs yet, you can start by taking a look at the blog on my website.)

This article is about some of the lessons I have learned (or relearned) about marketing in an Internet world, through my own recent marketing activities. I hope others will benefit from my experiences at what (for me, at least) feels like the frontier.

Read More on davidmaister.com