The colour of your employees’ uniforms can speak volumes not just to your customers, visitors, investors but, also, to the people that wear them.

“Brand” isn’t just about selling a product to the highest number of people for the best possible price—it’s about setting a high standard, providing value to the community, helping to solve problems and slowly building a reputation that others can respect and count on. 

What Useful Benefits Can Uniforms Impart?

Uniforms don’t just reduce the cost and the hassle of finding what to wear when employees come to work. They can also:

1. Help establish hierarchical order. This helps identify the go-to person when something goes wrong; it also makes it clear who has the final say on decisions.
2. Help workers do their job comfortably and less-effortlessly. For this reason uniforms need to be customized for the tasks involved in each individual job.
3. Help dictate psychological responses/expectations. The white colour worn in hospitals, for example, speak of sterility and comfort—such as you’d expect from bed sheets.
4. Improve recognition. Most people, for example, recognize the authority imparted to law enforcement who usually wear dark, formal colours.
5. Help provide a positive outlook to employees. You want your workers to feel that they are part of and represent the company; uniforms help achieve this very effectively. 

But What Do Uniforms Do for the Brand?

Beyond helping employees define their roles and responsibilities, uniform colours also help the brand of the companies by:

1. Helping to market & advertise the organization. This is why an attractive, eye-catching logo and/or message on uniforms goes a long way.
2. Help to establish a “team” spirit in the organization. This is one of the reasons many educators favor uniforms for schools.
3. Help improve the image of the people working for the company. They may be seen as more professional, knowledgeable and even competent.
4. Help customers to take the “brand ambassador” agenda more seriously. “Obviously, these staff persons, dressed the same way, are working toward the same goal: to serve me and my community.” 

What Do the Colours of Your Uniforms Say about Your Organization?

Colours are said to drive consumer/customer opinion across the board, albeit not in any loud or even conscious way. In other words, colours affect people’s inward opinions, decisions as to whether to buy or not, and whether they will trust an organization enough to patronize it.

For that reason, you need to carefully design your uniforms with as much care and patience as you devoted to your logo. In fact, you can say that the colours of your employees’ uniforms, your reputation, and your logo are your “brand.”

Think carefully about the colours that you choose for your uniforms. Black, for example, says formality, sophistication, and respect. Then again, it does have limitations for operations like, say, a party supplies store, which would be better served with brighter colours.

The colours that you choose for your employees’ uniforms are crucially important. For that reason, what you choose needs to be very carefully evaluated and, if possible, tested before implementation. It’s not just about being attractive or popular with your crew—it’s about being true to your brand, meeting your customer’s expectations and even setting a high standard competitors can emulate or at least know they better take seriously, if they want to compete with your organization.