How Prüvit’s apparel strategy creates a unique culture.
Branded gear can be a terrific way for direct selling companies to increase exposure and facilitate culture throughout the field. Today’s effective strategy has evolved from slapping some logos on shirts to creating well-planned and well-executed campaigns. Branded apparel is no longer just for the most enthusiastic field distributors. Direct selling companies with successful strategies create apparel that distributors genuinely want.
Maleah Martin, Vice President of Brand Management for ketone supplement company Prüvit, says the company’s branded gear strategy ranks in the top tier of the most important marketing and branding initiatives. For Prüvit, the goal is to create a transcendent brand. Just like the products, the company wants promoters to feel their best when wearing branded apparel. “Our CEO, Brian Underwood, started this whole vision with a ketone supplement,” Maleah says. “But when you create an environment where people can get passionate about something, it bubbles over naturally into everything else. How people look and feel is really important to them, and that includes how you dress.”
Keeping it Fashionable
Creating fashionable, practical gear that distributors naturally make part of their everyday lives is a core goal. “They want to say ‘this is who I am, this is my company,’” Maleah says. “We really drive that home with our promoters that this is their company, they own it just as much as we create the image behind it, and they have just as much hand in creating the image as we do.”
Maleah says a key to their success is avoiding cookie-cutter fashion, providing several fashionable items, and keeping options fresh. Quality, material, texture and even special reflective printing are also important. “Make something that’s real, that real people can get behind and be passionate about it, and feel good when they’re doing it,” she says. Of course, understanding your core culture is a must. For Prüvit, much of its branded apparel matches its product branding around bio-hacking, peak performance and helping people be better in every aspect of their lives.
When it comes to choosing the right fashion and types of gear, Maleah’s approach doesn’t focus on analytics and metrics. It’s more trial and error, testing out how certain designs or styles are received. “People are not analytics,” she points out. “If you make it too formulaic, it’s not natural. It’s not honest. It’s not genuine.”
Prüvit also involves its field of promoters when selecting branded gear, asking them what they want. “I don’t want to be the trend. I want to create the trend. And that means the really fun opportunity and creative side to work directly with our promoters,” Maleah adds.
Promoting Gear, the Right Way
Promotion and creating excitement for new or limited-edition apparel is also crucial. Some companies utilize photo shoots or fashion shows, launch videos, and sprinkle several teasers for upcoming apparel lines. Maleah says that doing limited-edition apparel gives them the flexibility to speak to different people within their market. These short-run items can be created for specific audiences.
Prüvit does two seasonal apparel launches per year, and Maleah likes to sprinkle teasers and Easter eggs throughout in-person and virtual events to tease upcoming items. For example, speakers at an event might wear a shirt or hat that’s part of the upcoming winter launch. “Everyone’s just on the edge of their seat like ‘where can I get these things?’” she says. “I actually do secret drops of our products into our apparel as I feel is appropriate. Maybe that gets the product into their hands, too. It’s very synergetic how we operate. We try to tie gear into the product, and the product into the gear because it’s all one world.”
Understanding that branded gear can be a terrific gateway to the company and products, Prüvit does not limit its gear website to promoters nor require a referral code. It’s open to anyone. The company’s brand strategy goes beyond counting on its promoters to wear branded gear. Whether someone is a customer using the products to just someone who likes to wear the apparel, it’s a win for Prüvit.
