INCREASING SALES WITH MASCOT WORKWEAR

It was early 2022, specifically, April. The NMBS Trade Show was in full swing. Representatives from St. Andrews Timber & Building Supplies Ltd. were in attendance at the trade show. For those that are unfamiliar with the NMBS trade show, it is a great opportunity to speak to like minded individuals within the industry, as-well as an avenue for companies to showcase their products and indeed any new developments, socially or environmentally conscious initiatives, or put on demonstrations and interactive presentations of their product or company. It is also a great chance for the buyers to obtain discounts on orders placed at the stalls of companies whom supply the industry with various expertise & products, as each supplier offers increased discounts on any orders received at the trade show.

Long story cut short, MASCOT happened to be present at the 2022 NMBS show.

Why did we choose MASCOT?

We had long been on the look for a reliable & quality clothing provider.

MASCOT targets a market which we feel is fast-expanding. There is always going to be decent clothing made at decent prices, in our opinion. MASCOT offered clothing at a slightly higher than average sell price, but the quality leap compared to its competitors was massive. We loved the quality of their clothing and through talking to our customers and colleagues in the building industry, we were affirmed that the market was there for high quality workwear.

How did we market the new clothing?

We installed a brand new MASCOT clothing stand in all of our branches, which was size enough to display a small portion of the MASCOT clothing lines. Next to each stand, we have comprehensive, easy-reading booklets which sport QR codes that once scanned, reveal each individual product line from painting, gardening, through to hi-vis gear and construction site attire. This was a great way to allow our customers easy access to explore the ranges without being overwhelmed by a huge product booklet with a multitude of pages.

We then introduced a mannequin, which was a first for us. The mannequin done a great job catching the public’s eye when they were entering our branches. The mannequin was deliberately dressed in bright and visually striking uniform to ensure there was no way of entering our branches without noticing our mannequin. A lot of people ask about the mannequin and what it’s all about, which is our goal; the conversation has been started. The natural progression following on from that was to present to the customers the MASCOT QR code, allowing easy browsing of all the MASCOT ranges, should the customer like to see more.

We also set up a MASCOT® WebShop through our website which so far has contributed to 55% of total MASCOT sales with the remaining 45% through front-counter sales, so the webshop so far has been a great marketing tool for us. Extensive social media pushes have also helped to establish our name among respected workwear retailers.

What lessons did we learn?

Our biggest concern when taking MASCOT on as our new clothing supplier was whether or not consumers would take to the higher than average selling price of MASCOT clothing. We soon realised our premonitions were unfounded! The roaring success of our MASCOT Workwear sales has proven to us that there will always be a market for quality, reliable and durable workwear. It is worth noting that playing to MASCOT’s strength is the sheer magnitude of clothing choices they have to offer. There is over 30 different ranges under the MASCOT banner ranging from footwear, to white coloured painters-wear, all the way through to gardening, construction and waterproof ranges. We suspect this helps MASCOT with their product offering as there is so many different garments at various different prices ensuring there will always be something to suit everyone. This is a lesson we can look to transfer over to our own product offering.