Celebrity and T shirt printing

Well it’s a match made in heaven isn’t it, celebrity and T-shirt printing, like peaches and cream or Morecombe and Wise, put them together and you’re onto a sure fire winner, stand back and wait to get hit by a truck load of cash. Any celebrity who endorses your T shirt printing efforts, is bound to fire you into an orbit of total success, or are they?

There’s very little academic research.

Amazingly, if we agree with the market research that in the US one fifth of all adverts contain a celebrity, and that Nike’s celebrity endorsement bill each year is half a billion dollars, there’s very little academic research on the relationship between celebrity and sales, which will also include the world of T shirt printing! It’s fairly accepted amongst the larger public companies, that a celebrity endorsement can boost a stock value, but does a celebrity ambassador actually increase sales?

Roger Federer and Michael Phelps.

Anita Elberse and Jeroen Verleun have released a new study, which suggests that a celebrity can raise stocks by about a quarter of a percentage point, but that celebrity endorsement, by athletes for example, will only push up sales by an average of 4%. Not exactly massive unless you have a multi-million pound turnover. They can be refreshed by success, for example a Grand Slam for Roger Federer, or an Olympic Gold Medal for Michael Phelps, but the researchers also assert that the sales dip with each win – so maybe not a game changer (bad puns are free, as always).

Exceptions to the rule – Kate Middleton

There are exceptions to this rule, and none more so than Kate Middleton. A few pics of her wearing Marks & Spencer Shoes, and that style has sold out within hours, as have certain dresses. It’s generally accepted that she’s the reason J Brand Jean’s sales have gone fairly bonkers. Which reminds me, I haven’t called her for over a week and she owes me a tenner bless her…while I’m on, I’ll see if she’ll endorse some T shirt printing for me.

The dangers of Bieber and Beyoncé.

You might be pretty happy if either of the above wanted to endorse your brand, but there can be dangers associated with getting Bieber and Beyoncé, or any other celebrity involved, especially the biggies. It might not be related to T shirt printing, but it could get a bit sticky when you ask Justin Bieber to endorse your car brand, just before he gets nicked for drunk driving, resisting arrest and not having a valid driving licence. Or equally uncomfortable to get Beyoncé to endorse Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move fitness campaign, around the time she signs a $50 million dollar deal to promote Pepsi. That couldn’t actually happen, could it?

Celebrity and T shirt printing Evidence.

None of us would say no to a big name celebrity endorsing our T shirts, but trying to find evidence of how sales are affected is rather tricky. Our own experience, and dare we humbly say we have a reasonable amount, is that there is no clear link between a celebrity wearing a brand and being plastered all over social media, and said brand ordering a great deal more product. Celebrity and T shirt printing, perhaps it’s nice for brand building, but sadly may not be an easy fix, so we’ll keep on grafting!