Creating a brand is a way to develop your unique business personality, connect with the consumer and establish yourself within the corporate market. Once you have solidified your brand, the next step can be creating merchandise that is exciting and viable to market to new or existing customers.
Some businesses may appear more suited for merch than others. For example, creative businesses or businesses that deal in similar merchandise may seem more well-placed to sell custom promotional products on the frontlines. However, the truth is that all businesses can benefit from creating merch for their own brand, no matter the product or service.
Creating merchandise for your own brand can give you the freedom to sell and use swag as custom products for any service. It’s a great and creative way to get your brand design out in front of other people and make some extra income while doing so.
“Conversation is not simply a two-way process, but also a continuous process. Brand research enables brands to ask the questions and listen to their customers, allowing them to keep their finger on the pulse and adapt appropriately.”
Research
Researching your audience whether you’re a service provider or a product retailer is a must. By identifying your customer demographics, you will be able to gear your merch products more specifically and ensure a successful launch.
When doing your research, you’ll want to follow these questions.
How old is your audience?
What are generally their interests?
What is the general socioeconomic status?
What is their employment industry?
The use of social media often can also be very revealing. Sometimes people aren’t that willing to share details over interviews or creating an account on your platform / store, or simply aren’t aware of their own habits.
Following your audience on social media can most often give you a very good idea of what they are into, this requires a lot of time but can be very rewarding.
Design
After the research phase, design becomes the focus. It may be enough to add your logo to a cool gadget or a wearable good, but if you are looking to make a profit, adding an element of design can really bump up the interest in your merch. It’s necessary to try to make a statement by either creating a clever design or creating a product with a lot of color and character.
Some companies may hire an artist to create a work of art to be printed unto their merch, which makes those pieces a little more valuable than if it was just your logo or a simple component of your branding aesthetic.
Diversify Your Merch
Not all merch is created equal, and not all merch is equally useful for everyone.
By diversifying the products offered, you’re giving the consumer a choice of products that best serves them. Your demographic according to your research may have different variants, this is when you should make the decision of creating different products for different people.
Anyone willing to buy merchandise is usually happy to browse a range of products and see what you have on offer, rather than only having the option to buy one thing. Happy merchandise consumers may also return to your online store to buy a different item next time, so having a choice is key.
Budget
Maximizing your budget can make all the difference. If you’re unable to offer a variety of products, concentrate on the product you think will perform the best according to your audience research.
Many brands will also launch a pre-order product(s) and can fund their merch production using this method as the purchase will be done upfront making it easier to increase your budget. While this works for most companies, we suggest you advise your customer of potential lead-times as printing and production times my vary.
Read more about What To Include In Your Promotional Products Budget
Fulfillment
If your budget allows it, we recommend using companies such as Family Industries for all your fulfillment needs. The good thing about this process is that you will never have to touch the product, they will be made, printed, packed, and shipped all from a single source. Fulfillment can become overwhelming if you have a large following and a healthy stream of daily orders, and services like fulfillment can be a time-saver and allow for you to focus on your overall business.
Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator
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