How-To: Make Your Brand Real - Merchandise
Putting Your Brand On Merch Makes Sense, Right?
Attaching your brand to something real, like a shirt or cap or sticker, is a big step for any business. For velospace the decision to put out merchandise was an easy one - people who love to ride bikes are proud of their passion and want to let other people know how important biking is to them. One way bikers express their pride is through clothing. See examples of velospace merch in the shop.
Deciding To Merchandise Your Brand
The decision to merchandise your brand is one to be made after figuring out how your business fits into the lives of your users / customers. Some questions that will help you determine whether merchandising is worth your time: what part of your customers’ lives does your business deal with? Does your business bring people together to share in a common passion?
If the answers to these questions suggest that your users / customers are sharing a common interest, hobby or passion, your merchandise will sell. A simple example - a tax refund preparation business that has 100 shirts printed with the business’ logo are much less likely to sell than 100 shirts printed for a business that trains show dogs. On one hand you have the emotionally vacant number-crunching tax business, and on the other hand you have emotionally invested dog fanciers who see their pets as family members. It is easy to see which business has users / customers that are proud of their association with the business.
What Kind Of Merch Should I Get?
The answers to the questions above will also help you figure out what kind of merchandise you should have made. T-shirts or polo shirts? Hoodies or caps? Bandannas or sweatpants? Stress balls or golf balls? The decision on what kind of merchandise to sell will depend on the place your business fits into the lives of your users / customers. Using the example from above - a notepad printed with a tax business logo makes sense, brightly colored caps do not. In the same way, you understand that dog sweaters printed with the logo and URL of the dog training company would fly off the shelves.
The nuts and bolts of brand design and merchandise printing, marketing, and selling are all topics beyond the scope of this short article. As always, if you have any questions or comments drop me some feedback and I will get back to you shortly.
- Greg