October 29, 2024
Remember the game Mad Libs?
When I was growing up, my family would always buy a book of Mad Libs from Barnes and Noble and take it with us on a road trip. We would amuse ourselves as we drove through the Sonora Desert on our way to California, filling in the blanks of the Mad Lib, coming up with many random words that resulted in a crazy story when we finished the page.
Mad Libs might be a fun game, but playing Mad Libs is not an effective custom merch strategy.
Many businesses shoot from the hip when implementing their custom merch strategy. They might buy swag or hand out cheap giveaways that their employees wear to Home Depot on Sunday instead of developing a comprehensive and intentional strategy for their custom merch.
Are you playing a game of mad libs with your custom merch strategy?
This happens too often with custom merchandise solutions. Many companies will:
Are you "mad libbing" it with your cusom merch program? If you have ever heard the following from your customers, there is a good chance that you are creating a mad lib scenario with your custom merchandise solutions:
Customer: I wish you offered ________________, but you don't have it.
Customer: I want to buy your _________________ but I didn't see it in your store because it was displayed ____________________.
Customer: I usually only wear your shirt when I mow my lawn because the quality is _________________.
You: I just bought swag like ______________ from an inexpensive promotional good company that makes ______________ and it doesn't look like what I envisioned because of _____________.
You: I'm afraid to invest time and resources into a merchandise or promotional goods program because ________________.
You: I'm worried that my customers won't spend money on my merchandise or goods because _________________.
It might seem hard to grow your cutsom merchandise solutions, especially if your past efforts have been unsuccessful, but it doesn't have to be as difficult.
With an effective strategy in place, you can build a custom merch program with intention, and with the full confidence of knowing that your merchandise will:
We'll show you how to build an effective custom branded merch program.
Before we start, it's very important that you understand the difference between a custom merch program/promotional merchandise program done with intention and buying cheap swag or promotional giveaways.
There is a canyon sized gap between the cheap, one-size-fits-all promotional goods/swag industry and building a custom merch program with intention.
The swag and promotional goods, also referred to as the print-on-demand, industry has a market value of $6.5 billion as of 2022, and this number is expected to skyrocket by 2030. These high numbers indicate that many companies want to buy swag and don't have an intentional custom merch strategy.
In other words, these companies just buy swag and hand it out because that's what they have been taught to do, are unsure of what to buy, or don't know about leveraging the power of a custom merch program.
Swag and cheap promotional goods are (often) items that businesses hand out for free at conferences, to employees, and to customers. If they are sold to customers, it's typically not done as part of a strategic retail custom merch program.
A custom merch program refers to the strategy, creation, development, pricing, display, and positioning of retail-quality custom merch. A strategic merchandise program is significantly different than handing out print-on-demand goods for free or swag items as giveaways.
If you want to build a custom merch program, it's vital that you are aware of the elements that make it successful.
Note: In the next post our custom merch series, you will learn how to implement these elements.
The element of a custom merch program work together like the gears of a clock; every part is intricately connected and rely on the others to work successfully.
The following elements are indispensable to a functional, robust, and high-performing retail merchandise program:
Strategy refers to the overall vision and execution of a custom merch program. An effective strategy is the glue that holds your entire program together. If you don't have a strategy in place, you won't have a proper understanding of what your custom merch will accomplish, how it is performing, or how to measure success.
The main purposes of your program are to promote your brand, foster customer loyalty, and generate revenue. Without a strategy in place, it's hard to know what you are accomplishing (if anything). How you structure your strategy, will determine how you execute on every other element in your retail merch program.
Here are the questions you need to ask yourself when creating a merchandising strategy:
If you haven't worked with a custom merchandise company or know where to start, these questions might feel overwhelming or difficult to answer. For direction on where to begin, contact us and we'll help you get started!
Once you have your custom merch strategy in place, you will use it as the blueprint for your custom merch program.
The creation and development of a custom merch program is when you bring your vision to life. When you create your program, you should work with a custom merchandise company that takes the time to understand your brand. A custom merchandise company will ask you questions about your target audience, obtain artwork or help develop artwork such as logo concepts for your merchandise, and help you select the proper quantity of branded merch.
Once your merchandise is created and you have received it, you can start selling and promoting it to generate revenue.
Revenue generation is the sine qua non of a retail merchandise program; if you're not making money then your custom merch program will quickly fall apart because you will lack the resources to invest in it, sustain it, and expand its reach.
A custom merchandise company understands this and work with brands to provide standardized pricing with proven results.
"When you work with a custom merchandise company that has knowledge of your industry and your respective demographic they can provide industry standard MSRP's to ensure that you maximize your profit margins. This ensures that the value of your products is aligned with the value of your brand," Jeff Hacker, Sales Manager of Huge Brands, emphasizes.
Have you ever visited Target or the Apple Store and taken time to admire how their stores feel? These retail environments aren't an accident; the intentional design that went into their displays has created a beloved shopping experience that is admired by countless brand loyalists around the world.
Your brand might not be as large as Target or Apple, but the right display of your custom merch is necessary for you to increase the sale of your merchandise.
All displays are different, they have common elements:
Visibility: If your custom merch isn't visible, your customers won't see it and they won't buy it. Too often, businesses sale custom merch that is consigned to the back corner of their shop, where it is inaccessible to customers.
Accessibility: Your custom merch should be displayed and promoted so that your customers can easily find what they are looking for without having to dig through a pile or visit a rarely frequented portion of your store.
Scope and Reach: An effective custom merch program will offer something for everyone- embroidered hats, embroidered beanies, shirts, hoodies, stickers, drink ware, custom water bottles, etc.
Positioning overlaps with display, but is more about customer perception and how your brand is perceived. The positioning of your custom merch should be aligned with your core values and unique selling proposition. Simply put, custom merch is an extension of the overall experience your customers have with your brand.
All of the elements described above are part of a comprehensive and cohesive custom merch program. Now that you have a better understanding of the differences in the scope and magnitude between handing out swag items and running a robust brand merchandise program or handing out quality promotional goods, in part two of our custom merchandise series, we'll provide a step-by-step guide on how to create your own custom merch program. Tune in to learn more!
Want help building your retail merchandise program from an experience custom merchandise company? Get in touch today!
October 29, 2024
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