We’ve all had them; the cheap water bottle that was handed to you at the gas station, the air freshener that smells like the bottom of an old perfume bottle, the ugly uncomfortable cap that will never get worn. Cheap and unappealing brand merchandising is literally everywhere and it will more than likely end up in the trash eventually.

Today we will look at some creative ideas so that your brand’s merchandising will be kept and cherished instead.

What is brand merchandising?

The premise of brand merchandising is to create practical products to sell or give clients as a way of memorable marketing. By placing a logo and branding on an item that can be used on a regular basis, the brand is imprinted in the user’s memory. When the merchandising is of low quality, that also makes an impression, albeit a negative one.

The most common products used as brand merchandising are t-shirts, caps, water bottles, keychains pens and other seemingly practical things. Other more memorable products are notebooks, planners, reusable shopping bags and thermal coffee mugs that don’t drip.

How can you make your brand merchandising memorable?

To really know what products your clients will want to buy with your logo on it, or which products they would love to receive as gifts, you first have to know your client. Knowing your client is marketing and branding 101, but when it comes to brand merchandising you need to know a little more about them.

Apart from how your clients use your products and services you need to know their kind of lifestyle.

• Are they physically active?
• Do they work in retail or are they entrepreneurs?
• How old are they?
• Where do they live?
• Do they drive cars?

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself when deciding the products that you will use for your brand merchandising. A good way of doing this is by creating a poll or survey for your clients to answer or by doing good old market research.

Another thing that needs to be considered is what your brand is about and will the product fit your message. A pet shop could give away branded dog leashes or pet tags, but a protein shake bottle might not be the best choice. It’s important that the product makes sense with your brand.

Get creative

Thinking outside of the box will take your ideas to unexpected places, and the same applies for brand merchandising. Think of products that do not fit the mold or that aren’t the usual. Consider products that will really be needed and used every single day. In general terms you could consider easy to hang calendars with a great design, fridge magnets that stand out from the rest, phone cases that actually protect.

For a more niche driven approach, think of what your brand is about and how brand merchandising could be created specifically in a new and innovative way. For example if your brand has something to do with traveling or camping, consider creating a branded travel kit for toiletries or waterproof packing gear. If you own a web design company, you could send your clients branded USB drives with high storage capacity or branded computer sleeves.

Always consider quality

The main thing to always have in mind when creating memorable brand merchandising is that if it’s cheap, ugly, impractical or if it breaks easily, it will be an epic fail for your brand. Always make sure that the products you are putting your logo on are of good quality so that they will be appreciated and not thrown out.

Do your research as to what products you can use that will also fit your budget. Do not pick a more “flashy” product that is more expensive over a small practical one. Ask for a test run with the product or ask to see a physical sample before committing to a thousand of them.

Don’t overdo the branding

The last tip for creating memorable brand merchandising is to not overdo the actual branding. Sure the product must have your logo on it but that doesn’t mean that the logo needs to be huge, or even the main focal point of the design. Use elements that match your branding like seamless patterns in your brand colors, or decorative elements that have to do with your brand. Therefore making your product more of a design piece, and less of a cup with a logo on it.

Place your logo in a place that can be seen easily. Make the design of the product nice to look at. Your goal is that other people will see someone using the product and will want to find out more about where it came from.

Imagine this scenario:

Young office workers come in to the office with their thermal coffee mugs and water bottles every day. If any of these are your clients, you could send her/him a really cool looking thermal coffee cup as a gift for being a great customer. She/He takes the mug to work and the design is so eye catching that the co workers will ask where it came from. “It was a gift from ‘so and so’ brand!” Everyone will make a imprint of your brand name and creative output. They might become your new clients.

Over to you

Do you use brand merchandising for your brand? Have you considered thinking out of the box and doing something different next time? Tell us in the comments what is the best brand merchandising you have ever seen!