Merchandise makes a difference!

With so many digital channels available to get your message across, you may be forgiven for thinking that branded merchandise no longer has a place. The reverse is true. We explore why bringing your brand to life with physical marketing can help boost your reputation, connect with customers and increase sales.

Why use promotional merchandise?

As technology develops in sophistication and accessibility, creative ways of bringing your brand to life are booming. Careful consideration should be given to selecting the right promotional merchandise products to meet your objectives.

When you meet potential customers face to face, at an event or exhibition, it helps enormously to present them with a reminder that they have spoken to you and the means to get in touch.

Business cards and leaflets may be lost or casually dispensed with, but a tangible item with a perceived value is much more likely to be kept long after the event has faded from memory. In live situations where competitors surround you, you must use ingenuity and creativity to select items that really make an impact. If you are mailing products to your customers, creating a buzz in the recipients’ office is possible by sending something creative, useful or innovative. The most powerful ideas will inspire and delight your customers, generating warmth towards your brand and reducing any resistance to engagement. And your follow-up call will start with a ready-made talking point.

When you meet potential customers face to face, at an event or exhibition, it helps enormously to present them with a reminder that they have spoken to you and the means to get in touch.

For gifts or incentives, carefully chosen merchandise can make all the difference in levels of engagement with your brand. A reward scheme for loyal customers could include branded gifts they will value. Suppose you’re launching a new product or service. In that case, promotional merchandise provides the perfect opportunity to showcase your brand character and personality, bringing to life what you stand for in a tangible and appealing way. Merchandise can be usefully deployed in communications within your business to highlight a new product to the sales team, celebrate an anniversary, or bring together merging organisations. A unified gift for employees joining together for the first time can help to make everyone feel part of the same family. You may also want to reinforce employee recognition with a branded gift.

Promotional products highlight your sponsorship commitments, and co-branding with organisations you support can help leverage your corporate social responsibility. Branded goods can help you to interact with causes you support or events that highlight key or topical issues. You can link items to international events, such as sports or cultural events, to raise awareness of your brand and values.

Sporting events, Royal weddings, centenary celebrations, and other anniversaries are all excellent opportunities to use promotional products to mark the occasion and remind your customers about your company’s heritage and wealth of experience. Tracking when your company was founded is important to take advantage of these occasions.

One of the most compelling uses of branded merchandise is clothing. If you have uniformed employees, it is vital to ensure that items are of good quality, cleaned or replaced regularly, and branded clearly and consistently. A team member in uniform out on business acts as a powerful ambassador for your brand. Alternatively, consider issuing branded clothing to those who influence your customers and their choices. This can subtly influence the decision-making process and yield significant dividends.

Promotional products can have longevity, frequently becoming part of the furniture within your customers’ work environments. They can constantly remind you of your brand and ensure your contact details are easily accessible. With the wealth of options available in branded merchandise, it makes sense to review the types of products available and find the right items for your business.

Merchandise provides:

A tangible reminder of your brand in a digital world
A method of linking your brand with a partner, valuable cause or important event
A way of bringing your brand to life through the endorsement of ambassadors.

Sourcing and procuring merchandise

It is important to remember that your promotional merchandise represents your brand and should fit within your range of marketing communications materials, meeting brand guidelines, particularly in the way that your logo is represented.

Before you start, there are several things to consider to ensure you get the best value for your merchandise investment. Here we cover everything from auditing your brand consistency to selecting a reliable supplier and making environmentally conscious choices. We also look at different printing options, order quantities, and budget planning. By following these tips, you can achieve brand consistency and maintain quality, while avoiding unnecessary wastage and investing in ethically-sourced and sustainable products.

Audit your existing branded products to ensure consistency in your brand colours and logo across all items
Consolidate supply for cost efficiencies and better control over the types of products in circulation
avoid disreputable companies by partnering with accredited by the BPMA, PROMOTA, or SEDEX partners
Allow sufficient time for lead times, especially important if purchasing from the Far East, and work with a third-party branded merchandise supplier to access a full range of items according to your needs.
Choose ethically-sourced products that meet recycling and sustainability guidelines and adhere to responsible business practices
Check the printing method used for the accuracy of brand colours and consider the colour options available, noting that each can affect the final cost.
Return to the same supplier to achieve brand consistency and quality
Carefully consider order quantities to avoid wastage, with unit costs reducing as orders increase
Plan merchandise budgets to account for the lifecycle of each item and select amounts to cover specific periods or individual campaigns rather than planning too far ahead
Be cautious with high-volume orders if the item supports a short-term campaign to avoid being saddled with redundant or out-of-date stock.

To sum up…when sourcing branded products:

Check for membership or accreditation of a quality mark organisation
Consider lead times, especially if you’re sourcing from the Far East
Make sure your environmental credentials match your brand.

Managing merchandise – getting the logistics right

Your shipment is ready, and the promotional products you ordered are on their way to being delivered,

Logistics and stock management present their own challenges, from whether you have enough storage space on your premises, and whether you operate from multiple sites, to your ability to move heavy boxes, and maintain easy access to your materials. Your merchandise supplier should be able to help you to organise the logistics, so all your materials are in the right place at the right time.

Mind the shelf life!

Bear in mind when placing orders that food items, including confectionery and drinks, have a shelf life and a use-by date. Some food items require special storage conditions. Your merchandise supplier should be able to hold stock for you in refrigerated conditions, if necessary, to maintain the quality of your goods and keep them fresh for customers.

Control the giveaways!

Giveaways are always tempting, and colleagues from around your business may request them for various uses, some of which may not meet your carefully crafted objectives. Keeping control of orders and access to stock should be centralized within the marketing team so that you know that materials will reach the right audience, and there will be no wastage. It can be difficult to control once colleagues start distributing merchandise, but it is good working practice to devise a system for signing out materials and attributing them to various departments or teams to help you keep track.

Simplify with single-source

When it comes to the practicality of distributing your materials, consider contracting with a single supplier that can meet a range of requirements, from bulk deliveries to personalized consignments that are put together on demand. Picking and packing is a specialist task, and some small items can be fiddly to handle.

Who used all the merchandise?

One of the most significant challenges of managing merchandise is the ability to have full visibility of your stock levels. Having a system in place to keep track of who is requesting items from within the business can be vital in helping you keep track of spend. If you can’t monitor stock effectively, you could be saddled with a panic call to your supplier to fulfil a last-minute request from the sales team on the eve of a crucial event.

Don’t run out!

An online stock-monitoring system with an easily accessible reporting function will provide actionable data and insights to improve the efficiency of your procurement and minimise wastage. It will provide flexibility so that stock items can be called off as required. You will receive automated alerts in plenty of time when stocks require replenishment. Your merchandise supplier will have a good understanding of lead times and be able to arrange pre-agreed reductions in price for bulk purchases that may save money. This may be advantageous for smaller franchisees within a group, for example, as they will be able to gain access to the same low prices as larger outlets.

Ideally, the system should enable ordering from multiple departments within the business or from a range of locations. Sophisticated systems will allow items to be charged to individual cost centres if required. Check whether you can have multiple login accounts with different permission levels and let your supplier handle requests for supplies to be sent out. Using an online system helps you keep control of budgeting and create status reports to manage supplies.

Assets such as brand guidelines and logo files at the right size and resolution can be stored online so that they are easily accessible in the future. Pictures of individual items will remind you what you have ordered in the past. White-label merchandise can be kept in stock and printed as required via a web-to-print service, so check that this option is available on your supplier’s online system.

To summarise…a good logistics strategy will help you to make sure that:

You have the space to store your merchandise and the means of fulfilment
You can monitor shelf life or ensure that your materials are always up to date
You can keep track of orders and avoid wastage.

Promotional merchandise can be a valuable tool to strengthen your brand, increase customer engagement, and showcase your corporate values. With careful consideration of your objectives, selection of appropriate products, and attention to sourcing and logistics, you can maximise this marketing opportunity.

So, whether you’re looking to promote a new product, celebrate an event, or enhance your brand recognition, take the time to explore the options available and find the right products to fit your needs.

Make merchandise management a breeze!

If you choose a supplier of merchandise that is able to behave like a partner and form an extension of your team, the logistics for sourcing, ordering and managing your promotional goods and merchandise should be frictionless, leaving you to move on to your next big idea.

We hope this guide has helped highlight the key factors to consider when sourcing and managing promotional merchandise.

Need help with sourcing branded merchandise?

We are a friendly and approachable team, so if you’d like an informal conversation to discuss your next merchandise project, please fill in this form and a member of the team will be in touch.