Bringing Your Brand To Life on Products | Guest Blog

Bringing Your Brand To Life on Products | Guest Blog By Leah Keggi Word-of-mouth often ranks among the most effective marketing tactics. And it makes sense. In the age of AI, ads, and the internet there’s a lot to distract us. And that makes a conversation with friends and family even more valuable. 

What if you could start a conversation about your brand, without even being in the room? 

That’s the value of products for your brand. 

The key to making merchandise beneficial to your brand is to make it feel less like a billboard and more like a piece of art that reflects your ideal client. For example, if your brand caters to women who enjoy baking, ordering a batch of bread bags featuring “I loaf you” with one of your logos subtly placed in the design. 

But how do you get merchandise into people’s hands? You can share with people in several ways including client gifts, giveaways, retail, even in your brand photo shoots. 

Client Gifts

If you’ve got a higher ticket offer, or work with people on a project basis - client gifts are a great way to put your brand in your clients hands. 

Gifting someone a nice coffee cup or a notebook is nice, but one incorporating your logo in a creative way makes your gift feel more meaningful and makes it more likely to get used regularly, and when someone asks about the gift, your client can tell them about you and the great service you provided.

{Photo: Vlad Deep, Unsplash}

Promotions and Giveaways

If you’re trying to increase your social following, you want your ideal audience to follow along. Rather than giving away your products or services for free, giving away merchandise can create excitement without preventing a purchase. Why buy when you might win? 

Rather than discounting your offerings, a free gift with purchase (or with a larger order value) is a perk that doesn’t devalue your work. Limiting the free gift can also create a scarcity incentive that gives people a reason not just to buy, but buy now.

Retail 

Wouldn’t it be great if someone paid you to market your products? As you build a fan-base or community, selling merchandise can be a creative marketing tactic that is also another revenue stream. You can start simply using print-on-demand or order inventory and sell it alongside your main products or on your website. 

Making merchandise for sale doesn’t automatically mean that people will buy it. You’ve got to focus on making it valuable to your target audience and your fans, not a billboard for your business. Gucci gets to sell a shirt with their logo on it for $650, but you’re not Gucci. Yet.

Branded Content

Looking for the perfect desk accessories for your next brand photo shoot? Why not make your own? If you’re looking for something from the style guide (link: https://www.mangomarketingco.com/style-guide) and can’t find an exact match, you can use print on demand shops to make your own and reinforce your visual brand in a way that feels organic. 

If you’re using merchandise for any other purpose, you definitely want to include it in your branded shoots - if someone asks “how can I get that?” it’s a chance to talk about your offers, your upcoming promotions, or even where to buy retail.

Whether you start making merchandise for client gifts, giveaways, start selling retail merchandise, or just use them for your next photo shoot products can be a great way to reinforce your brand and spark conversations!    

Leah Keggi is a surface pattern designer and author of The Merch Blueprint, a book about how you can expand your marketing with merchandise and stay on brand. Her goal is to inspire others to think creatively about marketing, and bring a little more art into the world!

You can find her Instagram at @leahkcreates and art over at coastlstudio.com (The Merch Blueprint is on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4u5oCst) {Photo: Doris Morgan, Unsplash}