3 Reasons Why Branded MerchandiseIs Important for Your Business

When planning your marketing campaign, it’s essential to take advantage of as many strategies as possible to increase your success rate. That means exploring the potential of digital and traditional advertising, as well as branded merchandise. Unfortunately, some businesses, particularly smaller ones with a tight budget, overlook the power of merchandise marketing. However, promotional campaigns have the potential to promote your business and attract a whole new audience.

We talked to UK branded merchandise experts GoPromotional who helped us look at some of the main reasons why branded merchandise is essential for any business and why you should integrate it into your existing marketing strategy.

It Builds Brand Awareness

If you take a quick look at popular brands, such as Harley-Davidson and DC, you’ll notice that they have clothing ranges. But it’s not just to increase the companies’ revenues. By allowing fans to purchase branded clothing, these companies increase their brand awareness.

To get a better understanding of how it works, imagine that one person who wears a Harley-Davidson T-shirt will interact with at least three people per day. Multiply that by a few thousand for every T-shirt owner, and the number grows dramatically. As a result, many people that weren’t familiar with the brand are going to be exposed to its logo, prompting them to look up the company, effectively increasing brand awareness.

Marketing Tip: When looking to use merchandise to increase brand awareness, choose products wisely. Think of clothing that can be worn outside, such as hoodies, hats, shirts, or other transportable products like water bottles and bags.

It Can Improve Brand Perception

Although building your brand awareness is important, you also need to improve the way people feel about your brand. For instance, if you offer low-quality branded merchandise, your recipients will most likely throw it away, which will leave them with a negative opinion of your business.

Think of it this way: when buying an expensive car, you’ll notice that sales reps will use branded merchandise like premium clothing or pens to convince potential customers. Since the offered branded product is usually a high-quality item, customers will have a better overall impression of the brand. So why not use this tactic to your advantage?

Marketing Tip: Make sure to pick merchandise that is both useful and high-quality. Our advice is to go for pens, water bottles, USB sticks, backpacks, and bags. Keep in mind that, no matter how much money you might save by purchasing cheap products, it’s not worth damaging your brand perception.

It Can Promote Your Services, Products and Events

Finally, printed merchandise can also help you promote services, products, and events. Depending on the limitations of the item, you can customize it with a variety of designs and messages. As a result, you can tailor your branded item to suit any event or product that you wish to advertise.

As an example, music festivals usually offer their audience branded T-shirts. These often feature details regarding the event, such as location, band lineup, etc. When people wear these T-shirts during and after the festival, they will promote the brand and any other future events that they host.

Marketing Tip: As mentioned earlier, clothing is very suitable for this type of marketing. But you can also provide wristbands, lanyards, and similar items that are given out during exhibitions and festivals. These types of products have a practical use that people can take advantage of outside of the event too.

The Bottom Line

By now, you should understand that branded merchandise is one of the best ways to promote your company. Not only can it increase brand awareness, but it can also improve people’s opinions of your brand. And best of all, thanks to bulk purchasing options, branded products tend to be quite affordable, even for smaller businesses. So don’t ignore the marketing potential of promotional items and start integrating them into your strategy today!