Merchandise & printing
Branded products for every situation
What is merchandise?
In the world of communication, merchandise refers to customised products used to promote your brand. These can range from conference giveaways and customer gifts (such as tote bags or mugs) to branded materials like folders and roll-ups adding your organisation’s distinctive touch to an event or initiative. Merchandise is also a great tool for raising awareness and visibility of your brand.
This is not a one-size-fits-all exercise. Suitable merchandise will depend on what you are promoting, but also on your brand image, your audiences, and how you relate to each other.
Why do you need merchandise and printing?
Getting the word out about what you do and building your brand’s reputation requires work on all fronts. From digital communication to ad campaigns and events, you will be seeking to position your organisation on specific topics and establish your organisation as an authoritative voice in your field.
Merchandise and printing will help you make a lasting impression and establish your brand’s identity. It’s a key way to help your visual identity be recognised and associated with what you stand for. By adding your brand’s look and feel to (free) products that are useful to your customers, you can even turn them into ambassadors for your brand.
Tips for successful merchandise and print products
We all have a t-shirt somewhere we only wear to sleep because we don’t listen to that band anymore, or we don’t want to promote that slogan.
Delivering merchandise and print products your audiences will want to use requires a lot of fine-tuning. Even when you are producing materials that are not intended for re-use (such as visual branding for an event), it’s important to take extra care to ensure they adequately reflect your organisation’s values and identity.
How are a few pitfalls to avoid:
- Whatever the colour, keep it green. Sustainability is among your values, right? So think twice before you print – even when it comes to merchandising. An event on supply chain sustainability involving a lot of paper will not look good, for example.
- Customise for you and for them. Choose merch that fits your relationship. If you have a close, emotional connection with your customers, wearable goodies can be an option. If not, a mug is a safer bet, for instance.
- Define your identity before promoting it. Fine-tuning your brand identity and updating your visual identity are valuable investments before producing printed merchandise promoting it.
How we can help you develop tailor-made merchandise and print products
At Cartoonbase, we like to take a 360° view of our clients’ needs. What does that mean? Not that we pretend to be experts on everything – but that we consider each request in context. We work together with your team to define how your ad-hoc needs fit into your global strategy.
To help you develop customised merchandise and print products, we will take a deep dive into your brand’s identity and the profile of your customers and rise to the creative challenge of coming up with products both sides will love.
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