Branded merchandise makes use of your company’s logo, name, and brand signs on useful items that connect your brand with your audience. Considered to be one of the strongest promotional strategies by many marketers, branded merchandise can be used to improve brand recognition, awareness, and trust. Whether it’s a merchandised T-shirt, other wearable, or a stationery item, these products create value for both new and existing customers and generate loyalty within your target market.
5 Reasons to Create Branded Merchandise
Merchandise is a term that describes a product that can be sold or bought. In this context, all products available at a supermarket or store are merchandised products that were bought from a manufacturer to be sold to customers. However, branded merchandise includes company logos, or any other brand sign, and is used specifically as promotional materials as part of a brand’s marketing efforts.
Promoting your brand with branded merchandise can help you establish a strong brand identity and improve your sales figures. Here are a few ways branded merchandise can help your business grow.
Improve Brand Awareness
Every customer likes free promotional gift items. Whether it’s a T-shirt, pen, keyring, or a badge, custom branded merchandise makes your brand more visible to the world. By creating branded products that fit into a customer’s everyday life, your branded merchandise will constantly serve as a reminder of your presence in your niche. Additionally, branded merchandise also creates brand awareness among people who see others wearing or using your merchandise.
Enhance Brand Recognition
In modern-day marketing, where building a strong reputation is a common goal for all businesses, branded merchandise is an amazing way to bolster your market presence. Branded merchandise helps your brand stay relevant in new and interesting ways, creates value for the consumers who use your branded products, and improves the reach of your brand’s messages when consumers use your branded merchandise around other people.
For example, if a customer walks around town wearing a branded shirt, members of the general public are exposed to your brand and its image. In that way, branded merchandise familiarizes more people with your brand, and increases the likelihood they’ll want to learn more about you or purchase your products.
Encourage Brand Loyalty
Branded promotional products play an important role in creating strong customer loyalty. Promotional products create constant brand exposure for your customers and make it easy for them to remember your company. This exposure, along with the value you create by giving people free items they enjoy, also encourages your customers to feel more positively about your brand and increases the likelihood they’ll engage in more transactions with you.
Improve Brand-Customer Relationships
Handing out promotional items to your customers can help them connect with your brand on a personal level. By incorporating branded merchandise in your business strategy, you can help strengthen the bonds your brand forms with new and existing customers and encourage them to share the experiences they have with your brand with their friends and family. This process is called word-of-mouth marketing and can net large gains for your business when you have brand advocates out there spreading the word that your business offers great products and services.
Increase Customer Purchase Intent
Branded merchandise is more than just a promotional tool – it’s also an effective tool for lead generation. Since branded merchandise contributes to favourable brand impressions among customers and leads, it can also positively impact customer purchase intent and create sales opportunities for your brand. For that reason, your brand can experience improved profits and generate more qualified leads simply by handing out branded merchandise to people who show an interest in your products.
Enhance Your Brand Using Branded Merchandise
Branded merchandise is an effective way to increase brand awareness, brand recognition, and generate leads. The benefits listed above are a few of the ways in which branded merchandise can help your business reach and connect with its target audience. Best of all, you can convert newfound leads generated by branded merchandise into customers, who can then in turn be converted into brand advocates who will help your business grow.
