Your branded merchandise planner
Branded merchandise for businesses is a great addition to many marketing strategies across a range of industries but is often the last thing considered when it comes to planning.
Unless your business runs regular events or campaigns and aligns itself with seasons or other key dates throughout the year, it can also be a challenge to come up with fresh ideas.
Not planning ahead can result in companies not being able to get the products or designs they want in the desired timeframes and mean they miss out on piggy-backing on opportunities.
Here, we provide some inspiration for when businesses could think about branded merchandise and how to avoid delays in supply.
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Seasonal changes
Great for businesses that have specific order patterns or service peaks during certain times of the year, or launches something new according to the weather. Think ‘spring into action’ campaigns, ‘weather the winter’ wear or ‘summer ready’ styles.
From clothing and accessories to seasonal essentials like ice scrapers, picnic blankets and much more, there are tonnes of opportunities.
And of course, stationery like back to school products, calendars and diaries are popular with all businesses.
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Major public holidays
Regardless of what sector you operate in, your customers will be aware of many of the major public holidays, both nationally and internationally.
Depending on where your core customer is, you could align your branded merchandise campaigns with anything from Valentine’s Day and Easter to Thanksgiving, Independence Days and other cultural events.
The other public holidays to be aware of, even if not for branded merchandise inspiration, is those that can impact supply. Bank holidays, Chinese New Year and Diwali can cause delays to production and supply, so keep those dates in mind when placing your orders.
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Sporting events and celebrations
This year, we had the King’s coronation in the UK which many businesses sourced branded merchandise for. Two of the major sporting events coming up in 2024 are the Paris Olympics and Paralympics and UEFA EURO in Germany.
If your business is planning on getting any branded merchandise to coincide with such events, then getting organised in advance is crucial.
Many significant events like these are also subject to specific rules and may require you to source from only approved suppliers, so don’t leave it until the last minute.
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Awareness days
There are thousands of awareness days happening globally every year, and there’s bound to be several that can be linked, no matter how tenuously, to your business sector.
At the very least, almost all companies can consider doing something around work or employee-related awareness days. Some of our favourites include Employee Appreciation days, Fun at Work days, and fitness initiative weeks like cycle and walking weeks.
They are also a fantastic source of inspiration for corporate fundraising.
Coming up with innovative promotional products and marketing campaigns that piggy-back on any of these can help to build brand awareness.
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Popular promotions
Shopping events like January Sales, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are particularly appropriate if you operate in the retail space, but will still work for businesses that have chargeable services.
You could couple savings campaigns with limited edition products and services.
Plan ahead
As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that business start consulting with suppliers for quotes and ideas at least three months before branded merchandise needs to be delivered, sometimes longer.
If you need any support with your 2024 branded merchandise planning, just give us a call
