The best branded merch RESONATES.  The worst merch is just crappy corporate logo wear. Yesterday Vin Matano posted that he’s “never seen one B2B company have good swag” and the post has over 300 comments. It’s clearly ruffling some feathers, in his words. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞? 🔑 It communicates the […]

Here’s why most swag sucks: The people who 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠 are separate and distinct from the people who 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠. For the people tasked with ordering the swag: 1) Swag is an annoying part of their work 🙄2) They don’t have a design or fashion background 👚3) They aren’t given specific direction by […]

Gift boxes are the salads of corporate gifting. In your salad, you’ve got:🥗 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧: your protein or fancy add-on🥗 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺: iceberg lettuce or skinny carrot slices🥗 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴: in my case, raisins or a spicy seed In the case of a gift box, you’ve […]

The benefits of employees and fans wearing your merch are so huge that 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 💰𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞💰 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡. This is radical because most people’s first thought with branded merchandise is cost and whether they’ll see any profit. Let’s flip this around; here are two of the more obvious […]

Is anyone else completely in the thrall of Love is Blind this season?? 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐝) 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯: I find myself washing dishes as slowly as possible and folding laundry with precision as I watch the drama unfold […]

One of my biggest fears in running this business is that merch is trivial and I’m wasting everyone’s time. 🫣 I probably have this thought once a month. Anyone else here ever feel the same about their field? I don’t want to BS you with some girl-power speech about how merch is actually super important. […]

The Stanley 1913 brand — famous for their indestructible, trendy mugs — just launched a line of merch and 👏 it’s 👏 freakin’ 👏 fabulous. I want to hate it because of how egregiously obsessed people are with the mugs, but 𝐈’𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 5 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐧𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 😮 The new line has […]

“You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” – 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘨 When you’re printing many copies of the same gift for a team — even if it’s high quality — at least half of the people aren’t getting a gift at all. They’re getting something they’ll give away, donate, shove […]

👊 LET’S END UGLY MERCH 👊 Close your eyes and imagine the ugliest piece of merch you’ve ever seen. For me, it’s a reusable soft lunch box with a big-🍑 pharma logo in bright white letters. Now imagine that there are — literally — THOUSANDS of that item being “gifted” to people at a company or […]