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 vibe or energy of the brand
🔑 It highlights the identity of people who use it
🔑 It feels like a good memory of the brand
🔑 It makes you feel “in the know”

I call this the IYKYK (if you know you know) touch. If your merch resonates with people who know your brand, you’ve nailed it.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 “𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫”:
👎 It looks like a yawn
👎 It inspires no thought or feeling at all
👎 You forget what it looks like the moment you look away

I’m tired just thinking about those.

So what do you think, do you agree with Vin? Have you ever seen a B2B company have good swag? What are your favorites?

I’ll highlight the work we did for Breakaway Bookkeeping & Advising with Shea Keats and Michelle Löpez as some inspiring B2B merch!

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 the person assigning it to them 😖

It’s a recipe for lame, boring merch: logos slapped on unisex tees, cheap pocket umbrellas, and faulty phone chargers.

In this post by Ronak Shah, he highlights what goes wrong when you don’t
micromanage the development of swag.

But here’s the good news, you don’t need to micromanage your company’s swag.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 **𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞** 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧.

Think about your company values and what’s trendy in the fashion world, marry the two and you’ll be off and running. If you have a design team they can work on this for you. (Or even better, hire us Go To Market – Custom Print-On-Demand Branded Merchandise — we will design your goodies and you’ll be set for years.)

But don’t wait until the last minute and then ask an admin to handle your swag. That will set them — 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘨 — up for failure.

Have you ever been tasked with making swag? Did you panic? How did you handle it??

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 got:
🎁 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧: some tech accessory you’ve been eyeing
🎁 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺: fancy post-its, some hand lotion
🎁 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴: scented [fill in the blank]

Usually with salads, you can customize what you want, but with gift boxes, you get what you get and you (don’t*) get upset. *𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘵

𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐱𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭. 

Companies spend lots of money and man-hours choosing them and putting them together, but here is almost no case ever where everyone likes everything in the box. The idea with a box is “some people will like some things and other people will like others”. 

But what about ALL of the things that go straight to the trash? And don’t even get me started on the wasted packaging. 🌎🗑

Instead of a gift box, let people choose what they want. If you have an on-demand merch shop (DM us on Instagram @gotomarketstudio if you want us to set one up for you) or gift shop, you can offer a gift certificate 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦.

Tell me your thoughts on gift boxes. Do you love them? Hate them? Have you ever gotten a box where you liked everything in it? Tell me all about it!

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 reasons why:

✅ Team building: Are you paying for team building efforts? Merch is an easy — and fast — way for teams to feel connected.

✅ Advertising: This is the most obvious benefit, but if you’d pay for an ad on public transportation (for 5-6 figure fees) why not instead have human billboards instead for a fraction of the cost? 

And now two of the less obvious reasons:

✅ Onboarding: What’s the cost of having someone feel welcome and a sense of belonging in their new workspace? When you’re spending tremendous time and money to hire someone new, you want them to fit in immediately. What better way than giving them the team branded goodies?

✅ Social proof & IRL user-generated content: better than advertising, when real people are wearing your brand it’s a vote for you.

𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬.

Have you ever had an onboarding gift that made you feel instantly welcome at a new company? Or have you ever seen someone on public transportation wearing a branded item that made you feel curious?

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 this season.  My work productivity has gone to hell but my home’s cleanliness is dramatically ↗️. (I’ll take the win.)

All Love is Blind fans know about the telltale GOLD CUPS that are all over the show (𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥: 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴), so it is brilliant that they are now selling them.

It’s a lil’ like wearing a Captain America shirt while you watch a Marvel movie.

The gold cups do all the good stuff merch should do:

⚜️ It’s very IYKYK
⚜️ It builds culture around watching Love is Blind — now it’s a “watch party”
⚜️ It’s a fun connection to the show anytime you’re not watching
⚜️ It builds community around the show

They also now have a wine line called “Love is Wine”, but I feel like they should stop at the cups. Do you agree?

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. But when I get in this headspace, here’s what I remind myself:

✨ Merch is joyful, and the world needs more joy and brightness (even if it’s in the form of silly tees)
✨ Merch boosts the confidence of teams and business owners
✨ Merch is real-life connection– in a digital world, it’s a tangible connection to a brand or experience
✨ Merch builds community, which we all desperately need!

And best of all I love what I do, which makes me an all-around better human, mom / dog mom, wife, runner, woman. 💃

Hats off to the healthcare workers, nonprofit leaders, political movers, drug inventors, firefighters and wellness professionals. I might not be performing surgery or putting out (literal) fires but I’m happy to support you with a branded tee. ☺️

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 lot of big logos — 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘯𝘰 𝘯𝘰 — but they’ve styled them in cool & trendy ways. They’re focusing on their bear more than “STANLEY”, which elevates the look. The marketing team at Stanley is definitely reading the room.

My favorite item is the “Quencher Love” t-shirt with two Stanley mugs linked arm-in-arm style. It’s cute, clever, cheeky and very IYKYK.

They’re calling it “Bear Wear.” Hats off (or on?), Stanley 1913 — you crushed this. (𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘶𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥!)

What do you guys think of this new line? Would you wear it?

“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 in the back of a closet, or trash.

Let’s run through an easy example: you have an upcoming in-person company-wide meeting and all 50 attendees are gifted a tote bag with your logo.

Here’s my best guess of what happens to those totes:

😍 8 will use them daily and LOVE them for years
💨 12 will use them a few times and then lose them
⚫️ 17 will shove them into a bag of bags & never see it again
🚮 23 will give them away, donate or trash them

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝, 8 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 42 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡.

Let’s change the top phrase to: “𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭!”

Instead of handing everyone the same gift, create a store full of options and let people chose what (𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘧) they want something branded from you. You can create a store with chic and stylish options people will actually want to own.

Where do gifted tote bags go to die in your house? For me it’s in a bag stuffed full of other tote bags.

👊 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 at a trade show.

Picture the guilt your recipients feel when they reluctantly put that item in the trash (or try to donate it only to discover that Goodwill doesn’t want it either).

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬.

You know the expression if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all? Let’s apply it to merch: if you don’t have anything good to print, don’t print anything at all! Zero swag is better than junky, ugly swag.

If you’re feeling frustrated reading this because you’re feeling like there are no good options, let me disabuse you of that idea: 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞.

There are two big keys to arriving at non-ugly merch:
1) Keep your logo subtle; focus on the *values* of your company instead
2) Offer choice of merch whenever possible

I’d love to hear what you pictured when I said ugly merch! Please comment with what you’ve seen 👇