“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 👇

A friend called me yesterday to bemoan that her client wants to print 1500 stress balls for an upcoming conference 🚫👎🙈

She knew it was a bad idea but didn’t know what to suggest instead. Because a lot of people face this problem, let’s talk about what I recommend!

If you have a trade show or conference and want to hand out something to everyone there, but can’t afford to buy something nice for hundreds or thousands of people, what do you do?

The first step is to ask whether you’re looking for 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 or 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

If you’re looking for 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 and want to hand something to everyone, keep it simple: mints, pens, sticky notes, and other useful small items that people *might* stick in their bag for future use. You’re not going to build a relationship or get leads this way, but there will be eyeballs on your brand name. 

I’m not a fan of this route because it’s usually expensive and environmentally wasteful, but if a company insists on printing hundreds or thousands of something, this is the way to go. (𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭 😖)

If you’re looking for 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, here are your steps:

1) Create a print-on-demand shop with all your cute, fun, trendy branded items. Make it cool, creative, and chic. (Need help? Hire us at Go To Market – Custom Print-On-Demand Branded Merchandise!)

2) Print a postcard with a QR code to your shop and offer a gift code for a FREE hat / t-shirt / tote (you pick). Have people in your booth wearing your merch.

3) At checkout, ask customers to opt-in to your mailing list.

Here’s why this works:

1) A small percentage of people will take you up on this, but the people who do are 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒. These are the people who want to engage with your business.

2) It’s a 𝐇𝐔𝐆𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 when people are wearing your brand out in the world. It’s like handing out those 1500 mints except that there’s social proof involved.

3) It’s environmentally sustainable, which is often aligned with your customers’ values.

If you can’t get a print-on-demand store up and running, offer something else that’s high value — a free course, consultation, interview, etc — that gets people to your website.

Pens and stress balls don’t make sales. But people who opt-in for your merch are solid leads!

If you HAD to get a piece of low-cost merch, what would you pick? I’m going for the mints.

For me, it’s a yay, yes, absolutely, never miss. This weekend we were in Killington VT for the women’s world cup ski racing (Mikaela Shiffrin fans, where you at 📣) which was both a delight – unforgettable for me and the kids – and also frigid 🥶.

I bought this fleece-lined gorgeous hat that says Killington Cup Vermont and reminds me of this incredible weekend watching Shiffrin crush as the GOAT of women’s skiing. My daughter and her friends got hoodies and my son got a baseball hat. (My husband plans on “borrowing” my son’s hat when he’s not using it.)

Every time we touch this merch we’ll be reminded of this beautiful weekend.

That’s the point of merch: it’s a tangible connection to something intangible. It’s a memory, a feeling, a sense of belonging, and an identifier.

Did you buy any merch this holiday weekend?