{"id":442,"date":"2025-06-25T17:40:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/?p=442"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:40:46","slug":"what-playa-bettys-taco-tees-can-teach-us-about-branded-merchandise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/what-playa-bettys-taco-tees-can-teach-us-about-branded-merchandise\/","title":{"rendered":"What Playa Betty\u2019s Taco Tees Can Teach Us About Branded Merchandise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Amanda Hofman, Chief Swag Officer and Branded Merchandise Expert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New York has no chill.<br>And neither does <strong>Playa Betty\u2019s<\/strong>, in the best way possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I popped in for Taco Tuesday and left thinking about the merch.<br>Their waitstaff? Decked out in bold shirts that say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>\u201cDon\u2019t be a Playa hater.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s cheeky. It\u2019s confident. It\u2019s <strong>totally on-brand<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it reminded me of a core truth in <strong>branded merchandise<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"962\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-25-at-5.39.26-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-25-at-5.39.26-PM.png 962w, https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-25-at-5.39.26-PM-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-25-at-5.39.26-PM-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-25-at-5.39.26-PM-768x766.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 962px) 100vw, 962px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great Merch Doesn\u2019t Just Advertise Your Brand\u2014It Extends Your Vibe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Playa Betty\u2019s isn\u2019t just a beachy Mexican joint in NYC.<br>It\u2019s a whole <em>mood<\/em>\u2014and their <strong>restaurant swag<\/strong> matches it perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019re not slapping a logo on a plain tee and calling it a day.<br>They\u2019re telling a story. Starting conversations. Making people laugh.<br>And maybe even turning a few diners into loyal, merch-wearing fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why This Works: Branded Swag as a Brand Experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The best <strong>custom merch<\/strong> doesn\u2019t feel like an afterthought. It feels like a natural extension of the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re a restaurant, startup, or global company, your swag should:<br>\u2705 Reflect your brand personality<br>\u2705 Feel wearable and fun<br>\u2705 Be something people actually <em>want<\/em> to show off<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When done right, <strong>branded apparel<\/strong> becomes a marketing tool\u2014one that walks around the city, posts selfies, and says, <em>\u201cHey, this place was awesome.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Merch as a Vibe-Setter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Brands that win at swag don\u2019t wait for permission to be cool.<br>They just make the shirt and let the people decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your <strong>branded merchandise strategy<\/strong> should follow the same idea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Don\u2019t just think about promotion.<br>Think about <strong>presence<\/strong>.<br>Think about <strong>personality<\/strong>.<br>Think about the <em>feeling<\/em> people have when they rep your brand.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Because whether you\u2019re serving tacos or tech, your merch should say more than just your name\u2014it should <em>say something worth remembering<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Seen any restaurant merch you loved?<\/strong><br>Drop it in the comments\u2014I\u2019m collecting favorites.\ud83d\udc47<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Need help creating branded merchandise with serious personality?<br>Let\u2019s turn your brand into something worth wearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Amanda Hofman, Chief Swag Officer and Branded Merchandise Expert New York has no chill.And neither does Playa Betty\u2019s, in the best way possible. I popped in for Taco Tuesday and left thinking about the merch.Their waitstaff? Decked out in bold shirts that say: \u201cDon\u2019t be a Playa hater.\u201d It\u2019s cheeky. It\u2019s confident. It\u2019s totally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotomarket.studio\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}