CHANGING WITH THE SEASONS – Keep your brand fresh all year with seasonal promotional merchandise
Keeping up with the changing seasons in business is integral to staying relevant. Luckily, seasonal promotional merchandise keeps your message reaching your audience throughout the year. Our digitally driven world means we are looking for the next thing almost before we’ve finished with the current one. While the weather can have some influence on your marketing plan, especially if the popularity of your product or service is determined by the season, it doesn’t mean you’re restricted to it. Embrace change and find the opportunity to maintain brand relevance with real products that bring your brand to life.
Public holidays, special business events and trade show routes are great excuses to create limited edition products that keep your customers and clients wanting more.
The benefits of seasonal promotional merchandise
As mentioned above, we digital age natives love newness. Freshening your promotional offering is a great way to keep things exciting for your staff and clients. It also means you can gift again sooner and avoid giving a branded notebook and pen set to someone who already has one.
Basing your new merchandise on a season, event or holiday is an opportunity to focus your clients’ attention on a particular product or service. For example, you might use the Christmas season to give focus to your prompt product delivery times. You could use custom Christmas packaging or include a greeting card. You might also draw attention to your charity efforts with promotional merchandise where proceeds are donated.
The temporary nature of the season will help your audience feel comfortable with a focused message. Though beware of how long you’re staying on the one thing. Move on to the next season and don’t let them get bored.
Finally, limited edition promotions create urgency for those wanting to buy. When your customers know they won’t be able to get that merchandise again, they won’t want to miss out. FOMO is real and it’s a great motivator.
For example…
Seasonal promotions are a commonly used marketing tool. They build sales at a time of year when products are most desired, or when they may not be as popular. The latter is an effort to continue consistent sales throughout the year. Below are some of the seasonal promotional merchandise we’ve provided for our clients.
Summer fun!
Peters ice cream offered promotional apparel in the lead up to summer. When the sun is out their products are in steep competition with other cold treats. Peter’s custom ugly sweater-vests increased their brand visibilty on social media among their target market group at a very profitable time of year. Their product references the heat of Australian summer during the Christmas period, as well as summer activities that are considered quintessentially Australian.
Beat the heat
Paying attention to internal seasonal marketing is also important. Burson Automotive ran a sun safety program that included branded staff drink bottles and custom sunscreen delivered to each location. Their staff welfare was the driver of the program and it allowed them to circulate branded merchandise. Taking care of your employees should not need a special event, however, a special event is a great excuse to spoil them.
Support the community
Promoting yourself as a supporter of an annual event is a great way to promote your business and align it to the values of your community. The Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) had product made in time for NAIDOC Week. They chose this time to launch their promotional product because they knew their message would reach their target audience better when it was delivered in conjunction with NAIDOC week events. Their audience was also expecting to see something from the organisation, so the message was anticipated. Including a giveaway product carried their cause further and will continue to carry it as long as their products are in use.
What’s on your calendar?
So, what’s coming up that you can use to boost your brand? Are there any sporting or community events that you can get behind? Is there a series of trade shows that you could launch a new product or service from? Promote your launch with special edition merchandise. Are tourists a bit reluctant to visit in winter? Remind them why they come and offer promotional merchandise to keep you front of mind.
There are many reasons to invest in promotional merchandise. Keeping your brand and messaging up to date is only one of the things that branded products can do.
