Clothing merchandise is a great marketing technique and strategy for many kinds of brands and businesses – and it seems like there are many ways to use clothing merchandise across a variety of industries. But you don’t have to be a marketing genius to ensure you’re producing on-trend ideas and products.
You might use clothing merchandise to sell to your customers or fans, or you may use it as ‘freebies’ to help drum up attention and exposure for your brand. Whichever avenue you go down, one of the most important parts of any successful merchandise, is making sure you’re buying the right items for you customers / fans and jumping on trends when they arise.
But how can you find the right kind of trends for your industry? We’ve put together a few tips below…
Tip 1: Keep an eye on Instagram
Social media is usually the home of anything new and trendy, and because Instagram is so visual, it’s a great place to look for visual trends. If you look on the ‘explore’ tab in Instagram, and then click through to the style and trends tabs, you’ll find all kinds of new trends and exciting ideas you can try out. It’s also worth noting what kind of merch influencers are producing, or what kind of products they’re promoting – as these usually tend to be trendy and popular.
Tip 2: Look at what your competitors are doing
If you have industry competitors, it’s always worth keeping an eye on their merchandise and how they’re marketing themselves. Don’t pay attention to your competitors that don’t inspire you though – you want to look at the competitors that are pushing boundaries and making waves – these are the ones that will be on top of trends.
Tip 3: Keep up to date with popular culture
If you keep an eye on current TV shows, radio hosts, podcasts, online streaming services – and look out for things that are rising in popularity and trends that are emerging from them. Most short-term trends and trends that are easy to jump on, usually stem from these kinds of media, so knowing what’s going on and how you can take advantage of it is key. Note down the popular TV shows that launch in the different months of year, and make sure you have a team member who can keep a note of any good trending opportunities or products you could latch onto.
Tip 4: Follow Twitter and news sites
Twitter is a great source to find out local and global news, and it’s a great place to find out about current events before the mainstream media has gotten hold of it. Most local events (news worthy or not) will usually pop up on Twitter, and you’ll find that if things (or phrases) are trending on twitter, it’s generally a good option to look into for merchandise (depending on the topic, obviously).
Tip 5: Keep up to date with cultural events and holidays
Keep an eye on cultural events or national holidays and know what’s coming up in your calendar. This way you can time your merchandise to fit in with different times of the year. People really love trending clothing merchandise, especially when it’s relevant to times of the year, or holidays – so this is always a winning combination. Combining popular culture with holiday themes is also a winning combination, and usually those kinds of clothing merchandise will be the sell-out items from a range.
Tip 6: Look on ASOS
It might seem obvious, but look at what clothing products are currently being sold by trendy retailers. If ASOS (one of the most current and trending online retailers) is jumping on a trend, it might be a good idea to investigate how you could do the same thing! Be careful of copying ideas though – you want to make sure you don’t abuse any copyright.
In summary…
The key to creating on-trend and interesting merchandise that people want to buy time and time again, is to keep things fresh, interesting and high quality. BY following the tips above you can definitely make sure your ideas are flowing! And here at Garment Printing, we can take care of the rest and ensure your merch items are high quality and well made.
If you’d like to get in touch to speak to one of our printing specialists, we’d love to hear from you! We’d be happy to give you advice about your merchandise, and ensure you get the perfect end result to sell to your customers. And merchandise that they will love wearing and talking about with their friends!
