Branded bits and bobs

 

The charming Choosy tray above was one of my first branded bits and bobs in my long and rather bedraggled career in advertising, brands and marketing. The Spillers cat food brand (long since defunct) had a striking pack design in the 1980s, featuring bold close-ups of feline faces. The black, white, ginger, tortoiseshell and grey moggies were naturals for cat-lover merchandise. These trays were a consumer offer, and I remember selling large quantities of them at our stand at the London Cat Show.

I used the one remaining tray in my possession as a pot plant stand, so do forgive the rather shabby appearance - it's looking every one of its 40-something years. Spillers had a good line in branded merchandise - a friend of mine still has a Shapes metal tin for doggie goodies.

Despite moves here, there and across the channel, my home is a repository of brands I've worked on and agencies I've worked for. Badges and baseball caps, tins and T-shirts, pins and pens. Notebooks, key-rings and mugs. Mascots, symbols and logos stamped on just about anything the heart could desire, like an old-fashioned branding iron.

Saatchi (London and Frankfurt) had a good line in clothing and wearables (as well as branded vodka) - bum-bags, caps, rain jackets as well as a good variety of T-shirts:

To be honest, a lot of my branded swag is quite tacky. Mugs whose logos are long lost to the dishwasher. T-shirts that have turned into parallelograms. Stuff that's no longer in vogue, from ashtrays to mouse mats to USB sticks. 

Or what could scream (in a muffled way) 2020 more than my bright idea to promote one of my books?

There's a distinct difference between freebies to motivate staff (Christmas and Summer Party gimmicks, giveaways to "land" the new brand positioning) and true merchandise that is paid for by customers, either as a consumer offer or a loyalty reward.

Apparently, true "merch" is big business. This article from Contagious cites a market worth $6 billion last year with a growth of 13.4%. And gives you a few tips for a "merch strategy."

But beware. As Katrina Dodd of Contagious says:

Do it right, and it will buy you the kind of column inches that the media team can only dream of. Do it badly, and you have spent six months in meetings designing a hoodie nobody wants.

Good Business recently pointed out in their newsletter that while more eco-friendly giveaways seem to be a great idea, the point is that everybody's doing it, and there are only so many branded tote bags or water bottles you need.

I remain a fan of branded bits and bobs. With my marketer branded bucket hat on, it's a good way of extending brand visibility and summoning distinctive brand assets to the fore. For brands that live mainly in the digital world, it gives a real life presence.

And from a personal viewpoint, these things elicit not just branded memories, but lost glimpses of time and place.

Like when I met Diana Dors (remember her?) at the Cat Show.