You’re thinking about this the right way.
Your Merch Mindset Score is
Based on your answers, I think you’d get a huge amount from our June event.
Book your tickets – Save your place at the M&M’s Annual Supplier Event
MERCH MINDSET: The AI Edition
11th June.
20 suppliers.
Real samples.
A year’s worth of ideas in a morning.
Insight 1
Marketing managers who think audience-first about their merch generate significantly more brand recall than those who choose on price.
Most marketers start with “what should we give out?” But the ones seeing the strongest results start with “what will our audience actually use?”
Research shows that up to 90% of people remember a brand after receiving a promotional product, but only when it’s relevant and useful to them.
That means every event where the merch isn’t quite right… is a missed opportunity to stay front of mind.
The shift isn’t bigger budgets or more effort, it’s thinking audience-first from the start.
When merchandise fits into someone’s everyday life, it stops being a giveaway… and becomes a reminder of your brand.
Insight 1
The difference between merch that gets binned and merch that stays on someone’s desk for 12 months isn’t budget — it’s brief.
Most promotional merchandise doesn’t fail because of quality. It fails because there wasn’t enough thought behind why it was chosen.
Research shows 87% of people keep useful promotional products for over a year, but only when they serve a clear purpose in their day-to-day life.
When that thinking is missing, even well-branded products quickly get left behind, forgotten, or thrown away.
And that’s the hidden cost. Not just wasted budget, but lost brand visibility and missed conversations.
The difference between something that gets binned and something that sits on a desk for 12 months isn’t spend, it’s the brief behind it.
When there’s clarity around your audience, your message, and the moment you’re creating, merchandise becomes something people keep, use, and come back to again and again.
