Merchandising, from T-Shirts to Posters to Notebooks is a vital income stream for bands, even more so in the age of free music. Give your audience an opportunity to support and promote you by giving them high quality things to buy.
Picture by Paul Linus Claassen
1 – Use Cafe Press or Zazzle for small runs of merchandise. Both these services (and others) offer the opportunity to upload a design and get it printed onto a variety of items from t-shirts to hoodies to mugs and even babygrows. It works well for small runs and its a fast easy way to add merchandise to your website by creating your own custom Zazzle/Cafe Press store. You don’t have to keep items in stock as they are produced on a bespoke basis but the amount you get in commission from each sale is relatively low. Great for a new band looking to sell their first merchandise.
2 – Use a screen printer for large runs of garments. Zazzle etc are great for small runs but if you want to make money on merchandise sales over 20 units (i.e. for a tour) the only way to do it cost effectively is through a screen printing company. If you’re ordering in bulk you’ll save money, although you may need to reduce the amount of colours in your design as this will keep costs low. The main disadvantage is that if you order in bulk you will need to think carefully about the sizes and quantity of merchandise you will need, never easy in the early days of a band.
3 – Have a great logo (and keep it consistent across everywhere). When you think of the great T-Shirts – The Dead Kennedys logo, Grateful Dead, Exploited Skull, Motorhead England etc they are iconic. Is your design simple, effective and memorable?
4 – Make sure that the items you sell are the right ones for your band. If you are a hip indie band mouse mats are probably a bad, cheesy idea, if its for an ironic nerdcore band that plays its music on old consoles it could be perfect. There is a vast amount of options available, think about whether it will add to or take away from your brand. Is it something you would wear? You need to be proud of the merchandise you are trying to sell.
5 – Display your merchandise well both offline and online. At gigs set up you merchandise table in a tidy way, get a board and pin some shirts up behind you and make it as easy as possible for people to shop from. Make sure your best stuff is the easiest to see! Have your merch page linked to clearly on your site and keep it simple. 3 great designs are better then 15 rubbish ones. Don’t forget to tell the audience you have merchandise to sell when you are on stage.
6 – Multi-Buys work really well. Offer your T-Shirts and merch at a reduced price if they spend more, 2 T-Shirts for £25 or £15 each or buy 2 and get the third free works really well. Also when people buy merchandise make sure they sign up for the mailing list, keep building that audience.
7 – Work out how many you need in advance of any long tours. Its a nightmare getting screen printing done mid way through a tour then getting it delivered to a venue or hotel. Its always hard to gauge what you’ll need. Check your inventory well in advance and take note of what you’ve sold at previous gigs so that you can order effectively for the next shows.
8 – Have some free items to give away – stickers, badges or even guitar picks. Think of merchandise as another opportunity to connect with fans and promote yourself. Ask your fans to send you pictures of stickers in unusual places and post them on your site/blog/Flickr.
9 – Ask your fans what they want and in what sizes. Use your blog, Twitter and other social media to ask what they want in terms of merchandise. They may have fantastic ideas you have never thought of. Why not ask them to design a T-shirt? This is about what they want to wear and to be associated with.
10 – Create special items for events and think about creating scarcity as this is another incentive to buy. Would your fans buy limited edition numbered, signed art prints of your album cover if you made them available? I know of a band who hand screen print their own environmentally friendly shirts. You can then make a video showing the making of these items and distribute it through social media, giving you something else to talk to press and bloggers about.
The merchandise you produce should reflect the overall character of your music, make it relevant and in keeping with what your fans want and it can become a really useful revenue stream for your band.
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Tags: cafe press, merchandising tips, screen printing, zazzle
