Is your brand struggling with a line of generic merch gathering dust on the table, or is your small business looking to build community and establish a brand identity? If this is the case, we’ve got you covered. At Mello, we pride ourselves in being more than just a screen printing shop or custom merch company. It’s our mission to help brands create a cohesive identity with their promotional items. From ideation to production, our merch capsule service will make this otherwise stressful process an exciting collaborative experience. In this article, we’ll walk you through this process in not only creating unique custom merch, but also building a brand identity that perfectly fits your aesthetic.
Step 1: Aligning on Ideas
Every great project starts with an idea. When embarking on a merch capsule journey, our team will be there for you every step of the way. To better understand your brand’s identity, we’ll start off with creating a mood board that will guide the overall feel and aesthetic of your collection. Your brand may have a full deck showcasing your unique style, but we can work with even the most simple idea.
After our initial touch base, we’ll do our due research to compile a visual representation of your new custom merch collection’s story. This mood board will contain imagery that conveys your brand identity, a palette of carefully selected colors, typography samples, and designs that reflect what your new merch could look like. The mood board will act as a cornerstone of what path the merch capsule sails on for all of the future steps.
Step 2: Finding the Right Collection for Your Custom Merch
Once we’ve gotten the green light on your brand’s mood board, we’ll work on building out the collection of products to be featured in your custom merch line. While we certainly have our favorite options, we’re not a cookie-cutter merch company that will slap a design on the same pieces for everyone. One thing we can confidently claim is our knowledge of high quality blanks and promo products. We’ll ensure you won’t end up with unflattering t-shirts or tote bags that rip as soon as you try to use them.
Our aim is to build a cohesive collection of items that is unique and specific to your brand’s community. We offer screen printing, embroidery, and even from scratch goods making customization endless. While we’re happy to do all of the legwork in finding the right products for you, some brands prefer to have more control over what types of custom merch is best for their new collection. If you’d like to be more involved in selecting your products, our team will be there to answer any questions and ensure your requests are heard. If your brand is opting in for screen printed garments, we highly recommend you check out our guide on screen printed apparel. Here’s a list of some of our most requested products:
- T-Shirts
- Hoodies
- Sweatpants
- Baseball Caps
- Beanies
- Koozies
- Tote Bags
- Fanny Packs
- Custom Goods such as Pool Floats, Drinkware, and Blankets
Step 3: Designing Your Future Success
After we’ve established which high quality pieces will be featured in your new custom merch collection, it’s time to showcase our top notch design work. There are cases where a brand has a full library of designs they wanted featured in their line, and there are times where we’re working from scratch. In either case, our team will take in any available assets and produce a full deck of colors, designs, and illustrations.
Brand identity is important, but we encourage brands to aim for more than just slapping their logo on a shirt and calling it a day. You want your custom merch products to be a representation of your brand while also being a must-have piece that will sell out rather than sit in a warehouse as back stock. Mello’s design team specializes in finding that middle ground of unique curated merch designs and promotional material for your brand. Our sister company, Zach Mello, also offers full design retainer packages if you’re looking for a total rebrand.
Step 4: Bringing Custom Merch to Life
Here’s where the magic happens. By taking in all of the previous steps, we’ll build out a full deck of mockups for your consideration. We’ll include various color ways, placement options, and products so you can identify which items are best for the impending launch.
We understand too many choices can make decision making a drawn out process. By utilizing our expertise in designing branded merchandise, we’ll carefully select the optimal color options and placements for your new collection. This is your chance to envision what your new branded merch line will look like as a fully realized line up of high quality goods. We’re happy to provide feedback on our favorites, but ultimately this is your brand’s time to select which options make the cut. Your team will also get the opportunity to request any revisions or alternative options before making the final decision. Once the final collection is mapped out, we’ll move onto production.
Step 5: Making Better Branded Custom Merch
The time has finally come! All of the time and work we’ve put into creating your new custom merch capsule is ready for production. Not only do we at Mello pride ourselves on the creative side of making better branded merch, but we also take the utmost care in producing goods we’re proud to call our work. The hard part is over, and now you can sit back and relax knowing that your merch is in good hands.
As mentioned previously, we offer screen printing, embroidery, and from scratch production on a variety of products. Each process is unique, and turn times will vary depending on which items were selected. You’ll get updates every step of the way so you can stay informed on timelines and plan out your exciting launch. Once production is complete, we’ll perform a detailed quality check before sending everything your way.
Step 6: Styling the Professional Content
After you’ve received your custom merch products and get blown away by the quality, we’ll schedule a photoshoot to get some amazing content. We can do it all in-house or set up a meeting with your favorite photographer to ensure you have everything needed for a successful launch and promotion. Some brands will just post mockups on their site, but we believe lifestyling is key. For those unfamiliar, lifestyling is a practice in merchandising where products are displayed or photographed in a realistic setting surrounded by other elements to create a fully realized aesthetic. For example, take a look at the following two photos.
The photo on the left gets the job done, but doesn’t contain any personality or messaging. The photo on the right not only gives a potential customer the vision of what they’d look like wearing that shirt, but it also strengthens the brand’s identity by maintaining a fully realized aesthetic. When curating professional product photos, you’re given an extra opportunity to elevate your brand’s identity within a cohesive custom merch line.
Step 7: Launching Your Custom Merch Line
Finally, we’ve made it to the finish line. A simple idea starting from a mood board has become a fully realized, tangible line of custom merchandise complete with elevated photography for content. Once we coordinate on launch times, Mello will work with you to plan out a co-promotion strategy. This has been an incredible journey, and we’re happy to share content on our own socials. Some merch capsules may even be featured on our website or included in future email campaigns to celebrate this worthwhile project.
To ensure your launch gets the right amount of exposure, we recommend heavily marketing the launch with a dedicated promotion calendar. Utilizing email campaigns, a potential blog post to highlight the collection, Google ads, paid social ads, and lots of organic social posts is important for ensuring success. If you have any questions, our marketing team is happy to provide you with some insight and coordinate with your own team on any future promotion.
The custom merch capsule projects are by far our favorite to accomplish. Helping brands develop their brand identity through unique and curated custom merch collections is what inspired us at Mello to start our company. We encourage brands to think outside of the generic box and create something memorable. When you build better branded merch, you’re investing in your future success by building a community of fans engaged with your messaging. We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and can’t wait to collaborate on your next custom merch line.
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As always, keep it Mello.