Nowadays fans express their admiration for their favourite sports clubs, athletes, musician, artiste or franchise in far deeper ways than in times past. People are willing to buy memorabilia and merchandise just to express how much they love and admire an athlete, artiste or brand. It is therefore safe to say that merch is an expression of how dedicated one is as a fan. It can also be an expression or symbol of membership in a fans club.
Many promoters and managers of celebrities in different spheres of life have come to understand the importance of having something that will connect the fans to their client. Merchandise can either be a poster, tee shirt or any form of collectible. These promoters and managers have to look for unique ways of making fans have a sense of community with any merch item. Visit https://www.coxblue.com/ for more tips on how to promote your brand.
In this article, we will discuss how the merchandise of any brand (mostly celebrities) can connect their fans and also promote the brand.
Importance of Merchandise
Merchandise like we mentioned earlier is one sure way of creating a bond between fans and their faves. From cartoon or anime characters to real life actors and athletes and musicians, fans feel a special bond when they have a physical item that connects them to the object of admiration.
Although tee shirts and hoodies seem to be the most popular of these merchandises, there are other items that can be used as merch. These can also include both edible and inedible items that can be incorporated into home décor and food art. Take for instance children’s cartoon characters; they can be inscribed on tee shirts or used as cake decoration items.
Bearing the above in mind, promoters and managers of these characters, celebrities and icons that have a fan base can create deeper connection between these fans and their idols. These they can easily do with appropriate merch that would be exclusively identified with their brands.
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The Benefits of Personalizing Merch
Personalizing merch helps to greatly enhance the feeling of connectedness between fans and their idols. An example that readily comes to mind is personalized jerseys of football clubs or other sports clubs. Fans are often excited to have their names or other personal effects added to the official merch of their chosen club.
The excitement is often higher when there is a gathering of fans where everyone is putting on one item or the other from the official merch collection of the club. This creates camaraderie amongst people and a sense of community that most often births loyalty to the brand. Click here for tips on how to create brand loyalty.
Furthermore, exclusive items create more satisfaction for fans that have a collector’s mind set. They would often look forward to being among the few that have that particular piece of merchandise.
Using Technology to Maximize the Benefits of Merchandise
In this digital age, the world has become a global village. That’s how come it is possible for an ardent fan of a music legend or an athlete in another continent to have access to their official merch.
Another way that technology helps merchandizing is that fan clubs can be formed virtually and people from different walks of life can join. People of like interest and passion come together to showcase things that they feel will be of interest to members of the group.
Some artistes and celebrities are even kept relevant by their fan clubs; some enthusiasts even go as far as helping to preserve the history of the brand. This happens most often with past legends such as Elvis and MJ in music and Pele in football.
Vendors who sell these merchandises do not even need to have a physical store. All they need to do is create awareness of these items online and ardent fans will come looking for them. For instance, Attack on titans is a Japanese anime action TV series that has garnered a lot of followers globally. Most people who live outside Japan or the Orients can have access to any of their merchandise with just a click of some buttons on their internet enabled devices. One of the most popular items on their list is the Attack On Titan hoodie which many fans order online.
There are technologies that can be deployed to even help the customer choose the right fit and style without having to visit any physical store. Many ardent fans of different celebrities or Franchises are taking advantage of these technologies to connect with physical memorabilia that deepens their sense of connection with their faves.
Conclusion
Whether you are a fan or a promoter, manager or marketer, merchandise is one easy and relatively stress- free way of maintaining the relevance of your client or brand. Most fans would willingly pay a reasonable sum to have physical items that reminds them of their idol. Some would even pay what others would consider outrageous just to have a limited collectible that gives them a sense of exclusivity.
This is one major factor that any promoter or marketer must leverage to keep their brand continually in the face of the public.
