How to use merchandise in new partnerships. 

In the news last week, we announced a new acquisition joining the Geiger group of companies. We announced that we were joining forces with another promotional distributor in the UK, called Firebrand. There’s been lots of discussion between management teams about how the two businesses will operate and it got us thinking about how acquisitions, mergers and corporate partnerships offer a great opportunity to refresh promotional merchandise and review how the brands involved are promoted too.

Whether as goodwill gifts used internally or external marketing assets used to promote a new union to stakeholders – promotional merchandise is a great medium for engaging audiences, creating excitement about new partnerships and promoting a new brand identity.

Here are just some of the ways that businesses involved in acquisitions and new partnerships often discuss with us when seeking new promotional merchandise ideas.

So firstly, a business may want to send a welcome gift to your new colleagues from either side – something that breaks down barriers and introduces new colleagues to the new business and helps promote a positive feeling about the acquisition announcement. A branded gift may be beneficial for key clients too when communicating your company news to introduce the new partnership and to reassure them of the future plans.

Secondly, a business may wish to use promotional merchandise to help educate and inform new colleagues about the company’s brand personality, especially colleagues in Marketing, HR and Events departments. Branded collateral from your existing marketing assets, that embody the spirit of your brand will help show them the type of merchandise that you use, the way that you display your logo and brand, and the calibre of the products you use to reflect the values of your brand.

Different brands will have different rules around use of promotional merchandise. So you may wish to include a briefing pack as part of the new partnership covering the new policy in terms of using, giving and gifting commercial merchandise. You could explain your brand guidelines in this pack and include other relevant information too.

Finally, each business may have their own independent suppliers for merchandise and this may well be a great opportunity to review your current vendor list and get the best deal for your business where you can both benefit from economies of scale and buy more products from a single source.

If you’re currently planning for a new commercial partnership, acquisition or merger, we can help develop new items to help promote new logos or existing brands to new audiences, internal or externally. We can develop samples and stock in secure, confidential environments pre-anouncements and help with all the distribution too – get in touch to find out more!