Why Product Quality Matters in Branded Merch

In our recent “New and Trending” webinar, product quality emerged as the #1 factor our clients consider when purchasing branded merch. This didn’t surprise us since our annual company surveys consistently highlight how much clients appreciate and prioritize quality in the products we provide.

Quality of Branded Merch Matters

We don’t often talk about this directly, but there are varying degrees of quality in every product line in our industry. Today, we want to address why we take quality so seriously and how it impacts your audience’s experience.

The Two Essential Elements of Branded Merch

Two fundamental components determine the success of your branded merch: the artwork and the product itself. Both must work in harmony to create something that truly represents your brand.

1) The Artwork

What transforms ordinary items into branded merch is the artwork. Without it, you simply have a generic product. Your artwork showcases your brand, elicits emotional connections, and adds personal value to the item.

To learn more about making emotional connections with your artwork, check out this blog post on creating impactful artwork!

2) The Product

Even the most brilliant artwork can’t salvage a poor-quality product. The physical item must be durable and functional for people to connect with it and actually use it.

Each product is a direct extension and reflection of your brand. The quality of the merch directly influences how people perceive your institution or organization. This doesn’t necessarily mean choosing the most expensive options. It means selecting products that effectively do what they’re intended to do.

Our Commitment to Quality

With over one million products available in the industry, quality varies significantly. 

We take our responsibility as your branded merch agency seriously by:

  • Obtaining samples before recommending products to clients
  • Only selling products we genuinely believe in
  • Encouraging clients to request samples to ensure their own satisfaction
  • Carefully vetting options to find those that will best represent your brand


Not all products in our industry are created equal. We work hard to ensure that what we recommend will be an excellent reflection of your brand and deliver the engagement results you expect.

Quality matters because your brand matters. It’s that simple.

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Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”