As a great way to reach the hearts and minds of an audience, branded merchandise remains unmatched.
With original promotional products, businesses can set themselves apart from the competition and make a lasting impression.
In this article, we explore 12 branded merchandise ideas, helping you to find the best promotional merchandise and successfully advertise your business.
T-shirts
When it comes to promotional product ownership in the United States, t-shirts are one of the most popular – 80% of survey participants own one. They’re an all-time favorite for many brands, businesses, and organizations of different sizes.
Advantages of t-shirts as promotional products:
- A wide appeal and reach. With a brand logo, the humble t-shirt becomes a powerful marketing tool, easily reaching a wide audience and providing ongoing advertising.
- Versatile to the core. As practical products, t-shirts are highly desirable. One can never have too many. They’re perfect for various activities – from casual outings to sports events.
- Easy to personalize. In our Mockup Generator, anyone can easily incorporate their brand’s logo, color scheme, message, or a combination of these to create an original t-shirt.
As far as branded merchandise ideas go, t-shirts are one of the best, promoting businesses and championing causes worldwide with ease.
Quick tips
Take a look at graphic design tips and discover how to create a design for your brand from scratch.
Save time by hiring a professional graphic designer to create a design for your small business that will impress everyone.
Mugs
Industry experts forecast the global mug market will reach $44.21 billion by 2029, proving the everlasting popularity of mugs.
While often taken for granted as just practical necessities, mugs are much more than that – they’re eco-friendly promotional items that are always appreciated.
Advantages of mugs as promotional products:
- A wide selection. Whatever image a brand wishes to present, there’s a specific style of mug to match the brand’s personality.
- Cost-effective. A budget-friendly option for businesses wanting to promote their brand without spending a fortune. It offers a healthy balance between cost and impact.
- Universal appeal. Whether for employees or clients, they appeal to a wide audience, making them a versatile marketing tool for any business.
With various styles, shapes, and sizes, finding the right one won’t take long.
Quick tip
Custom mugs are a great branded merch idea for small businesses or big corporations. In our Mockup Generator, anyone can easily create a mug with their company logo.
Hoodies and sweatshirts
While trends may change, the popularity of hoodies and sweatshirts endures. Whatever a business wishes to advertise, everything’s better with them. Everyone loves their style, comfort, and warmth, whether as gifts for clients or matching employee uniforms.
Advantages of hoodies and sweatshirts as promotional products:
- Eye-catching appeal. People from all walks of life love them. If you want to create a truly successful promotional campaign, they’re the real deal.
- Long-lasting apparel. Able to withstand wear and tear, they ensure your brand’s message continues to reach people long after the event.
- Ample branding space. The perfect canvas with plenty of space for the brand’s logo and message.
With various sizes, styles, and colors, a business can personalize our hoodies to fit its specific needs.
Quick tips
Increase brand loyalty by gifting your customers and employees all-over-print hoodies. While they cost a bit more, their superior quality and style make them great gifts.
Discover the best blank hoodies for printing to find the one that meets all your expectations.
Make your own promotional products today!
Tote bags
As more people say goodbye to single-use plastic forever, environmentally-friendly tote bags happily take their place, becoming an essential part of everyday life.
With 45% of consumers interested in environmentally-responsible brands, tote bags provide a great opportunity for businesses to show their commitment to environmental causes.
Advantages of a tote bag as a promotional item:
- Wide reach. Wherever your customers go, they’ll share your brand’s message with others.
- Ample branding area. A large surface for a design, logo, text, or a combination of these to suit different promotional preferences.
- Sturdy and stylish. Typically, tote bags are made with high-quality materials, ensuring they’ll faithfully serve for a long time.
In the Printify Catalog, we’ve got the perfect tote bag for every business’s marketing needs.
Hats
When it comes to simple yet influential promotional items, hats are one of the best – practical to their core. In addition to protecting from the sun and bad hair days, they faithfully serve as small, people-powered billboards.
Advantages of hats as promotional products:
- Low cost. A cost-effective marketing solution, perfect as gifts or giveaways at trade shows.
- Suitable for various activities. When the campaign ends, hats continue their mission, spreading the brand’s message far and wide.
- High visibility. When employees or customers wear your hat, they help raise awareness of your business.
Whether your company needs embroidery or direct-to-garment designs, our Print Providers are ready to create a product that’s nothing short of amazing.
Quick tip
Anyone can learn how to make embroidery designs and outstanding promotional products within a few minutes.
Stickers and magnets
Regarding branded merchandise ideas that are truly fun, stickers and magnets confidently stand right at the top.
Advantages of stickers and magnets as promotional products:
- Affordable yet impactful. With a low production cost, they’re great as gifts for customers and employees alike.
- Visibility. With a beautiful design, they’ll catch people’s eye every time, spreading awareness of your company with each glimpse.
- A fun way to promote. Whether you use custom vinyl stickers or square magnets, they’re a light-hearted way to showcase a company’s personality.
The Printify Catalog has high-quality stickers and magnets in various styles, shapes, and sizes that any business can easily customize to their heart’s content.
Quick tip
With Printify, there’s no minimum order quantity. Small businesses can order as few or as many custom stickers as they need. We’ll do the rest – printing, packaging, and shipping directly to their doorstep.
Make your own custom stickers and magnets today!
Phone cases
As practical accessories, phone cases combine form and function beautifully, offering an excellent way to promote a company. First, find what smartphones your employees or customers use. Afterward, they’ll do the promotional work for you.
Advantages of phone cases as promotional products:
- Endless customization. With various styles and colors, anyone can easily create a phone case people actually want to keep.
- Useful items. They protect smartphones from scuffs, scratches, and drops, making them a practical addition to your collection of promo products.
- Highly popular. With almost everyone owning a smartphone, stylish phone cases make great gifts.
Our Catalog has phone cases for various smartphone models – finding the right one for your business won’t take long.
Quick tip
While a phone case is a great gift by itself, wireless charging pads and magnetic induction chargers, for example, are a perfect complement to these promotional products.
Water bottles and tumblers
With healthy living on the rise, more people have begun to carefully watch their water intake, making water bottles and tumblers skyrocket in popularity.
Advantages of bottles and tumblers as promotion products:
- Easy to carry. A convenient way to stay hydrated throughout the day. In addition, they promote a business wherever the person goes.
- Safer for health. Most water bottles and tumblers are BPA-free – they’re better for health and perfect as a gift for health-conscious consumers.
- Eco-friendly. As more companies focus on green marketing, don’t miss the opportunity to position your brand in a positive light by choosing sustainable promotional items.
As one of the best promotional items, water bottles and tumblers are effective marketing tools for both large and small businesses.
Quick tip
In addition to these, we offer a range of other eco-friendly products, enabling businesses to create a whole collection of sustainable promotional items.
Mouse pads
Whether they’re for browsing, working, or gaming, they enhance customers’ digital experience through improved performance and stylish comfort. As practical as they’re aesthetically pleasing, they make great promotional products.
Advantages of mouse pads as promotional products:
- Useful items. An easy way to keep misclicking disasters at bay, ensuring precise and controlled clicks and increasing productivity.
- Endless customization. Suitable for a variety of designs, from text to logos to illustrations, to suit the brand’s aesthetics.
- Longevity. A product that people can use for a long time, maximizing its promotional impact.
Whatever your customer’s style, there are plenty of great options for everyone – add an eye-catching design, and you’ve got a practical promotional item unlike any other.
Quick tip
If your brand caters to customers and clients who love computer games, LED gaming mouse pads are an excellent way to get their attention and keep it long enough to sell your products.
Bottle openers
At a company party or event, an ice-cold beverage, whether it’s Coca-Cola, Fanta, or beer, provides much-needed refreshment. In addition, it’s a great opportunity for giveaways: handy bottle openers.
Advantages of bottle openers as promotional products:
- Practical. Useful at company events and afterward at home. With their handy magnetic back, any fridge is a friend to these.
- Niche appeal. As a niche promotional item, it’s not appropriate for every brand but great for specific industries that cater to niche audiences – craft beer enthusiasts and partygoers, for example.
- Easy to personalize. An easy promotional item to customize. Add a logo, text, and it’s done – a perfect promotional gift.
While it’s a very simple product, with an awesome design, it’s a beautiful little keepsake worthy of your consideration, especially if you run a bar, pub, or club.
Notebooks and journals
Whether for jotting down ideas, shopping lists, or making to-do lists, they’re practical to their core. If you want customers to see your brand’s logo frequently, these are a great choice.
Advantages of notebooks and journals as promo products:
- Unwavering demand. They’re popular with people from all walks of life, from children to seniors.
- Multi-use. Perfect for everything – taking notes, drawing doodles, or writing down dreams.
- Long-lasting. Unlike some other products, used once and thrown away, notebooks and journals have an extended lifespan, so brands’ logos can enjoy the spotlight longer.
Wherever brands plan to promote their products or services, whether at trade shows, conferences, or shopping malls, beautifully-designed gifts like journals and notebooks will effortlessly draw people in.
Quick tip
In addition to these, there are plenty of other custom stationery products a business can personalize with a unique design to fit their needs, making a professional impression on their clients.
Laptop sleeves
As a promotional item, laptop sleeves are a great choice – a stylish accessory that people use every day and carry with them everywhere.
- Practical. Laptop sleeves provide constant peace of mind, protecting one of employees’ and customers’ most prized possessions.
- Built to last. Typically, laptop sleeves are made from durable materials, providing brands with long-lasting exposure of their logo and message.
- Versatility. Whether it’s a laptop, tablet, eReader, or any other slim device, laptop sleeves provide a great way to carry tech.
While some view backpacks as a good way to carry their computers, laptop sleeves are a much better option, especially with a great design and given as a gift.
Bring your branded merchandise ideas to life
With Printify, creating branded products has never been easier. Whatever your goals, we’re an all-in-one solution for all your business needs.
In the vast world of promotional products, it’s easy to get lost, but we’ll happily guide you. With us, finding and designing branded merch only takes a minute.
Step 1: Sign up for a free account
After signing up, you get access to more than 900 promotional products and our extensive network of thoroughly-vetted Print Providers.
Step 2: Select a product and apply a design
Select the product you want to customize and click Start designing. In our beginner-friendly Mockup Generator, anyone can easily add text, logo, or images.
Step 3: Order samples
When the creative part is over, we recommend ordering samples to check whether you’re happy with the final result, making sure your customers will enjoy them too.
A few closing thoughts
As we conclude our list of the top 12 branded merchandise ideas, we hope you found them helpful. While creating the perfect promotional item may take some time, it’s well worth the effort.
As an effective marketing strategy, promotional products have a world of benefits:
- Increase brand loyalty, awareness, and image
- Strengthen relationships with existing and potential customers, clients
- A budget-friendly way to advertise, ideal for small businesses
With Printify, anyone can easily create original custom-branded products that leave a professional impression, inspiring trust and confidence in their brand.
