Are you familiar with the term ad-enfreude? It’s the guilty adrenaline rush you feel as an onlooker when watching a brand implode for everyone to see.

Even the biggest brands can fall foul of costly branding blunders. Burger King decided to change their iconic logo to “Fries King” but quickly backtracked on the decision when the logo change caused considerable confusion in the marketplace.

This is a clear case of liking your promotional product while failing to keep your audience’s interests in mind when making branded merchandise decisions.

Switching to the digital merchandizing system of an online company store will help you achieve brand consistency across all lines of branded merchandise.

1. Plan a Strategy For The Growth of Your Branded Merchandize Program

The success of your merchandise program is dependent on more than your selection of branded products. You have spent time thinking about how best to promote and distribute these products. You’ve carefully planned your promotional giveaways, trying first a small selection of products then adding to these as time goes by. The success of your branded merchandise program means your selection of promotional products has grown and changed.

Now it’s especially important to keep control of your program, and the only proven way of doing this is to move your branded merchandise program to an online company store. This frees your marketing team to think of the freshest and most effective ways to spread your brand message via promotional products, while an online company store takes care of the logistics. This can include real-time reporting and forecasting, a secure artwork library, a centralized system for procurement and authorization, stock control, and water-tight budget control.

2. Create a Secure Artwork Library to Safeguard Your Brand

Branded merchandise is a convenient and effective way of exposing your brand to the right audience. But your logo, emblazoned across thousands of T-shirts in turquoise when it should be royal blue, is a marketing embarrassment that will harm your brand, and waste marketing dollars.

An online company store’s secure artwork library averts disaster by giving all stakeholders access to your logo and corporate identity guidelines in one place. This is your guarantee that all your business documents, promotional products, uniforms and apparel, stay true to your brand and honor your corporate identity, down to the last pixel, every time.

3. Manage Suppliers For Brand Consistency Across Products

Confusion around suppliers and supplier agreements will cost your company time and money. A program can easily spiral out of control when each company location is working with their own vendors.An online company store centralizes your list of pre-approved suppliers, while offering real-time item inventory, and order authorization. The typical result of a centralized digital merchandising system is shortened ordering times and time savings that, when multiplied across your organization, significantly reduce procurement costs.

4. Partner With Online Company Store Specialists For The Best Digital Merchandizing Solutions

An online company store built to your specific business needs, that honors your company’s brand vision, can take your branded merchandise program to a whole new level. But choose your partner carefully. It’s advisable to ask to see their track record of successful online company store management, and get as many testimonials from current clients.

Proforma Durkee is the online company store expert. Their best-in-class workflow technology platform and more than 500 contracted partners, continue to ensure that 40,000+ online company stores get the most out of their branded merchandise programs for as little time and money as possible. If you’re ready to discuss creating an online store for your company, please contact us and let's chat.

For more information about the benefits on an online company store, you can download our handy infographic, The future of corporate branding is digital.