From the Audio Blood Intern Blog Archive - Published January 2013.
Band merchandise – many think it’s a dying addition to your band’s brand; people are downloading more, so there’s no need for CDs, people are wearing less band t-shirts, and when was the last time someone said they wanted to buy a pin? Well, if you think that you couldn’t be more wrong. Band merchandise serves two VERY important purposes, for one, it’s your band’s calling card – you want people who see you to be able to walk away with a CD, or a t-shirt or poster, so that you’re remembered. Secondly, it’s a financial life-line for the band; bands need money for tours, recordings, equipment, and so much more – a small investment in merchandise can yield high return if you know what you’re doing. So, here’s what you need to know to build up the merch aspect of your band.
KNOW YOUR BUDGET!!!
Honestly, this cannot be stressed enough. You aren’t the Rolling Stones doing a global tour – you DO NOT need 400 t-shirts, and you won’t be able to sell them at $20 a pop. Not only will you be sitting on these t-shirts basically forever, but now you’re stuck with an outdated design until you sell them, or cut your loses and get rid of them. You always want to be updating your designs and your merchandise, come up with new logos, new t-shirts, etc with each album release, or each tour. Most importantly, only make a few of them – you can get 50 black/white t-shirts with a design for under $200 – you sell these at $10 a shirt and you have doubled your return – not only are you not sitting on a lot of t-shirts, but you can choose to make more or less of a certain design depending on how well it sells. This logic should be applied to everything, not just shirts – you don’t want to be sitting on a lot of CDs either, or tour posters, etc. Start small, make a profit, and use those profits to better plan your next merch run; don’t blow money you don’t have on something you might not make back.
Create a Range
Once you figure out your budget, you should create a range of different merchandise for your band. Get a couple of different t-shirt designs; not only will this give fans options (who knows, maybe you’ll sell both to the same person!), but it will help you with re-ordering, and coming up with new designs (creating something in a similar in vein as the last one). Different album covers, and having small goodies as options to sell are great as well: pins, stickers, posters, etc. This also gives you bundle options: T-shirt +2 pins and a poster = $13, or instead of spending $10 on a CD and a t-shirt they can get a T-shirt + CD for $15; your fans get a deal and you offload more merchandise, as well as still turn a profit. It’s win-win. As you establish your merchandise business, and grow your band, you can take this even further by introducing tour-exclusive merch, and other options to make sure your fans come back for more.
Listen To Your Fans
Your fans are the ones who are going to be dishing out good money for your stuff, and they are the ones who will be promoting your band for you by wearing your shirts, pins, etc, so knowing what they want is very important. Talk to them during shows, see what kind of designs they like. If you hear a lot of them say “hey I’d really love to have a vinyl of your album” maybe you can make a limited run of them – your hardcore fans would love to own it, and it’s just another way you’re expanding your bands name. Maybe even run a contest on your website where your more artistic friends can design a new t-shirt and people can vote on which is best, and the top two get made into shirts to sell at shows – this improves fan interaction, and you get to sell a design that you KNOW people will want.
These are just a few of the ways you can build a very successful merchandise business for your band, that will not only help build your name, but also your wallets to help sustain you during those long tours or recording sessions. If you follow those steps, you’ll be in pretty good shape. Good luck, and happy designing!