Corded Crew Wholesale: 3 Brilliant Pointers for Branded Merch

by Molly Joyce

Most people wear branded merch they can relate to.

Think about the corded crew sweatshirt you bought at the last concert you attended a few years ago. You probably still wear it because of the memories it holds. It tells the world about who you are and what you love. That’s exactly what quality branded merch should do for you—establish a deep connection. 

On the other hand, quality branded merch will do the following for a brand:

  • Raise brand awareness
  • Build and strengthen customer loyalty
  • Communicate your brand identity 
  • Build a community around your brand

Corded crew is a great fabric for branded merchandise as it's comfortable to wear. This increases the marketing opportunities for your brand as customers will readily wear your merch almost everywhere. 

Here are a few pointers for a successful branded merch strategy.

1 - Make Your Brand Instantly Recognizable

lady wearing a Bowling Green State University sweatshirt

Your branded merch needs to preach about your brand. It should let people know what you stand for and how you differ from the competition.

A good place to start is to define your brand:

  • Do you employ a formal or friendly brand voice?
  • What are your brand values?
  • Are you a luxury or budget-friendly brand?
  • What do customers know you for?

The answers to these questions will help you pick design elements like colors and graphics that accurately represent your brand. For example, if your brand voice is friendly, you can use short and punchy taglines that keep customers smiling.

reflect your brand perfectly into your branded merch

2 - Let Your Customers Inform Your Design Choices

woman in a Somewhere in Ohio sweatshirt

Customers love feeling that their favorite brands support their beliefs. In fact, 70% of customers prefer buying from brands that reflect their principles. 

The best way to increase the use of your branded merchandise is to reflect your customers' values.

Understanding who your target audience is can help you create branded merch that they’ll love wearing. For instance, this understanding allows you to pick taglines and graphics that reflect their beliefs. 

The following questions can help you determine their beliefs:

  • What do your customers value?
  • How do they prefer speaking with companies?
  • Would they enjoy corded crew shirts as merchandise?
  • Where do most of them live?
  • What is their age group?

You can also use the answers to these questions to create comprehensive audience segments. 

For instance, you can divide your target audience into the older and younger generation. Then design branded merch that resonates with each segment.

Getting information about who your customers are isn’t hard. You can learn more about your customers through:

Competitive Analysis

While you don’t have to mirror everything your competitors do, there’s a lot to learn from them, especially about your target market. Besides,  customers chose them over you for a reason. 

Try and figure out:

  • What are they offering customers that you aren’t?
  • How are your products or services better than theirs?
  • Why do customers choose you over them and vice versa?

You can then use  this information to design branded merch that gains you a competitive advantage. For instance, if you’re a sustainable construction business, you can use a tagline like “Your sustainable building partner” on your branded merch. This tagline communicates a clear differentiator to customers.

Customer Interviews

Talk directly to your customers to figure out what sealed the deal about working with your business. Also, ask them what they believe about specific social issues. Speak to all your customers: highest paying ones, old ones, and new ones too. 

Getting a sense of your customer’s decision-making process can help align your brand messaging accordingly. 

If you can’t reach your customers, talk to your sales team and customer support representatives. They spend their time interacting with customers, and understanding what customers want most.

3 - Apply Your Brand and Customer Identity to Your Designs

man designing branded merch

Strong branded merch must strike a careful balance between your brand identity and your customers' identity. Your target audience will only wear your corded crew merch if they see a piece of themselves in the merch. 

As you buy corded crew wholesale, you can reflect your brand and customer identity into your merch through:

Great Color Choices

A rule of thumb is to use your brand colors on your branded merch. Doing this helps people link merch right back to your business. 

However, you can veer away from your brand colors if you’re creating merch in support of an event that uses different colors. For example, it’s acceptable to use green when launching branded merch in support of St Patrick’s day

Consider using your main brand color as the primary color on your branded merch. If this color doesn’t resonate well with the campaign you’re targeting, switch to your secondary brand colors.

It’s also wise to use color psychology to your advantage. Since each color has a unique emotion attached to it, you can use different colors on your merch to communicate specific feelings. 

Here’s a table of what different colors mean:

Color Meaning
Blue Loyalty, stability, tranquility
Red Passion, aggression, intensity
Yellow Happiness, optimism, youth
Green Healing, success, hope
Black Power, mystery, professional

A Resonating Voice and Tone

Your brand voice refers to your brand personality and is unchanging. It can be represented through your words, your actions, and the image you want to portray. 

A strong brand voice will help customers recognize your messaging without even seeing your logo.

“Do you know when you’re watching a Nike ad without even seeing a swoosh? If the answer is yes, branding is the reason, and brand voice plays a crucial role.” 

- Phil Pallen

Additionally, brand tone is an emotional inflection of your brand voice. Thus, it should be adaptable to different situations. Brand tone can be relaxed, intense, happy, or even immersive.

Your brand voice and tone matter since they’re what customers interact with. They show customers what your brand would look and sound like if your brand was a person standing right in front of them. 

Picking the tone of your branded merch is as easy as recognizing how you want people to perceive the message. For instance, if you’re using branded merch to show support for environmental conservation, using phrases like “We have only one earth” on your merch will create the right tone—one that demands quick action.

Use the “We’re this, not this” exercise to define your brand voice. For example, you can say:

  • “We’re funny, not sarcastic
  • “We’re authoritative, but not too serious
  • We’re pocket-friendly, but not cheap

Use these adjectives to guide the tag lines and graphics you use on your branded merch. For instance, if you are a playful brand, consider using a pun as your tagline on your branded merch.

Engaging Graphics

Jupmode Lake Erie sweatshirt

You can either choose to include shapes and graphics into your corded crew merch or use plain sweatshirts with your logo on them. If you decide on using graphics, make sure that they’re engaging.

This is where you need to leverage your understanding of your customers. For instance, while younger target audiences might love wearing corded crew shirts that feature their favorite memes on them, soccer fans will feel great wearing branded merch with their team’s tagline on it.

Keep Your Audience Engaged

Quality branded corded crew merch pushes people to use it, which means more exposure for your brand. It forms such a strong connection with your audience that they’re proud of wearing it. 

Dive deep into the psyche of your target audience to create branded merch that your audience will love. 

Contact Jupmode today to buy corded crew wholesale or for help creating engaging branded merch. We'll help your business market itself effectively through quality promotional products.

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