What is merchandise planning?

Understanding merchandise planning and merchandise planning processes is important for anyone in the retail business. Most of the time it makes confusion over what it’s and why it’s used. Let’s stay clear about it.

The word merchandise is often confusing as per the context. Merchandise generally means a product used for the promotion of a brand, merchandise by default has some visual mark of the brand. Generally used products for merchandise are mugs, t-shirts, bags, and accessories. You want to have seen many such products having the brand or tagline of a brand or a campaign.

For example, if you’re a tech company then having your logo printed on a keychain or pen will promote your brand.

Merchandise planning is a methodical approach of shopping for and selling, organizing and presenting merchandise in a way which will maximize the profit and consumer satisfaction both, with appropriate decisions regarding choice, time, place, and availability of the merchandise.’

So, now you recognize what’s merchandise and what’s merchandise planning let’s move to merchandise design.

Merchandise design and its significance

A merchandise design is representative of brand name identity. That’s why it needs serious brooding about why it’s designed for brands.

First of all, there are three sorts of merchandise.

1. DOMESTIC- products which are bought only after some consideration on a part of customers.
2. CONVENIENCE- products that may be useful to complement living standards.
3. INSTINCT- products that are bought as addons.

You should choose the sort of merchandise for your brand consistent with your business. Here are some reasons why the merchandise is designed for the brand:

Identity of business

Merchandise clears that it belongs to a brand, a brand that can have its attitude, identity, stand, and beliefs defined within the market and culture. Merchandise is proof of all those.

Immediate cognition

When you create a merchandise design that is obvious and straightforward, it becomes easily noticeable for people that buy/take it and use them. Making items used daily like files or pen your merchandise increases the probability of the user seeing your logo or tagline more often.

Memorable reminder

As it goes with the point, once they keep seeing it, they’re going to automatically commit it to memory for an extended duration of your time. This will make them feel trust towards your brand as they see it daily on the merchandise sort of a silent pet who is usually there.

Loyalty

When customers have a brand in their mind through cognition and reminders, they have a tendency to settle on it over and once again and it creates loyalty that benefits the brand after a while, when customers buy/take merchandise and feel that they’re top-quality products, it’s a mirrored image of your brand in their minds.

Connection

With merchandise products customers tend to feel more connected to the corporate than say with advertisements because they need a physical product they will see and touch, it gives them a far better feel and connectivity towards your brands.

Less costly

Merchandising is a smaller amount costly than mammoth budgets of advertising. Advertising feels general as compared to merchandise that may be personalized through variations in colors and sizes. It’s better to advertise your brand to focus on customers who have an interest than on random people watching tv.

Merchandise planning process

The merchandise planning process is setting goals and defining objectives of merchandise to market your brand. If you’ve got a chain or simply a store, your merchandise planning may differ. It all depends on your brand size and industry. Merchandise management is vital. Some fail-safe steps within the process will help you:

Colour

The color scheme used for merchandise must have a pattern within them that’s complementary to brand identity. If you’re confused over it then use the classic black and white combination. You’ll even try having a monochromatic display, a reminder one color creates one color rainbow which gains attention for an honest amount of your time.

Space management

Always use space to guide your customer and their gaze. If you set an object within the middle of the opposite two, it’ll create a way of importance. If you set them in a line, their eyes will follow them left to right. If you would like to spotlight merchandise then make it stand out by placing it oddly or putting it in several colors from others.

Proper products

Always have a goal for merchandise planning. If you would like to send a message, choose a specific sort of merchandise. If your brand is about electronics then it’s better to sell flash drives as merchandise. If it’s a book retailing brand then merchandised stationery items are the simplest choice. Use top-quality products and repair only.

How to design a merchandising concept?

It is easy to style a merchandising concept yourself, otherwise, you can hire a designer and repair to print your trademark and logos or specialized messages. Always keep your brand identity and the cultures of consumers in the mind.

Here are some tips for that:

• Survey within the market.
• See if you’ll usher in something relevant to your brand.
• Use services that may provide you with the maximum amount quantity as you would like.
• Always attempt to give the merchandise a special section where they will be placed on display.
• Use different methods of displaying various merchandise.

Just take the first step and the rest will follow. The right plan and action will help you to move ahead and grab the right strategy for your business plan.

Maximize your brand’s strength

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you present your content in a creative way and the way people grab information from it. Are you stuck in your design evaluation process? Need help? Brand Bucket is here to take any challenges!

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