Examples of Successful Marketing Campaigns That Used Brand Merchandising

The world of marketing is ever-evolving. At times, it can seem like competition is rising and the preferences of your target audience are shifting with far greater agility than your marketing efforts can match. One way to address these concerns is through the tried-and-true practice of brand merchandising.

In this article, I’ll explain the core concepts of brand merchandising for us to explore just how pivotal it’s been in some of the most successful marketing campaigns of our lifetime. Before reading this article, however, I strongly recommend you read “What Is Brand Merchandising and Why Is It Important?” ((Hyperlink)) and “The Impact of Brand Merchandising on Consumer Behavior” ((Hyperlink)).

What Is Brand Merchandising?

Brand merchandising is a marketing strategy that involves the data-driven use of a company’s products, branded with the company’s logo and style and brought to market with the goal of boosting brand awareness and driving sales.

This includes everything from the presentation of products to the use of promotional materials, price positioning, market research, and behavioral psychology with the unified aim of enticing customers and enhancing the overall brand experience.

Simply put, brand merchandising is the way a brand presents its branded products to customers, be that through traditional retail environments, e-commerce shopping platforms, or simple billboard advertisements.

Brand merchandising is a high-value tool that businesses use to reward customer loyalty through promotions and giveaways and even by selling branded items like t-shirts or hats. These branded items allow customers to represent their favorite brands, which not only makes the customer feel good but also boosts brand visibility at potentially negative costs (positive returns).

What Role Does Brand Merchandising Play in Marketing Campaigns?

Now, let’s apply our definition of brand merchandising to the realm of marketing campaigns. In the advertising industry, it’s clear to see just how significant of a role brand merchandising really plays.

Businesses the world over use techniques like strategic product placement, attractive packaging, and influencer marketing to bring new products to market, boost brand awareness for existing products, and more. Trust me when I say this is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity. Just look at how much businesses are willing to pay for Super Bowl ad campaigns ($6–7 million for 30 seconds)!

Brand merchandising can manifest in countless different styles, but generally involves selling or giving away any kind of brand merch that bears the company’s logo. For example, Tesla, a global manufacturer in the electric vehicle (EV) market, also sells branded t-shirts, hats, and other apparel. This strategy has helped the company boost brand awareness and overall sales, despite the branded merchandise being only a tiny fraction of overall revenue.

To find out what this means in your unique business context, contact me, and let's talk. I'd be happy to analyze your data and help identify avenues for exploration in line with your preferences.

10 Successful Marketing Campaign Examples

Now that you know what brand merchandising is and the role it plays, in theory, let’s take a look at 10 examples of brand merchandising at work in real marketing campaigns.

Apple: “Change the World”

Apple is a company that needs no introduction. It’s both a technology company and a household name, with products like the Mac computer and the iPhone pioneering entire industries. Apple has long been at the forefront of computing and telecommunications innovation. And its commitment to “changing the world” reinforces that history with every launch.

If you’ve ever seen an Apple product launch, you know about the brand’s sleek, minimalistic style juxtaposed with its grandiose vision for the future. Apple maintains a consistently elegant product design, signature layouts, and atmospheres in its stores complete with interactive displays, and more. Even the “Apple Genius” staff is titled in harmony with brand merchandising principles, a practice that reinforces Apple’s control over consumer behavior.

This harmony, which is admittedly less of a campaign and more of the brand’s overall “voice,” presents a concrete example of what you can achieve by combining product quality, brand consistency, and emotional storytelling.

Nike: “Just Do It”

Nike is a globally recognized sportswear giant known for its inspiring and empowering marketing campaigns. Among its most successful marketing campaigns is the “Just Do It” campaign, launched in 1988 and still inordinately famous to this day.

Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign stands as a symbol of Nike’s power to motivate consumers and reinforce its brand identity—a feat achieved through gripping, emotional storytelling that resonates across target audiences and demographics.

This campaign worked primarily through dynamic storytelling and emotional connection and succeeded in raising brand awareness so high that the Nike Swoosh logo transcended the bounds of advertising and became a symbol of hope and motivation. 

Coca-Cola: “Share a Coke”

Coca-Cola, or Coke, is an iconic beverage brand and has been around for longer than most people have been alive. The company’s “Share a Coke” campaign relied on personalization to appeal to potential customers and showcase a sense of unity and friendship. “Share a Coke," the commercials recommended, “with friends and loved ones.”

By replacing the brand’s logo on bottles and cans with popular names like Mike and Sara, Coca-Cola not only connected with potential customers on a personal level but also succeeded in building brand awareness. For years, everybody was talking about the cans that had their names on them. People would stop in aisles and search every bottle of Coke, a beverage they might have otherwise replaced with Pepsi, to buy whichever one featured their name or their friends’ names.

This novel approach transformed ordinary purchases into a unique, personalized experience that customers eagerly shared on social media platforms, essentially turning the branded merchandise campaign into a digital marketing campaign through user-generated content.

Dove: “Real Beauty”

Dove, a skincare and beauty company, launched its “Real Beauty” campaign in 2004 and revolutionized the beauty industry’s standard conventions. This campaign underscores the power of brand merchandising in shaping societal norms, driving brand loyalty, and influencing consumer behavior.

By challenging conventional beauty standards and promoting body positivity, Dove not only established a powerful emotional connection with its customers but also paved the way for a new wave of cultural theory in women’s studies courses across the U.S.

This campaign was the first international campaign of its size to feature “real” women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities in its advertisements. Dove’s commitment to inclusivity added credibility to its decision to turn merchandise into symbols of compassion and acceptance.

The brand’s message, spread through email marketing campaigns, billboards, TV spots, and more, gripped the audience’s attention through emotional storytelling that resonated across demographics. As a result, today, Dove is known as a budget-friendly brand synonymous with body positivity and self-confidence.

Tesla: “The Tesla Tequila Launch”

The EV powerhouse Tesla has proven that brand awareness campaigns aren’t limited to more spectacular industries. The “Tesla Tequila Launch” serves as a shining example and highlights the ability to use humor and comedy to drive successful marketing campaigns.

On April Fools Day, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, made a joke on social media about “Teslaquila,” a Tesla-branded tequila. The tweet went viral, and Musk received an overwhelmingly positive response, with millions of fans expressing an interest in actually buying such a product. So Tesla decided to make it real.

The product design itself, a striking lightning-bolt–shaped bottle, echoed Tesla’s brand association with EVs. And the decision to partner with tequila makers in Mexico to produce top-shelf tequila for the product reinforced Tesla’s status as a top-shelf, luxury car maker.

On launch day, the product sold out in hours, proving the power of social media marketing when combined with branded merchandise.

Starbucks: “Red Cup Holiday Campaign”

Starbucks’ red cups are a masterclass in seasonal brand merchandising. Every year around Christmas, Starbucks reintroduces its signature red cups, capitalizing on seasonal shopping patterns and boosting excitement among its loyal customers.

These cups have become synonymous with the holiday season, connecting consumers emotionally with both the Starbucks brand and the warmth, cheer, and togetherness of the season. Starbucks employed a simple product design for these disposable cups with a color pattern and graphics that complemented the business’s assortment of holiday-themed drinks.

This campaign highlights the effectiveness of using branded merchandise freebies to create emotional connections, foster customer loyalty, and build traditions that keep customers coming back year after year.

Supreme: Limited-Edition Drops

NYC-based streetwear brand Supreme is world-renowned for its highly effective, limited-edition merch drop strategy. By releasing a limited quantity of highly sought-after new products each week, Supreme manages to create an atmosphere of exclusivity and desire, much like the popular crowd of every teen drama film.

The exclusivity surrounding these products serves to turn them into symbols of status and style, which in turn leads to frenzied purchasing patterns of consumers clambering to be the first to procure these coveted pieces.

Supreme complements and fuels this behavior in the retail environment, both online and offline, with a minimalistic, branded design that spotlights the merchandise. The consistent sellouts and long queues during these weekly drops are a testament to the successful marketing strategies the brand sticks so strongly to.

Supreme’s limited-edition drop strategy serves as a unique case study of how exclusivity in brand merchandising can generate hype and demand and transform products into cultural phenomena.

Wendy’s: “Twitter Roasts”

Wendy’s is a fast food chain not commonly seen in the merchandising department. But if you’re a frequent user of social media accounts like Twitter, you’ll know that Wendy’s has mastered the art of brand merchandising using social media. Case in point: the “Twitter Roasts” campaign.

The Wendy’s Twitter account frequently writes humorous, sarcastic, and delightfully edgy tweets in response to customers and competitors. These “Twitter Roasts” have been a viral sensation for years, liked by many, loved by most, and ... hated by a number of people. But this controversial approach to social media management has resulted in the profile growing to nearly four million followers (June 2023).

Wendy’s does this by showcasing the brand’s personality and sense of humor, which offers customers freebies in the form of enjoyable experiences. This unique connection with customers has helped to position Wendy’s as a bold, engaging entity in an otherwise highly saturated market.

Old Spice: “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

The old adage “sex sells” rings particularly true in Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, launched in 2010. Old Spice is a deodorant manufacturer, prominent in the men’s hygiene space. In this campaign, the brand uses charismatic and humorous character personalities to promote its products.

This campaign featured fast-paced TV commercials with Isaiah Mustafa in uniquely absurd situations, like riding a white horse on the beach and offering the viewer a handful of diamonds. It cleverly targeted two target audiences whose demographics previously had little to no crossover: young men and young women.

Through humor, hilarious storytelling, social commentary, and strategic manipulation of seemingly disparate target audiences, Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign provided to be an incredibly successful rebranding initiative for the company.

Red Bull: “Stratos”

Red Bull’s “Stratos” campaign, launched in 2012, took brand merchandising to new heights—literally. The energy drink company sponsored daredevil Felix Baumgartner, a well-known skydiver and BASE jumper, in his world-record attempt to skydive from the stratosphere.

As part of the campaign, Red Bull encouraged social media users to produce their own content and label it with the campaign’s hashtag: #stratos. This resulted in an outpouring of user-generated content from millions of people, with tens of millions more tuning in to watch the company’s live stream with Baumgartner.

By kitting out Baumgartner in Red Bull gear and playing up the company’s sponsorship, the company employed a variation of influencer marketing and raked in more than eight million total social media interactions across its content.

Key Takeaways and Lessons from These Successful Marketing Campaigns

From our exploration of successful marketing campaigns come several important insights and takeaways that I’d like to make sure you remember:

• Emotion connection is a powerful tool. Apple and Starbucks both teach us that marketing isn’t just about selling a product but offering an experience and telling a story to create a feeling that resonates with potential customers on a personal level.

• Brand consistency reinforces a brand’s message. Campaigns like Teslaquila highlight the importance of keeping branded merchandise on-brand and in alignment with the image you’d like to present to the world.

• Exclusivity and scarcity can drive frenzied consumer behavior. Supreme’s limited-edition merch drops are a testament to the power of exclusivity and scarcity to create social media and cultural buzz around a brand.

• Out-of-the-box thinking wows viewers into making purchases. Red Bull, Wendy’s, and Old Spice prove that absurdity, humor, and lofty goals can generate substantial returns.

• Understanding your target audience is a mission-critical task. Like how Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign paved the path for potential customers to make purchases, sociologists to teach courses, and cultural philosophy to change for decades, sometimes all it takes is an ability to read the room.

Conclusion

If you’re wondering why there aren’t any small businesses or startups on this list, rest assured knowing that there are countless ways to put brand merchandising strategies to work for you no matter the size of your business. Content marketing, black Friday incentives, social media campaigns, and even podcasts can help put any type of campaign in front of the right audience.

And my colleagues at Getzler Henrich and I would be happy to help. If you have any questions about these techniques or you’d like help forming a template for your own successful marketing campaign, contact us. The answer might surprise you.