You know that the merch industry is growing up when more and more client conversations aren’t really about the products at all.
This is a fundamental change in how value is created through our medium. For years, the industry operated in a familiar pattern. A client needed something – an event giveaway, an employee gift, a campaign touchpoint – and the distributor’s role was to respond with options. Success was measured by speed, price and, ideally, a product the client liked well enough to reorder.
Mason Linn, CAS
Sr. Manager, Community & Strategic Partnerships, PPAI
That model still exists. But it’s no longer where the growth is, PPAI 100 companies say. The firms leading the way aren’t just responding to requests. They’re reframing them.
From Requests To Objectives
At its core, elevating merch isn’t about finding better products. It’s about asking better questions before a product is ever discussed.
- What is this program (not product) meant to achieve?
- Who is the campaign audience (not product recipient)?
- What is the brand (not the event) all about?
These aren’t new questions. What’s changed is the discipline to stay with them long enough and dig deeper to shape the outcome.
Too often, product conversations begin before those answers are clear. When that happens, even strong ideas can miss the mark – not because the merch is wrong, but because the objective was never fully defined.
The most effective distributors today are comfortable slowing that moment down. They’re not rushing to fill a brief. They’re refining it.
Confidence To Lead
This shift requires a different kind of confidence.
It’s easier, in the short term, to move quickly. Boom, boom, boom: Present options, keep momentum and meet the client where they are. Elevating the conversation means occasionally doing the opposite. It means pushing for clarity when timelines are tight. It means redirecting when the initial ask doesn’t align with the stated goal.
That can feel risky, especially in a competitive environment.
But the distributors doing this well understand clients don’t just value responsiveness. They value perspective. They want you to be an expert, not an order-taker.
When a partner demonstrates that they’re thinking beyond the order and considering audience, brand alignment and long-term impact, it changes the dynamic. The conversation shifts from transactional to strategic.
Leaders Leaning In
Large distributors have an advantage here, but it’s structure, not scale.
They’ve invested in roles, processes and training that support more intentional conversations. Account teams are equipped to lead discovery, not just execution. Creative and strategic resources are integrated earlier in the process. Data and insights are used to inform decisions, not just report on them after the fact.
In other words, they’ve built systems that make better conversations the default.
That doesn’t mean smaller organizations can’t do the same. In many cases, they’re actually more agile. But it does require a conscious shift from reacting to requests to shaping them.
There’s a misconception that elevating the conversation means making things more complex. In practice, the opposite is often true. Clarity tends to simplify decisions.
When the objective is well-defined, the range of viable solutions narrows. The conversation becomes more focused. The rationale becomes easier to communicate internally, both for the distributor and the client.
Greater Expectations
If the market wasn’t asking for more, none of this would be necessary, of course. But the demands are clear.
As more organizations experience what a well-structured, strategically guided merch program looks like, the baseline shifts. “Good enough” becomes easier to spot and easier to move away from.
Elevating the conversation doesn’t require a complete overhaul, though. It starts with small, consistent changes:
- Pause before presenting the usual products.
- Ask one more question than feels necessary.
- Clarify the outcome before suggesting the solution.
Over time, those habits compound. Clients begin to expect a different kind of engagement. Internal teams align around clearer objectives.
The catalog doesn’t change. The thinking does.
Where This Is Headed
If the industry is moving toward more intentional, higher-impact merch – and all signs suggest it must – then the differentiator won’t be access to products. It will be the ability to guide the conversation that leads to them.
That’s where value is being created.
And for distributors looking to grow, the takeaway is straightforward: Elevating merch starts well before the product is chosen. It starts with how you talk about it.
