What if one of the biggest opportunities facing the branded merchandise industry isn’t a new product, emerging technology, greater diversity or “youthification”?
What if it’s our vocabulary?
Danny Rosin, CAS
PPAI Board Chair
For decades, we’ve measured success using familiar metrics: cost per unit, budget, margin, impressions and CPM. Those numbers matter. They help us manage programs, demonstrate efficiency and make informed business decisions. But they rarely capture the full value of what we create.
Maybe CPM shouldn’t only mean cost per thousand impressions. In our industry, perhaps it could also mean Cost Per Moment: the investment required to create an experience someone genuinely remembers.
When branded merchandise is done well, we don’t simply distribute products. We influence how people feel, connect, remember, belong and take action. We welcome someone on their first day of work. We recognize an achievement, inspire a donor, strengthen a community or turn a customer into a lifelong advocate.
Perhaps it’s time we begin measuring those outcomes, too.
Instead of focusing only on return on investment, what if we also considered Return On Gratitude (ROG)? A thoughtful gift can make an employee feel appreciated, a customer feel valued or a volunteer feel recognized. That response may not fit neatly into a conventional spreadsheet, but it creates real value for an organization.
For marketers, we might measure Cost Per Smile (CPS), Cost Per Conversation (CPC) or Cost Per Recommendation (CPR). We could track trust per touchpoint, affinity per interaction and the lifetime of a logo.
We could even rethink NPS. In addition to Net Promoter Score, what about Net Pride Score? The defining question might be: “Would you proudly wear your company’s T-shirt in public?” A Wearability Index (WI) could help determine whether a product is desirable enough to become part of someone’s regular routine rather than disappearing into a drawer.
The same thinking applies to employee culture. What is the value of a meaningful welcome, a sincere thank-you or an important moment of recognition? What does it cost to create an employee advocate – or a team story people continue telling years later?
For community initiatives, success might be measured by volunteers inspired, donors engaged or neighbors supported. It could even be expressed as the Cost Per Clean Water Project, as organizations such as PromoCares demonstrate how branded merchandise can help support tangible, life-changing work.
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Sustainability deserves a broader vocabulary, too. Purchase price alone does not tell us how responsibly a product performs. Cost Per Kept Product (CPKP) considers whether an item remains useful and valued over time. We could also examine years of use, products diverted from landfills and circular choices encouraged.
These ideas are not intended to replace traditional business metrics – those are at the center of PPAI’s Merch Moves Us campaign, and as an industry we should rally around it. We must demonstrate to end buyers the medium’s effectiveness through traditional data. But we should also recognize that the cheapest product is rarely the least expensive.
A product that is quickly discarded wastes money, creates environmental consequences and builds no loyalty. A thoughtfully selected product can generate memories, conversations, belonging, advocacy and pride. It becomes part of someone’s story.
Our industry has evolved far beyond “free stuff.” We help organizations build cultures, welcome employees, celebrate achievements, strengthen communities, inspire generosity and create lasting brand connections.
We’ve got to capture that impact. The future of branded merchandise won’t be defined solely by what something costs. It will be defined by what it creates. And that may be the most valuable metric of all.
