How do you promote your logo and brand among your students? We offer custom merchandise but tend to have low orders, no matter the price point.
We find that our tween and teenage students are our best brand ambassadors, especially when it comes to wearing logo items and posting on social media. They purchase items that they can wear to class and consider on-trend and fun. We run a logo-wear sale right before the holidays: That’s when we introduce new items and also clear out past styles.
If you are unsure of what to sell, ask your students and parents in a quick e-mail survey what they like or want you to carry. This process may reveal that it is time to redesign your logo, and you can use this as an opportunity to refresh your studio brand.
If you need help designing trendy logo wear, check out dancewear-specific vendors (Sugar and Bruno, Just For Kix and Limelight, for example) for their custom wear and in-house art teams that can make your logo and colors look fresh and new. Low-cost items such as car decals, coffee mugs and water bottles are also easy to stock and use as giveaways to promote your business.
You can make your merchandise relevant for your students by giving it as a dancer-of-the-month award. Or create an Instagram contest around it: Have students share pictures of themselves in your logo wear for a chance to win a gift card redeemable for more studio merchandise. You can also print and give away logo-printed items—reusable shopping bags, pens/pencils, key chains—as a thank-you to your parents at recital or registration.
Kathy Blake is the owner of Kathy Blake Dance Studios in Amherst, New Hampshire. She and Suzanne Blake Gerety are the co-founders of DanceStudioOwner.com.
Photo by B Hansen Photography, courtesy of Suzanne Blake Gerety
