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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business Interview. I'm sean Ailmam.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the easiest ways for businesses to market

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Speaker 1: themselves to new and existing customers branded merchandise, but when

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Speaker 1: something like sixty six percent of branded merch ends up

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Speaker 1: in landfill, it can become an expensive and potentially wasteful

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Speaker 1: way of getting your message out there. Merchant is a

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Speaker 1: digital platform in a very analog industry, streamlining the process

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Speaker 1: for companies to invest in branded merchandise. We've partnered with

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Speaker 1: them as well to produce Fear and Greed merchandise. You

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Speaker 1: might have seen our Fear and Greed hats in some

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Speaker 1: of our social media videos, but Merchant draws a very

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Speaker 1: clear line between making merchandise and compromising its own ethics.

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Speaker 1: In its early days, it turned out an order for

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand plastic whistles because they knew

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Speaker 1: every one of them would likely end up in Sydney Harbor.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Reid is the CEO of Mercher, which is a

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Speaker 1: partner of this podcast. He joins me now in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Ben Welcome to Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Oh thank you so much for having me. It's lovely

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Speaker 2: to be here.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about the whistles.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the whistles. So that was very early days. We

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Speaker 2: launched the business in February of twenty twenty two. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't long after that, so, you know, a time we

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Speaker 2: would have really really enjoyed having, you know, a large

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Speaker 2: order like that, and it was from large organization, which

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Speaker 2: is not unlike the one that we're you know, the

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Speaker 2: building we're sitting in here, and you know, we had

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Speaker 2: a very we drew a very clear line at Mercha

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Speaker 2: in the early days that we were not going to

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Speaker 2: support what we'd say is cheap, pre land filled junk.

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Speaker 2: And unfortunately a lot of promotional products are just that

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Speaker 2: their lowest common denominator. They are literally built to fail.

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Speaker 2: And the person that was looking to place the order

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Speaker 2: was just looking for something for New Year's If we

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Speaker 2: knew all of them were going to end up in

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Speaker 2: the bin, or they're going to the harbor, or they

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Speaker 2: gonna end up in nature somewhere, and it would have

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Speaker 2: been great to have the cash at that point, but

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Speaker 2: we decided it was better not to do it, and

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Speaker 2: I think it was right, the right decision, and we

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Speaker 2: know who did it as well as one of our competitors.

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Speaker 1: So right, okay, so how do you think about where

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Speaker 1: the merchandise comes from. How can we be sure that

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Speaker 1: if we get to your business, we aren't getting things

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Speaker 1: out of a Bangladeshi factory of people of you know,

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Speaker 1: slave libe. It's that type of thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. So so first of all, Bangladesh is has

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Speaker 2: both good and bad suppliers. So one of our favorite,

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Speaker 2: one of our best suppliers, as Color actually wearing an

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Speaker 2: as colored T shirt. They manufacture in Bangladesh and they

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Speaker 2: do it well. So it's not so it's not necessarily

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Speaker 2: the place, but the supplier. All of our suppliers are

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Speaker 2: independently certified. So you know, O Techo, there's there's a

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Speaker 2: few kind of major bodies that certify you know that

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Speaker 2: they number one, improve the communities, don't trash them. They

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Speaker 2: pay their people well, they support you know, growth and

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Speaker 2: things like that, and they do it in a meaningful way.

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Speaker 2: So all of our suppliers are self certified by these organizations.

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Speaker 2: But we actually also make them sign a what we

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Speaker 2: call a Supplier for Good pledge that basically says they're

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Speaker 2: not going to engage in slave labor. They're not going

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Speaker 2: to create an unnecessary waste and things like that. In

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Speaker 2: this day and age, you can't be one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: clear all the time. I mean to go and U

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Speaker 2: has kind of been a figurehead of you know, responsible production.

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Speaker 2: They don't always get it right, so it is hard.

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Speaker 2: It is hard to manage. We don't literally fly to

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Speaker 2: every factory, but we do. You know, have to rely

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Speaker 2: on some of these organizations to support them. But my

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Speaker 2: co founder Sam, he comes to the industry, he knows

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Speaker 2: the good suppliers, he knows the bad ones. So we've

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Speaker 2: kind of hand picked the suppliers, not all the suppliers

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Speaker 2: to kind of make it through to become merchant suppliers.

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Speaker 1: And are there's certain regions that most of the supplies

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Speaker 1: come from.

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Speaker 2: So look, most of the things that that are produced

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Speaker 2: come from China. And again you have to think about

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Speaker 2: the not the place, but the right. So China is

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Speaker 2: one of the best manufacturers in the world, and they

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Speaker 2: manufacture great things. I mean, if you look around the room,

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Speaker 2: and I would say the vast majority of things in

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Speaker 2: here are produced in China, but China would be the majority. Again,

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Speaker 2: as color produces in Bangladesh, we have some suppliers like Belroy,

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Speaker 2: which is a great Aussie brand, which is quite special.

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Speaker 2: You know, they produced a lot in China. They do

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Speaker 2: use Vietnam. So you know, we don't pay as much

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Speaker 2: attention to where our suppliers choose to, you know, create

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Speaker 2: their goods as long as they do it again, they

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Speaker 2: make them to last, and they made them fairly Okay.

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Speaker 1: So in a world of digital advertising, why does merch

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Speaker 1: still matter?

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Speaker 2: Now?

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Speaker 1: I can ask my kids that, and my kids love merch.

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Speaker 1: Right if they play in any sporting team, the most

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Speaker 1: exciting moment isn't that first try or the first goal

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Speaker 1: or whatever. It's getting the merch at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, and I think you know,

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Speaker 2: we are in a digital age. We've been in digital

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Speaker 2: age for a long time. You know, with the advent

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Speaker 2: of AI, it's not even advent, it's very much happening.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're going to see for further digitalization of everything.

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Speaker 2: You know, having something that you can feel and touch,

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Speaker 2: something that you can wear and own, you know, is

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Speaker 2: still very meaningful, as is sitting here face to face.

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Speaker 2: We could have done this, you know, I could have

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Speaker 2: sat at my office and done this with you. But

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Speaker 2: it's actually really lovely to sit here and look at

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Speaker 2: you face to face. Same way that a brand can

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Speaker 2: represent themselves with merch provided it's done right, and done

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Speaker 2: right is the you know, the key part of that.

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Speaker 2: If they're making something that's cheap, if it's going to

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Speaker 2: fall apart after one use or not even one use,

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Speaker 2: it's better just to save the money and not do it.

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Speaker 2: But I think there's a very real tangible benefit for

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Speaker 2: your brand in the long run of having something beautiful,

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Speaker 2: you know, that is made to last and made fairly

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Speaker 2: that somebody can keep and use for years to come.

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Speaker 1: So what is good? I mean, what sort of merchandise

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Speaker 1: do you produce? Number one? And what is it that

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Speaker 1: most people want?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good questions. So I'll start with the second question.

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Speaker 2: So you know, there is an eighty twenty rule to

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Speaker 2: merch you know, the parade or principal rule supreme. A

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Speaker 2: lot of people will order the T shirt, the Humble

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Speaker 2: T shirt, notebooks, water bottles, pens, caps, those are all

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Speaker 2: very very popular items. We do find people that are

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Speaker 2: interested in trying new things, doing things a little bit differently.

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Speaker 2: We did this fantastic project with we basically created these

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Speaker 2: bright red kit Kat tracksuits that we did. We worked

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Speaker 2: with an agency to do it. I think it's tvw A.

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Speaker 2: You know, they wanted something of special and different and

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Speaker 2: we have a lot of people who like those things

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Speaker 2: as well. I talked about Belroy before. You know, Belroy

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Speaker 2: is more expensive, but it's really special. I mean I've

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Speaker 2: got my Bellroy backpack sitting over there with much of

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Speaker 2: branded on it. It's a great Aussie brand and it

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Speaker 2: really is meaningful. You know, if you're trying to give

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Speaker 2: something away that's special, you know to a C level

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Speaker 2: level executive who gets given a lot of things, that's

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Speaker 2: that's kind of way to cut through. And sorry, I

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Speaker 2: got your first question.

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Speaker 1: The well, actually we'll be back in the moment Ben,

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Speaker 1: because we just take a break. I'm speaking to Ben Reid,

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Speaker 1: CEO of Mercher. So the first part of that question

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Speaker 1: was kind of the breadth of what you produce. Oh,

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Speaker 1: clearly you produce everything and anything.

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Speaker 2: Lots of things. You know, you can put your brand

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Speaker 2: on just about anything. It's really important to note that

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Speaker 2: you know this this industry you're you know, you buy

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Speaker 2: basically blank supply. So we have most of our suppliers

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Speaker 2: in fact, all but one are local Ausy businesses. They

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Speaker 2: design and they produce these goods and then they hold

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Speaker 2: them here in local Australian warehouses not too far away

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Speaker 2: from where we are right now. But there is a

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Speaker 2: multitude of things you can put your brand on. I

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Speaker 2: mean you can literally put your brand on just by anything.

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Speaker 2: It can be a pen, it can be a wallet. Seven.

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Speaker 2: So we you know, we try to our inch wide,

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Speaker 2: mile deep target is and the people that we're really

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Speaker 2: trying to service right now at this stage of our growth,

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Speaker 2: they are financial services companies, professional services companies, technology companies,

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Speaker 2: you know who really appreciate our smooth, kind of seamless

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Speaker 2: online purchasing experience. And you know their needs are different

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Speaker 2: than say a mining company. Right. So we have workware

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Speaker 2: in our range, but we don't have a lot. We

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Speaker 2: have things that cover kind of the basics. We don't

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Speaker 2: cover everything that the miners might need, but we cover

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Speaker 2: pretty much everything that any professional service or technology company

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Speaker 2: or financial service company would want. So whether it's pens

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Speaker 2: or chargers or anything, we have all of it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking about merchandis more than I've ever

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Speaker 1: thought about before. In this very moment been with you.

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Speaker 1: Good trends in merch where some products suddenly everyone wants

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Speaker 1: a cap and then everyone wants a pain and then

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Speaker 1: like that, does it happen that way?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean there was a very clear trend a

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Speaker 2: couple of years ago. Actually we wanted the business. You know,

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Speaker 2: there's something happening in the world, COVID. You guys remember that,

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Speaker 2: and you remember having to wear a face mask everywhere

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Speaker 2: you went all the time. And so we had a

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Speaker 2: whole range of ppe, you know, personal protective protective equipment

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Speaker 2: and face masks and things like that, and we would

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Speaker 2: sell them by the truckloads. And now we hardly sell

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Speaker 2: any right, Yes, I don't think anybody wants to wear

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Speaker 2: a face mask anymore if they can avoid it, you know,

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Speaker 2: trends outside of that, again, I think the staples are

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Speaker 2: always the staples, the eighty twenty rule. In fact, it

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Speaker 2: is probably you know, closer to ninety ten in our case.

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Speaker 2: There are a lot of similarities between what people want,

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Speaker 2: you know, they just might prefer a different design. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, for the last however many years, you know,

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Speaker 2: people have been conscious about their water consumption. So you

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Speaker 2: see a lot of water bottles right, We have a

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Speaker 2: lot of different designs of water bottles. We don't have hundreds,

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Speaker 2: we have tens. We did that deliberately, so we don't

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Speaker 2: want to you know, paralyze people by choice. But I

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Speaker 2: think you'll find that good products like that staples, you know,

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Speaker 2: there's always going to be a need for them, because

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Speaker 2: everybody needs a good water ball. Everybody should at least

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Speaker 2: have a good a good water ball to try to

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Speaker 2: try to tell me kids all the time because they

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Speaker 2: don't drink water enough. But you know, some other trends,

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Speaker 2: I think lately you've seen, you know again some things

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Speaker 2: that are kind of a little bit more special. So

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Speaker 2: we've seen more of these kind of more premium products,

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Speaker 2: like the Belroys of the world. You know, we're about

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Speaker 2: to launch. I don't if I'm supposed say this, but

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Speaker 2: where I think exploring having some north Faced products on

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Speaker 2: our site. North Face is another fantastic brand, very similar

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Speaker 2: in Ethos actually the Patagonia, although their brand has been

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Speaker 2: kind of, you know, globally more targeted at performance, whereas

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Speaker 2: patagon has always been about sustainability. But I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: there's been a broad secular shift in the world of

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Speaker 2: having less stuff, but more quality stuff and stuff that is,

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Speaker 2: you know, that is useful in your life that you're

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Speaker 2: not just given. I worked in corporate, I was given,

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Speaker 2: you know, a plethora of you know of things that

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Speaker 2: I just didn't use. And I think that is just

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Speaker 2: a there's far too much stuff in the world, you know,

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Speaker 2: the world's filling up with things we don't need, and

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Speaker 2: it's running out of things we do need. So I

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Speaker 2: think in general, the biggest trend would be just a

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Speaker 2: flate quality.

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Speaker 1: So if I'm sitting in a small business or a

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Speaker 1: large business, I'm going to mercher dot com, m Erha

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Speaker 1: dot com, dot au. It's purple and the alive just

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Speaker 1: gone there. So if you're unlocking fifty bucks off your

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Speaker 1: first order, that's all good.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: If I'm a marketing running marketing in a small, medium

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Speaker 1: or large sized business, what's your advice on how to

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Speaker 1: think about merchandise?

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Speaker 2: What's the bottom line? Yeah, So I think start with

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Speaker 2: what is the purpose of what you're trying to give

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Speaker 2: to somebody? So it's very simple to say, but I don't.

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Speaker 2: I often think that gets lost. You're a marketer, You're busy.

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Speaker 2: We know, merch is often an afterthought. It shouldn't be.

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Speaker 2: It's great when it's done well, but it is often

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Speaker 2: an afterthought. So think about what is the purpose. What

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Speaker 2: are you trying to achieve? Right? If you're giving your

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Speaker 2: you know, if you have a distributed team as an example,

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Speaker 2: you know, we still see a lot of work from home.

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Speaker 2: I think not as much as I was expecting to

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Speaker 2: see given the whole COVID and then you know, back

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Speaker 2: to work. But you know, if you're giving your team,

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Speaker 2: you know, merch that you want them to actually use

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Speaker 2: and wear outside of the office, it has to be

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Speaker 2: done well. You know, very few people want to wear

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Speaker 2: a big GUARDI logo. They don't want something that doesn't

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Speaker 2: fit well. They don't want something that's poor quality. So

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Speaker 2: think about the purpose first and then work back from there.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic, Ben, thank you for talking to Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

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Speaker 1: It was Ben Read, CEO of Mercher. That's m. E. R.

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Speaker 1: C h A. Meercher dot com dot au, a partner

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Speaker 1: of this podcast. This is the Fear and Greed Business Interview.

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Speaker 1: Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed Business news for people who make their own decisions.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean, I all Mike enjoy today