Branded Merchandise You Can Smell | A lesson in asking yourself – “What if?”
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Branded Merchandise You Can Smell | A lesson in asking yourself – “What if?”
Madison Wallace | Marketing Director, Promo Assets
Arby’s is no stranger to branded merchandise. During the summer of 2021, the fast-food chain made a splash with its ‘Beefy Aloha” line of branded merchandise full of bucket hats, flip-flops, swimsuits and Hawaiian-inspired shirts. The meat-themed collection is covered in palm branches, tropical flowers and, of course, their signature roast beef sandwich.
Yet, Arby’s most recent clothing-based marketing campaign has taken ‘meat sweats’ to a whole new level with its launch of Smoked Sweats promoting the limited-edition Real Country Style Rib Sandwich. The athleisure set features minimal decoration with a small embroidered “A” on each garment, but the real intrigue lies in the scent. Yep, you read that right – scent. This loungewear set packs a flavor-forward punch as the items are smoked over hickory before being vacuum-sealed and shipped to brand enthusiasts. The ingenious incorporation of the signature hickory aroma led to this novel set selling out within a day. While the smoky infusion won’t last forever, loyal Arby’s fans won’t soon forget the experience. Rather than just visual branding, Arby’s found a way to tap into the consumer’s sense of smell and create an unforgettable branded merchandise experience.
So, how can we, as distributors, draw inspiration from this story and get the creative juices flowing? What’s that added step you can take that will transform a conventional piece into extraordinary?
For Arby’s, inspiration for the meat-scented athleisure wear derived from the cooking process of the pork ribs featured in their new sandwich. Arby’s explains that it took one thought—I “wonder what a pair of premium sweats might smell like if they, too, were smoked over hickory wood for hours” – to uncover the striking possibility. Now, I’m not quite sure this is exactly how the decision came about, but it does lead to a prominent lesson: asking yourself “what if?”.
Asking “what if?” forces us to ponder a question in which there may be no previous precedent or example to rely on. It pushes us to uncover new possibilities, to look at what currently exists from a different angle. It’s easy to look at a project and think about why something can’t be done. Yet, the value lies in testing the status quo and challenging ourselves to contemplate the answers to our “what if?” questions. Innovation and differentiation lie in the answer to “what if?”.
What if we took this step out of the process? What if we automated this? What if we used a different decoration technique on this material? What if we shipped it like this instead? What if we added a digital element?
While we all might not be running to the nearest smoker to add a hickory aroma to our next order of branded merchandise, we should all be asking ourselves—“but, what if…?”