The project starts late. The event is approaching. The new clients are arriving. The employee milestone is next week. So the first question becomes: “What can we get in time?” That question may solve the deadline. It does not solve the marketing problem. Before anyone looks at products, the brief should answer five things: Who is receiving it? What is happening in their relationship with the business? What should the product help them remember, feel, or do? How will it reach them? What result would make the program worth repeating? Without those answers, even a good product can become an expensive object with no clear job. Merch does not belong at the end of the marketing plan after every important decision has been made. If it is expected to welcome, recognize, reconnect, generate referrals, or keep the business remembered, it belongs in the plan from the beginning. Before searching for a product, complete this sentence: “This merchandise needs to help ____________________.” If your merch keeps becoming a last-minute order, join my free community, Get Your Merch Made. Bring the audience, business goal, and deadline and we’ll work through the strategy before the product is chosen.