Minecraft Merchandising: Designing and Selling Custom Merch for Your Minecraft Brand
Selling custom merchandise for your Minecraft brand in New Zealand can kill three birds with one stone: you’ll promote your brand, foster robust relationships with your audience, and raise funds for your upcoming projects. It’s essentially a win-win-win situation. Better still, your hardcore followers will love the opportunity to support your enterprise and part with awesome stuff in return.
Even though it’s easier said than done, you still can get things right if you make the right moves, much like playing strategy-based gambling games like blackjack and poker at MrBet or on any other regulated iGaming site. Of course, getting it right requires several vital considerations and research. Fortunately, this post will simplify your work and provide insightful guidelines on launching your Minecraft merchandising venture from scratch. But first, let’s understand the rules of the game.
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Is It Legal to Sell Your Minecraft Brand?
Yes, you can legally sell merchandise for your Minecraft enterprise. The developers encourage fans to create and share Minecraft-inspired clothes, handcrafted toys, and other merch with their communities. As such, this is an excellent opportunity for you to share the fruits of your creative labor and rake in some bucks from your unique designs. That said, here are the rules you should follow:
- Refrain from commercializing the Minecraft brand’s name and assets;
- Don’t run an entity that sells products featuring Minecraft’s assets, brand, or name;
- Only commercialize your unique design with sufficient personal creativity to make it original and distinctive;
- Your merchandise shouldn’t comprise Minecraft’s music, software, or audio;
- Don’t mass-produce the product or distribute it via a major retailer;
- Don’t create over 20 products bearing a similar design;
- Only sell the products through a channel, service, or website that independently records sales quantities;
- Your product sales don’t exceed the $5,000 mark.
Additionally, you can use the Minecraft word in your listing, title, service, or product to describe your offering’s purpose fairly and honestly. However, ‘Minecraft’ should be the secondary title, not the distinctive or dominant element of the title or name. In addition, avoid including the brand logo or using its name as search keywords for unrelated, counterfeit, or infringing products.
How to Design Your Merch
When designing your merchandise, a rule of thumb is understanding your reason for creating the item and your target audience. Here are the steps to streamline your ideas and make merch that aligns with your enterprise and fans:
Hone Your Brand’s Identity
You probably have a recognizable brand identity if you’ve been marketing yourself for a while. Those just starting might still be working on it. Either way, you must take time to think about your brand’s unique aspects. This step will clarify your vision so you can set the overall aesthetic to reflect your Minecraft-inspired brand in your merch designs.
Understand Your Audience’s Needs
After determining your company’s identity, you will focus on understanding your audience better. This group comprises your supporters, fans, followers, or customers. You may feel like you know them, but you must dig deeper into what they want. Why? So that you can create exactly the item they truly love. You can get around this using Instagram polls with these considerations in mind:
- Who do you expect to buy your product?
- What do they value about your work or you?
- Which jokes, catchphrases, or motifs do they prefer?
The answers will guide you aptly, and your audience will feel you appreciate their views.
Design Creation and Product Selection
The fun part involves using your audience’s insights and goals to create custom merchandise. Generally, you’ll plan the colors and styles and play with various designs to determine your design’s contrasting elements. Creating mock-up designs, brainstorming concepts, and exploring current trends will help you properly bring your vision to reality. Creators who refine their designs enjoy huge payoffs after launching their merch campaigns.
Promoting Your Merch
After designing your product and preparing the selling platforms, it’ll be time to present your latest offerings to your followers. Here are some marketing best practices to heed:
- Use enticing visuals – Attract followers to your creations in an engaging way;
- Leverage various content types – Pushy and repetitive content puts off prospects. So, use unique and varied content in a friendly, inviting tone;
- Use a single link – Providing many link options can confuse customers. Instead, share one link directing them to your merchandise order page;
- Utilize social media – Create aggressive promotion campaigns on social media. Facebook and Twitter are just fine, but Instagram can be the best resource, considering it’s a visual medium.
Time to Take Your Game to the Next Level
Selling merchandise can go a long way in promoting your company, fostering robust audience relationships, and raising funds. Use the above guidelines to get your plan right and keep growing.
