Even though the current school year is coming to a close, club and chapter leaders across the country are starting to plan for the fall semester, beginning with recruitment for their student organization.
While searching for possible ideas for my own chapter of Her Campus, I personally struggled trying to find unique items for merchandise. Below I listed nine merch ideas for your student organizations, whether you get them for the whole chapter, for recruitment, or for giveaways, hopefully you’ll find something clever and within your budget.
You can view part one here.
1. Custom Hand Sanitizers
Timely, portable, extremely useful, and so much fun! When doing this though, actually pick a place you’re fond of – I’m sure we’ve all had experiences of ‘free’ hand sanitizers smelling off or having a weird texture.
2. Beach Towels
Especially with an organization like Her Campus, beach towels would be super cute for those beach trips with the girls.
3. Scrunchies
Slightly more difficult, but even if you don’t get ones with your exact organization name or logo on them, you could always do matching ones as gifts for your members.
4. Pens
Once again, another addition that is extremely useful and practical. Similarly, try ordering from a place you’re actually fond of and that you trust so that you don’t end up with pens no one wants or pens that don’t look good. These are especially great for recruiting events!
5. Key Chains
You could go a lot of different ways with this and how you want them to turn out. These would be super cute for a member gift or a giveaway for your student organization.
6. Pins/Buttons
These you can take a few different ways, even the cheaper buttons still look cute on backpacks and will promote your student organization long after the moment they’re handed out.
7. Car Decals
Very fitting for a college student organization; your members will likely love these so much that they’ll keep it on their car even after graduating. For this, make sure you order stickers that are actually designed for car windows and outdoor wear and tear.
8. Pillows/ Pillow Cases
For this, you probably don’t want it to be a straight up advertisement (perhaps consider using a phrase), but these would be cute apartment decor.
9. Phone Cases
Not the easiest option on the list, so if you choose to do this you need to be prepared for a lot of work since everyone has different phones and versions.
You can find several options for each of these items with a quick search and from there you’ll pick based on your budget and desired quantity. I will however, recommend checking out Etsy first or other small business before going straight towards the big name brands.
Merchandise in general is a great investment as they can assist you during peak recruitment times to showcase opportunities within your organization and for bringing together your team and taking cute photos. Even after the initial purchases and handouts are said and done, these items will continue to show off and promote your club as students and the community will see all these items in use throughout the year.