Trends and fashions rake society across all its manifestations. While the latest favoured music and clothing are traditionally what we'd associate with the term fashion, there are more subtle prompts around us which many people follow unconsciously. Objectively analysing your overall promotional merchandise strategy can reveal the aspects of it which mindlessly say "me too" and those parts which are uniquely related to the ambitions and activities of your organisation.

Part of the successful use of branded merchandise in marketing is its ability to cut through the generally impersonal mass of messages which occupy a high percentage of our exposure to the media. So many opinions and offers are presented to us every minute of every day it's almost impossible to identify them all. Because of the volume and the competing calls of different messages for your attention the whole becomes a ball of static which sits permanently in the background of our business lives. In other parts of our day a similar amalgam of noise and attention seeking distracts and diverts us from maintaining focus. It may be in both cases we become so immune to the endless messaging in our direction that we have learned to block it out and our default position of consciousness is to file any new incoming call for attention in the same category.

While following the latest fashion can induce a burst of recognition and attention the reality of the life cycle of a fashion is similar to a contagious disease. As it reaches its peak of popularity it is near the end of its life and the end result of everyone being exposed is for a level of resistance to develop in the market. Once a fashion has been fully played out and all segments of society exposed to it there remains afterwards a residual likelihood that the fashion will not be embraced again in a generation.

Choosing a promotional merchandise idea which matches the impressions and behaviours of your client list is the same in many ways as buying a new shirt or a pair of shoes. The temptation is always there to select the item which is front and centre in the shop window and represents everything which is currently top of mind in popular culture. But like a pair of shoes of a new shirt, it's important to consider the uses you have planned for your new branding opportunity before rushing in and being carried away by the excitement of something which has captured the popular imagination. It could be perfectly okay to buy the latest, most colourful idea on the shelf if the purpose of doing so is to momentarily capture the public imagination and take advantage of the momentum popular culture provides.