Aaron Turner of Groovy Kaiju

TRAININGS COMPLETED:

• The Buddy System
• Run A Successful Crowdfund
• Selling Tickets for Live Shows
• The $1-A-Day Traffic Plan
• How To Get New Fans Daily (Fan Finder)
• Ones & Zeros 101
• How To Create Your Brand
• Make Merch That Fans Want
• How To Turn Listeners Into Real Fans
• Email Marketing for Musicians
• FREE + S&H Funnel Strategy
• How To Profit From A Launch Campaign
• How To Generate Sales Year-Round
• Grow Your Email/Text List
• Spotify Field Guide

Please give us a brief overview of your merchandise strategy and offerings over the last 12 months:
I run an annual survey in my Email Fan Club asking fans who have already bought merch, what future merch they'd actually buy and at what price. Then, I turn the winning ideas into a big merch drop every two months. This strategy has worked AWESOME for generating repeat purchases from my top supporters, as well as converting new fans to become ascended customers!

My Promotional Calendar was planned and executed as follows based on the 2023 Survey Feedback I got:

February: Most Popular Album Cassette Launch (Monster Tape Zero Cassette)

April: Groovy Kaiju Artist Plushie Launch

May: Premium Screen Printed Groovy Kaiju Shirts

July: New Album Drop (Radical Reptar CD & Tape Release)

September: Most Popular Album on Vinyl (Monster Tape Zero Vinyl)

October: Testing Album Drop for Side Project (Aviscerall)

November: Kaiju Club Survey & Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

Please describe your best selling merchandise and your most unique/creative merchandise:
My best selling and most creative merch are my Groovy Kaiju Plushies!

Plushies were something my fans were asking for a LONG time now, and I finally figured out how to get them made, by learning how to navigate Alibaba. I found a supplier, and sent them some ChatGPT generated ideas for a plushie. Which actually I don't recommend because you probably want to send better examples, but I got lucky and got an AWESOME plushie in return.

I took a lot of fun and goofy product photos of the plushies, ran an email campaign to my e-mail fan club, and they literally flew off of my website! I was sold all 60 (at an average price of $35) of them in like 2 months!

Describe your fulfillment process for merchandise orders:
I have two different ways of fulfilling merch orders:

I run a cold Free + Shipping & Handling funnel using Meta Ads, where I sell my most popular album as a CD. I have a 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) partner that I ship signed CDs and stickers to, and they handle about 90% of the orders generated from this F+SH funnel.

For high-value orders or any orders containing items not already at my 3PL warehouse, I fulfill them myself, usually with some help from my girlfriend. I use the second bedroom in my apartment to store merch and pack orders, which I do every few days. I use bubble mailers, plenty of bubble wrap, and cardboard vinyl mailers. For shipping, I buy all my labels through Pirateship and use a Rollo wireless printer for printing labels and packing slips!

Please describe your best strategic merch offer to your fans over the last 12 months:
Thankfully, I am at the point where I have enough different types of "cool stuff" as artist merch that, whenever I drop new items, I allow my fans to "build their own bundle" for every release, depending on what's most relevant to the merch item.

For example:

For my plushie launch, since I already have a supplier to make good-quality stickers quickly, I went ahead and made stickers of the plushie itself, so people can add those to their order.

For my new album launch, I looked at which album people were least likely to already own and used that album as an upsell, knowing they would be more likely to grab it to complete their collection.

This is all done using my custom-developed sales funnel tool, which allows my fans to build these bundles before going to the Shopify checkout! 🙂

Lastly, please tell us why you think you should be a finalist for the Merch Maniac Award:
I should be a finalist because my music, merch, and business are building a sustainable direct-to-fan connection where my fans and I provide financial support, personal stories, good vibes, and awesome experiences for each other. From plushies to cassettes to vinyl, every launch has been inspired by my fans and crafted to make them feel like they're part of the journey. This year has been amazing proof that using my fan feedback and learning from previous merch launches has created a system that's now finally consistently profitable and deeply personal to me and my fans! I'm honored and beyond thankful for everything this hard work, honest connections, SICK merch, and fun music have been able to build! Not just for me, but for everyone listening to and supporting my fun little merch ideas and artistry!