Midway through the year is the right time to audit your branded merchandise program against the goals you set in January. The metrics that matter: Are the items you ordered getting used, or are they sitting in a storage room? Are reorder requests coming in from the field, or has demand stalled? Is your brand represented consistently across all the items in circulation, or have variations crept in? At Champ ESP, we run mid-year reviews with our account clients to catch drift early and adjust the program before the second half of the year. A program that is measured improves; one that runs on autopilot typically declines.