Tips On How To Convince Your Boss To Do Employee Swag For Culture & Brand Awareness
Swag can be a useful tool to help amplify an experience and build connections, but your boss sees it as an added cost. Whoomp whoomp. From their perspective, they see the invoice that lands on their desk without a way to measure the metrics. Did this swag really make a difference? That can be true if executed incorrectly and the swag wasn’t received well by the recipients. If utilized correctly with high-quality items, it has meaning or represents something within the company. If distributed in a meaningful way, then swag becomes a super useful engine to help create culture. If you find yourself struggling to convince your boss why your company should invest in swag for employees, the key is to understand what matters most to them.
When you’re in a leadership position you focus on 3 main things: Culture, Revenue, and Cost. Any leader can tell you they probably spend more time on the people's part than they would like. Why? Because culture can be a hard thing to create and maintain. Establishing a dynamic culture starts from the top, which means leaders need to set the tone for everyone else. Utilizing swag is a great way to build and create a company culture foundation.
Below, we’ll outline some effective rebuttals and tips to help you convince your boss to implement employee swag.
First, let’s start speaking their language. As mentioned above, every leader has culture, revenue, and costs at top of their mind and is ultimately measured in that way as well. So let’s build our use case by providing examples in the areas they care about.
It Creates Culture
Culture is probably the more obvious answer to why companies should invest in swag. While we will say just because you don’t have swag doesn’t mean your company lacks it. Swag is a tool to help enhance it. Here’s how,
Create Immediate Connection
Have you ever been part of a sports league or club? Sure you signed up but you didn’t really feel part of it until they gave you your jersey with your name on it. That’s exactly the point you should stress to your boss. Swag helps employees feel like they belong to the community of their company. It’s especially important when onboarding new hires. In this remote environment, it can be challenging to bring people together and create a sense of belonging. Providing branded swag can help establish a common thread of connection within the company. Which is a key trait every good boss should strive to achieve.
Instills Company Values
Every person in leadership must represent the company's values and ensure that everyone on their team is doing the same. But having to talk about it all the time and simultaneously practicing it can be hard to do. That’s where swag comes in! Swag is a great reminder of the company's values! Especially if your swag actually has the values printed on them. It’s a fantastic way to constantly remind employees of the traits they should embody. Think stickers they can put on their laptop or a t-shirt with the value across the chest.
💡Check Out Tips On Remote Culture!
Generates Revenue
Most bosses will probably not see this as a revenue generator, but swag definitely can be. If they are worried about this, we'll argue differently. Here’s why,
Brand Awareness
If your own employees are not proud to work at the company, why would clients want to work with you? The key part of building brand awareness is ensuring it starts from within. Employees should be brand ambassadors to the business and it ultimately doesn’t cost much to do. If employees love the company and have swag available to them, they will use or wear it and promote the company for you. Naturally, you should see some social engagement go up and even gain some customers along the way.
Revenue Stream
Now there are always ways to actually make swag an actual revenue stream for the business. How? Have you ever thought of having an employee store? If you have a fun brand that both employees, clients, or outsiders love then it might be worth making the investment in a company store. It can help cover any costs and you could generate some revenue from this.
Cost Savings
At this point, your boss might think you are crazy in saying that swag can be cost savings for the company. But it surely can be. Here’s how to pitch this;
Recruitment & Retention Savings
Yes, you can actually save money when it comes to recruitment and retention. As mentioned above, swag helps amplify brand awareness. Companies not only benefit from getting new customers from it, but they benefit from attracting talent as well. When companies give swag to employees, people associate it with the company caring. Who doesn’t want to work at a company that cares for its employees? You also save on employee retention, since swag always helps create a sense of pride and loyalty to the company.
💡Pro tip: If your boss is really cost conscientious, try grouping the swag order with other departments. The more swag you buy the lower the cost is per person! (psst.. we heard marketing had an extra budget!)
Employee Appreciation is Priceless
You can’t put a cost or price tag on employees feeling appreciated. Cultures that put their employees first tend to also have happy customers. Yup, you heard us right! If companies take care of their employees, they will take care of the customers. It’s also much easier to work with happy employees, and trust us swag makes employees happy! Who doesn’t like getting gifts in the mail? Especially true if the swag is of good quality and has some new design.
Show Them The Swag
The best way to convince your boss along with the tips from above is actually showing them what it could look like. Yes, let’s tease them with some good swag that will make it hard to resist! So the next time you find yourself struggling to get your boss to do company swag, go ahead and send them this article along with our swag sample pack! Another pro-tip to getting your boss to do swag is by giving it to them. Let them experience it for themselves! Our team of Swag Experts will be happy to get some branded swag for your boss to really get the full experience! Let’s check out some fun swag ideas you can present to your boss. Here are some of our favorite swag for employees;
Top swag for employees
New Hire
Sending new hire swag is a great way to get started! Trust us once you send swag to employees, everyone will want some, so be sure to order more. Especially send one to your boss!
Appreciation Swag
It’s always good to have some swag gifts available for giving out when needed. While yes you can send chocolates for this but swag lasts longer! Plus you want something that employees can hold on to and remember they were appreciated.
Summary:
You should be now fully equipped to convince your boss to invest in swag for employees! Remember to target the 3 areas every boss has top of mind, culture, revenue, and costs! Also, it doesn’t hurt to have some swag on hand to show them and some swag already designed to present them with some inspiration of what your company swag can look like. So what are we waiting for?! Let’s get your company some swag!
Bonus! We have some additional supporting articles to really showcase to your boss the power of swag within the workforce!
Employee Swag In the Wild
New Hire Swag In the Wild Featuring: Postal.io & Onchain Studios 🚀
Company Swag Case Studies
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