Benefits of a Company Swag Collection or Custom Clothing Line

Are you designing company swag but can’t decide between Shirt A, B, or C? Or maybe you’ve taken a poll on what type of company swag your audience wants and found that narrowing to one option runs the risk of disappointing some people. Creating a swag collection can be a great way to make everybody happy. If you offer the type of swag someone wants and will use, they’ll continue repping your brand with each use. You can think of it like your company’s very own clothing line that does double-duty as effective, relatively low-cost marketing.

Depending on the services offered by the promotional products company you choose, your swag collection can be integrated directly into established eCommerce solutions or be a brand-new website where employees and customers can browse your swag and place orders.

Companies like Stitchi make this process easy for clients with eCommerce fulfillment solutions that connect your audience to company swag through your existing website. Stitchi can also help establish your business’s eCommerce presence with web designers that will build a custom online store to display your swag collection and process order fulfillment.

Swag collections or customized product lines can provide more value for your business beyond simply creating a few items for employees and customers to choose from that show their brand support and affiliation. Well-designed swag collections can provide companies a lucrative new revenue stream along with the implicit marketing value of people essentially advertising for your brand.

Benefits of a Swag Collection Vs. Just One or Two Options

There are many reasons you might choose to create a company swag collection rather than choosing just one item, the simplest being “to give people more options.” Okay, that’s a given. But what benefits arise from offering a collection versus a single product?

More Options Increase the Likelihood of Appealing to a Large Audience

Why give people options? Well, so they choose something. Some people will love your company-branded golf shirts – some won’t. Some will be completely happy with a simple t-shirt and wear it every weekend.

Others get tons of t-shirts from companies and throw them all in a box in the closet that goes to the Salvation Army once a year. In this case, your company swag will need to be something they don’t already have a hundred of and never wear. Providing options ensures a better chance of appealing to a broad audience with varying tastes.

Swag Collections Can Increase Brand Recognition

Brand recognition is one of the main reasons businesses create promotional products, or company swag. Going hand in hand with appealing to a large audience is the associated brand awareness and recognition in consumers. People tend to gravitate towards brands they’re familiar with, even subconsciously.

If someone has seen your company’s name or logo a few times, that might be all you need to gain a competitive edge over your competitors. Generally, the more people representing your brand, the more substantial brand recognition you’ll have in the market.

Make People Feel Like One of the “Insiders”

Exclusivity often has the effect of making people want something more, making them more willing to perform the action you’re hoping to elicit. This action could be paying a higher price for a limited-edition item they can’t get anywhere else or becoming a repeat customer. Swag rewards are also a great way to get customers to refer their network, gaining leads.

Exclusivity and being “one of the valued insiders” to your company could also convince a customer to pull the trigger on a business deal they’ve been noncommittal on. You’ve just made the deal by capitalizing on the customer not wanting to miss their chance to snag that sweet, limited edition flat brim hat with a matching Patagonia rain jacket that you’ve been holding back for just this moment.

How Collections Can Lead to Secondary Market Viability and Demand

Whether through good design or dumb luck, collections can be more than just a surface-level grouping of branded items. Through cultural associations that accumulate social and economic capital, swag can become sought after by collectors to convey sociological contexts such as their status and taste.

Collections can accrue additional intangible value beyond their physical qualities and design integrity. Think vintage Google Employee t-shirt or limited-edition Supreme exclusives. Because of what a collection represents, it can hold considerably more value than simple brand recognition.

If you’ve got a 1998 Google Launch Team t-shirt, assuming they exist, how much do you think that’s worth? Not just in dollar amount. It’s worth more than its dollar value as a cultural relic that marks a point in time “before everything changed.”

For example, a recent search of eBay listings for “Google t-shirt vintage” turned up a bunch of vintage promo swag tees for around $40. The search also showed a few vintage team member t-shirts going for $150-$300.

“What-ifs” about situations regarding companies like Google, Apple, or IBM “back-in-the-day” abound. However, for the sake of the point, offering collections of branded company merchandise for loyal supporters to collect over the years is a relatively simple process through automation, with the benefits outweighing the investment.

Your customers get to show their support, and they get to show how long they’ve supported through their collection – whether it’s t-shirts, pins, sweatshirts, or stickers.

Summing Up Company Swag Collections

Offering people options to choose from – whether employees, customers, audience members, or subscribers – ensures they’re more likely to choose one, or ideally, more than one. The goal is to make your company-branded swag appeal to the largest portion of the market possible. Swag collections are the solution to increasing the likelihood people will first choose, then use the item. If they use the item or wear your company swag, they promote your company. Everyone wins.