The Swag Spectrum
You know the drawer. The GDCP. The Ghost Drawer of Conferences Past.
The one with pens, business cards, pamphlets, lanyards, water bottles, chapstick, fidget spinners, cheap sunglasses, flash drives, and flimsy frisbees. Swag intended to create a relationship and become embedded in a small aspect of your life, banished until the next time you impulsively clean, pack up your house, or scramble to find that friggin’ mini keychain tape measure from 5 years ago. THANK GOD you stopped by the Planned Obsolescence Industries booth during your last day in Cleveland.
With our beautiful, hand-sanded, and natural cedar coasters, Cause Coasters provides cost-effective premium swag with exceptional utility, visibility, and ROI. Read on for more and reach out below for a quick consult.
Whether it’s a retreat, conference, or a sales meeting, a raffle or party, you’ve probably come away with quite the assortment of branded and custom swag and gifts over time. Which have stood the test of time? Which do you use and/or enthusiastically display at your office or home?
Flipping the question around, you’ve given gifts to clients, prospects, employees, partners, friends, etc. How do you define the success or impact of that thing? How does it strengthen your brand or relationship with the recipient? Have you thought through how it creates a positive aesthetic or utility in someone’s life? Does the gifting give you joy? Does it go beyond slapping your logo on something people have seen a thousand times? And, for a company, how does its use drive more eyeballs and curiosity about your organization, product, or brand?
ROI - Return On Impact
A 2017 study out of Boolshatz, Sweden sought to evaluate B2B gifting and swag utility, with a narrow focus on conferences. With permission from the partners of 100 attendees of a San Diego conference, they installed cameras throughout the homes and offices of participants to learn more about what people do when they dump out their bags and return to post-conference life. They selected a trade show where a high volume of swag was distributed, with a variety of types of products available. To further evaluate the efficacy of swag spend, they conducted informational interviews with 10,000 conference participants nationwide.
Researchers were shocked to find that 61 percent of items from conference gift bags or booths never made it on the plane home. Out of the remaining 39 percent, over 2/3 of that immediately ended up in the trash or the junk drawer. That’s 12% of all swag in active use within the 2 weeks following the conference. If you were given 25 things at this International Symposium for Generic Waste, 3 remain somehow in rotation for a short while. Through follow-up interviews, it’s estimated that by 2 months you may have 1 thing still being used or visible in ANY way.
There was a clear correlation between cheaper/generic swag and subsequent low impact and brand visibility. A follow-up study at a retreat with C-suite Fortune 500 attendees illustrated the other side of the spectrum, where an average gift cost of $46 led to a high rate of retention, use, and impact. But who has that $ to use on a conference or spend on employees, clients, prospects, or partners?
I have to come clean...
This wasn't a real study. It is, however, an ancient tale as old as the oversized shirts with random logos on a thrift store rack. The fact that you were right there with me until I divulged this deception means that it doesn’t matter. You know how common it is for cr@ppy swag to get wa$ted. Unique premium products that keep your brand top of mind, get used or seen often, and are cost effective are hard to come by. Cause Coasters is here to make it easy for you.
Utility
The intersection of how your gift is used and the rate at which it is seen is crucial to beginning to evaluate its ROI. Our coasters set you up for success right away, as they can integrate as home decor or serve a daily function on your desk.
How will your swag be used? While a cheap water bottle might never make it past the drawer or trash bin, a high-quality metal one has a higher likelihood of making it into the rotation. But that's going to cost you $20 - $30! Our coasters deliver premium quality that increases utility for as low as under $5 per unit.Whether your focus is optimizing the cost to acquire a customer or nurturing relationships and growing loyalty, our coasters are a flexible and effective means to do so.
Visibility
Impact and the Rate of Reliable Eyeballs depends on location, distinctiveness, and exposure. The frequency of exposure, whether to one individual over time or to other colleagues, family members, and friends of the gift recipient, determines the imprint of that swag over time and, ultimately, its value. A coaster that makes it onto a desk or coffee table tends to stay there, racking up endless days of visibility.
Don't give out a product that'll have 3 minutes of visibility before it hits the suitcase, trash, or drawer. Give a product that makes others say, "Hey, that's cool, where'd you get it? And who’s SPURELY* and what do they do?" With a sleek design, delicious smell, and bold look, Cause Coasters is a unique way to create brand visibility and drive loyalty and engagement.
*Not a real company but domain name is available…
Direct ROI
Words, words, words. Give me numbers. If your ROI scenarios are clear, utilizing swag and gifts can become a strategic business decision and an actual investment. Don’t throw money at merch without knowing its utility, visibility, and ROI potential.
Story Time: You run a solar sales installation company and choose to get an order of 800 coasters for about $4k for your solar sales company (you splurged for some add-ons). Each of your 4 street sales team members gets 100 coasters each with your logo / any design on one side and then their business info on the other. The other 400 go to existing clients with a unique referral code stamped onto the back.
In addition to the intangible but immense value of general awareness and premium customer service, these gifts are poised to keep your brand and value top of mind, helping close new business, drive loyalty, and make direct referrals through high visibility. Some scenarios to begin to calculate ROI for this order:
Imagine just 4 coasters out of the 400 your sales team distributes can be attributed to helping tip the scales of a potential sale directly. At $17k per installation, that's $68,000 in direct sales.
With 5 out of your 400 client gifts leading to a direct referral, that's another $85,000.
That's $153k in sales assuming a $4k order? Anyone out there willing to take a chance on a 3,725% return?
If we increase to an imagined high end, with 25/400 coasters leading to closing a direct sale and 30/400 gifts to a referral, we get $425,000 in direct sales and $510,000 in referral business. $935k in business ‘cause of some dang coasters??
Low, medium, and high ROI scenarios based on $4k order and 3-year investment length.
Even if you converted just ONE direct sale or referral from an order of 800 coasters purchased, you've come out on top with a $13k investment gain and total ROI of 325%. Assuming a 3 year span to get this ONE bit of business from a SINGLE order, that's an annualized ROI of over 60%. The scenarios as you go up are immense.
Whether it’s your logo or an image we come up with together, there are many ways Cause Coasters can help you level up your gift-giving game:
Tools for sales outreach and prospecting
Swag for conferences, retreats, and employee events
Merch for product launches
Business card coasters (double-sided)
Premium gifts for partners, existing clients, investors, donors, and VIPs
Private events, bachelor parties, weddings, and more
Versatile, beautiful, and cost-effective. Ready to see what your bold logo or design looks like on our coasters? Drop us a line below!
Be sure to check out other designs and follow us on Instagram @causecoasters.