How to Schwag

An author of mine emailed me recently to ask if there was time and budget available to prepare some schwag to promote his book at an upcoming event. His question was a perfectly reasonable one to ask, and I certainly appreciate his sensitivity to both lead time and budget. Some of his schwag suggestions, however, were a little off target:

• "I'd LOVE black t-shirts with the cover art."
• "Or cycling caps with text from the cover."
• "Or headbands."
  

This author should not be expected to know that the unit cost on these items is at least $8 a piece. And to be completely fair, the headband was my idea back during pre-publication brainstorming. But his request and the budget we have to work with for this book got me thinking about how and when to schwag.

The idea behind schwag is simple: you give something to potential customers in exchange for a moment of their attention. During that moment, good schwag will explain the benefit of your product and this will hopefully compel the customer to buy it (a product focus). Alternatively, you can simply try to buy their love and loyalty (a company focus, aka "branding").

Marketers must match the schwag to both to their product and their customer. If the product is low volume and low margin (as it is for a small book publisher), the marketer must keep schwag for end consumers as cheap as possible. In this market, the marketer is likely better suited to buy the cheapest schwag there is: advertising. It's cheap schwag because it offers nothing to the end consumer, yet it reaches vast numbers of them. The marketer can consider more costly schwag for the B2B channel because those buyers (like a bookstore chain buyer) or influencers (like a triathlon coach) represent underlying sales.

Here's a table showing how marketers for various margin and volume markets should schwag:


It's true that schwag often makes a stronger impression than advertising. Customers of any kind are more likely to remember the personal connection made when someone gives them something for free, especially if that schwag is personally meaningful to them. E.g. A t-shirt commemorating an experience (like "goodminton") will reinforce the positive memory. A keychain is just a keychain, a pen merely a pen.

Because schwag can make such a strong impression, marketers should reserve their best schwag for branding a high margin, low volume product. The high margin makes the schwag affordable, while the low sales volume makes it a more potent tool to capture market share.

Companies with low promo budgets should spend on cheap schwag or advertising and take a pass on creating a few hundred t-shirts. While advertising makes less of an impression on potential customers, it reaches thousands instead of hundreds. And an ad with the right message in the right place at the right time goes a long way.

Ultimately, I was able to sell my author on a new idea that will integrate inexpensive schwag and advertising on a social network. My thought is that the schwag and the advertising will reinforce each other and the social network will spread the message that's contained in both. More on this later!