SWAG vs SWAW
I enjoy hearing the different slang terms that people use for promotional products that are common at events like tradeshows, grand openings, and fundraisers. Many of those names can often be very entertaining. One of the most common terms I hear is SWAG, the acronym for “stuff we all get”. I'd personally say that term is the most accurate, since, we will receive many promotional products everywhere we go whether we want them or not. I also think it may be the only respectable slang term our clients and customers use for the products that they are buying from us. I have to admit that I hold back a couple laughs from time to time when someone comes in saying they “have to get some trinkets”. Companies can spend tens of thousands of dollars on single orders, but then dummy them down to turn them into Chotchzkies. I’m not exactly sure why companies do that, but I do know there is 19 billion dollars worth of CPS out there.Moving forward, what I personally would like to see is the term SWAG changing to SWAW, meaning “stuff we all want”. Some people might think this SWAW would exclude basic ball point pens, can coozies, or cheap flexible rulers but, believe it or not, there is a GIANT audience that really wants those things. Some of my favorite conversations have been with top executives who run multi-million dollar companies and need to have a “skinny coozie” so it fits their Coors Light the right way. From what I can tell, every product has an audience. Matching those products to the right audience can be a difficult task, but is worth taking the time to execute correctly. Everyone at a tradeshow will be handing out free gifts, but will they all be free gifts that the audience actually wants?Picking a homerun promotional product isn’t easy and definitely takes time and thought. When I get asked what my favorite projects have been, I always say that it's the projects my customer and I spend a lot of time working on.Is there a reason why your company buys certain products? Does your company put much thought into finding the best solutions for your promotional needs? If not, give us a call and see what kind of CPS we have. We’ll do our best to help you turn it into 1500 pieces of SWAW! Also, if you have a better slang term for promotional products, I’d like to hear about that as well.In the meantime, I’ll be working on my SWAWWER.[show_avatar email=106 show_name=true]