Create Spirit within Your Employee Base to Drive Loyalty and Sales Opportunity

The Challenge

Associates were excited about wearing red on Fridays. But a large number of them wanted to take it one step further and wear a red apparel item with the Staples logo featured prominently. Adding that Staples logo would help differentiate the apparel from just a plain red t-shirt to an item with a specific purpose.

But finding red apparel items with the Staples logo on it wasn’t easy. With a variety of locations as well as off-site employees, there wasn’t a one-stop for associates to buy a variety of items. Staples Promotional Products had always offered associates branded merchandise, but with this uptick in requests it became apparent the offering needed to be expanded.

The Solution

To provide the most preferred items to associates, the Staples Promotional Products team found that a Book & Run was the best solution. Book & Run is a Staples exclusive program, perfect for seasonal and campaign initiatives that feature 1-5 items for a limited period of time.

For the Wear Red campaign, this platform automated order entries, eliminated any need for inventory commitment, and allowed items to drop ship from various points across the country for faster delivery.

Within days of announcing the Wear Red program, the team launched the Book & Run site and promoted it to Staples employees. The platform featured more than 14 items that were exclusively selected by the Staples Promotional Products merchandising team based on trends and seasonality. The Book & Run was scheduled to accept orders for 2 weeks, then orders were processed and products that met the minimum quantity would be decorated and delivered within a month of processing.

The Result

The Book & Run was a huge success for the first “Staples Wear Red” campaign. Despite the short notice and falling during the December holidays, there were well over 1,000 qualified orders placed. The initiative has continued since its launch with a new offering released in April to feature a spring collection for associates. This event saw another great response from associates with more than $25 thousand in sales.