With fewer consumers using paper, Swingline taps into broader markets and design-forward staplers to spur sales. Swingline’s marketing VP shares more marketing tactics in a challenged category.
Swingline wants shoppers to buy another stapler. Or just one.
For years, the 100-year-old stapler brand has faced a slow, single-digit decrease in sales, along with the rest of the stapling industry as consumers use less paper, said Matt Smith, vice president, marketing and new product development at Acco Brands, which owns Swingline. This makes marketing a challenge, but not insurmountable.
Swingline has a few ways it is spurring pockets of growth including:
- Broadening its target industry market to shoppers beyond the corporate office, such as healthcare, restaurants, hotels and teachers.
- Transitioning more of its marketing campaigns to reach the end-user as more consumers work from home.
- Creating both smaller and design-forward staplers that tap into homestyle trends.
“As the overall usage of staples is going to decline, making sure that we have products that are right sized for what they are looking for,” Smith said. “With that strategy and pushes, we’ve been able to drive pockets of growth in different channels bucking some of the overall negative trends within the category.”
Acco Brands owns Swingline, along with other tech accessory and office supply brands including Mead, Quartet, Five Star, Kensington among others.
Swingline’s sales are roughly 50% to businesses and 50% direct to consumer.
Swingline’s ‘Take Your Swing’ marketing campaign
On the direct-to-consumer front, Swingline recently launched a marketing campaign dubbed “Take Your Swing,” which is all about pursuing dreams and taking chances. This is its first major campaign in more than five years. The campaign features 60- and 30-second spots focusing on different personas, such as the accountant or restaurant owner. Swingline primarily runs the ads on Amazon.com, as well as on social media including Facebook and Pinterest.
The campaign has had a successful start, said Allison Gosser, global product manager at Acco Brands. Swingline paused the campaign right now, but the brand plans to resume it for back-to-school season in a few weeks.
For the brand’s 100th anniversary it also relaunched its Cub stapler, which is metal and compact with a small staple capacity. Swingline redesigned the stapler to have a higher sheet capacity, plus it now comes in five different colors including white, periwinkle and Rio red. Smaller staplers are a popular product right now, as it caters to shoppers who may need a stapler, but not for frequent use, and may not want a bulky one on their desk.
“It just entered into Target in March, and it is now the No. 1 stapler in their set of 10 different products in terms of the units per store per week,” Gosser said. “So we’re very excited about that.”
In fact, for the past three years, Swingline is the exclusive stapler product in Target stores.
“We welcome the competition and there’s a reason we’ve got great positioning on the store shelves in Target,” Smith said.
Swingline taps into retail media networks
Online at Target.com, Swingline competes against staplers sold by marketplaces sellers and Target’s private label brand. It runs ads on Target’s retail media network Roundel to help “build the basket” of getting a stapler into a shopper’s mindset and then cart, Smith said.
The brand also runs retail media ads at Office Depot, Amazon and other retailers where it sells its products.
On office supply stores, those shoppers are more likely to have a high intent on purchasing a stapler. Therefore, Swingline’s banner ad messages may focus on what makes its products unique, such as its lifetime guarantee, Smith said.
Whereas at Target, Swingline may promote its design-forward staplers. For example, it runs a partnership with stationery brand Sugar Paper, and Swingline created co-branded staplers that matches Sugar Paper’s designs.
“You’re more looking for somebody who is looking to design out an entire space in the aesthetic of that stapler and how it matches with the rest of the components,” Smith said. “That’s going to be of more importance than somebody who is shopping off a superstore, who might be looking at what is your lifetime warranty, what is your jam free guarantee.”
Hybrid workers are an opportunity for Swingline to sell trendy staplers
In general, Swingline is boosting sales with staplers that are in-tune with home decor trends, such as blush pink, lavender, sage and arctic white colors. These products cater to consumers who are working from home and will chose products that they themselves like, Gosser said.
“The hybrid worker presents an opportunity for us because you can be more creative and express more of your personal style when you’re buying something for your home versus your office, where it might not be you choosing — it might be the office manager, the administrator choosing,” Gosser said. “That brings a lot of fun and opportunity for a category.
Besides fewer consumer using paper, Swingline’s lifetime guarantee also doesn’t help repeat purchases. It needs to give shoppers a reason to buy another stapler, which is why its tapping into different designs to appeal to shoppers.
“If you’re going to buy a stapler, still make sure that it is a Swingline and it’s a quality product that they can stand on,” Smith said.
Tariff impact on Swingline staplers
The backdrop for these marketing campaings is the U.S. government’s on-and-off-again tariffs.
Swingline’s costs have increased because of the tariffs, however, Smith would not comment on if it is increasing prices. Instead, the brand is highlighting its value, knowing that consumers are experiencing higher prices in many shopping categories.
“In times where consumer prices are increasing, some consumers will go for the lowest price option, but others are really searching for what is that best value for their limited dollars,” he said. “So highlighting the places where Swingline provides a superior value versus other options, so that we can earn the consumer’s dollars.”
In Acco’s Q1 earnings call on May 2, CEO Thomas Tedford said tariff uncertainly is impacting how retailers are purchasing inventory for the back-to-school season, according to a SeekingAlpha transcript.
“The second quarter will be impacted by changes in buying patterns for back-to-school,” chief financial officer Deborah O’Connor told investors. “There were significant back-to-school purchases in the first quarter which were pulled forward in anticipation of the tariffs. We are also anticipating that orders may be delayed or canceled as customers wait to gain additional clarity on demand.”
Network
