Challenge:

One of the culture teams at Core Creative, a Milwaukee-based marketing agency, was looking for a way to reward employees for their great work. They wanted a solution that enhanced employees’ connection to the company and community amongst their fellow teammates.

The team quickly identified that they wanted part of the reward system to revolve around earning logoed apparel as a way to show appreciation for team members’ work. To achieve this goal, they needed to solve two challenges.

First, they knew that in order for their employee reward system to be successful, the items they chose as a reward needed to be something employees would be excited about and wear and use frequently. With a team of unique individuals, they knew that meant they needed multiple options.

Second, they wanted to create a reward system where Core would help pay for the apparel and would be easy to implement and administer.

Solutions:

The Core team partnered with Magellan Promotions and created a customized online company store which provided solutions for both of these challenges.

First, the store allowed the Core culture team to offer several items for the staff to choose from, thus increasing the likelihood of staff finding products that spoke to them.

Second, company stores usually perform much better when the company is paying for the apparel, so the culture team created Core Cash, a system where employees would receive reward points in recognition of their good work. The employees were given coupon codes that allowed them to use their Core Cash in the store. When the store was opening up, the Core team emails each team member, letting them know their reward coupon code. For example, if the employee earned $50 in Core Cash and chose a $40 sweatshirt, they would receive the product at no charge to them.

Core Creative opens their store twice a year – in summer and winter – so they can choose items that they can use year-round. The store is open for a few weeks at a time, and each time they open the store, they work with the Magellan team to find items that haven’t been featured in previous stores while still bringing back favorites from previous years.

After each store closes, Magellan collects and runs the orders together, which makes it a streamlined and cost-effective solution that meets Core Creative’s needs.

Just a few items they chose in their 2020 winter store included men’s and women’s hoodies, a scarf, a women’s fleece, a winter cap, a flannel sherpa blanket, and more.

A recent summer store included, to name a few, a women’s tank and t-shirt, a men’s polo, and a backpack.

Outcome and Feedback:

The Core Store has proven a major success for Core Creative. While many of them currently work from home, when they are in the office, team members regularly wear their Core gear. On some occasions, a number of employees would all plan on wearing a specific Core-branded flannel shirt.

They have continued to open the store twice a year for many years. Their employees love the stores and the items in them, and frequently ask when the store will be open again so they can add to their Core collection! As Jeff Speech, Core Creative’s Partner and VP of Design Services put it, “the best part is everyone gets to pick out what they want from the Core Store!”