Case study · Tech startup

A tech startup uses merch to onboard new hires and hold the employer brand together

How a tech startup with offices in Mexico City, São Paulo and Austin moved from buying swag per recruiting process on an urgent basis to running an annual programme with welcome boxes for new employees, university-fair material, kits for quarterly all-hands meetings and pieces for remote contributors in eight countries. Figures are anonymised but representative of a real programme coordinated from the Roma Norte hub.

The programme at a glance

Client: Vertical tech startup with offices in Mexico City, São Paulo and Austin, plus remote contributors in eight countries (composite case)
Industry: Software as a service, B2B platform with product in Spanish, Portuguese and English, engineering-majority team
Coverage: 280 active employees at cycle close, 92 new hires during the cycle, 14 university fairs across the year
Volume: 1,240 pieces delivered across the 2024-2025 cycle, in four lines with independent calendars
Period: July-to-June 2024-2025 annual cycle, with four waves aligned to the hiring ramp, fall fairs, quarterly meetings and end-of-year events
Compliance: Internal gift policy, international shipping guidance for remote contributors, and per-employee and per-office traceability

People operations and marketing used to buy swag separately every time a hiring process or a university event approached. Quality varied from supplier to supplier, institutional colours did not hold across orders, and engineering candidates received different pieces depending on the city.

Context and problem

The first problem was brand. The startup had raised its Series B and the brand office had defined a new isotype and a three-colour palette —with two specific shades tagged with Pantone numbers— that never reproduced the same way across orders. A tee could come out cobalt instead of the institutional blue, a mug could land in a grey shade not on the manual. Marketing noticed that at some recruiting fairs the first visual contact with the brand was through swag outside the palette.

The second problem was budget. Every team — people operations, marketing, regional offices — bought through its own supplier and its own budget. Total annual merch spend was high, there was no way to know whether swag was actually helping close qualified candidates or just being given out by inertia at every university fair.

The third was logistics coordination. A startup with two hundred and eighty employees across three offices and remote contributors in eight countries onboards new employees every month, runs quarterly recruiting fairs and holds quarterly all-hands meetings. Without a single interlocutor, every team managed its own courier and its own delivery times, with misaligned calendars and fairs covered at the last minute with emergency pieces that did not pass the brand manual.

How we approached it

The programme was built as an annual catalogue with four lines and independent calendars. Line A was the welcome box for new employees: a rigid cardboard box with magnetic closure, an A5 hard-cover notebook with the isotype, a roller pen, a stainless thermal bottle with a laser engraving of the new employee's name, an isotype sticker and a welcome card signed by the CEO. The box was delivered on the first working day, within seven days of contract signature.

Line B was the university-fair material: an organic cotton tote with two-colour screen print, a combed-cotton tee with the isotype, a circular sticker carrying the QR code to the careers portal and a business card carrying the recruiter's name and the open position. This line was handed out at university fairs in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, with production every fourteen days and weekly replenishment from the regional distribution centre.

Line C was the quarterly all-hands kit: a technical backpack with laptop compartments, a hand-stitched notebook with a fabric-wrapped cover in the institutional colour, a roller pen and a sticky-notes set in the institutional palette. This line shipped at every quarterly meeting, personalised by employee name and home office, covering the three offices plus the remote attendees who travelled to the event.

Line D was the remote-contributor kit: a rigid cardboard box with magnetic closure, a pique tee with the embroidered isotype, a stainless thermal bottle with laser engraving, an organic cotton tote and an A5 notebook carrying the company-culture handbook. This line shipped to contributors in eight countries, with international shipping management and customs compliance where applicable to the destination country.

Annual calendar

The four lines ran on different calendars but with one interlocutor and one catalogue. Line A ran continuously, with production every fourteen days and delivery to the new employee's office or to the lead manager's home. Line B activated four times a year, aligned with the university fair calendar in fall and spring. Line C shipped at every quarterly meeting, with production every ninety days and personalisation per cohort. Line D concentrated in the highest remote-hiring months, with international shipping and per-country traceability.

Each shipment left with a CFDI 4.0 stamped by Corp-Merch, with the Carta Porte 3.0 complement when the move crossed SAT thresholds. Per-recipient traceability lived on a consolidated sheet the people operations team pulled monthly to cross-check against the HR system, without asking Corp-Merch for reports each time.

Results, figures and timeline

The 1,240 pieces shipped across the 2024-2025 cycle without palette deviations detected in brand audit. The promise to people operations to deliver the welcome box on the first working day was met on 97% of cases, with a real average of 5.1 days.

People operations consolidated annual merch spend through one supplier and one monthly report. Average unit cost dropped 19% versus the previous cycle, mostly because the closed catalogue let us consolidate fabric, cardboard and stainless purchases, and because the four annual waves shipped from the same distribution centre on a single price table per line.

Marketing measured, through a survey sent to 180 accepted candidates, that brand recall of the welcome box was still at 82% at the ninety-day mark. The recruiting-fair material correlated with an eleven-point improvement in offer-acceptance rate, compared with candidates who had not received material at the corresponding fair.

What the client measured

Seven-day welcome-box window met: 97%, average 5.1 days.
Brand recall at ninety days: 82% of 180 accepted candidates surveyed.
Average unit cost: -19% versus the previous cycle.
Active SKUs: thirteen pieces across four lines.
Offer-acceptance rate with fair material: +11 points vs candidates without.

What we learned

The annual catalogue changes the conversation. When every team knows what they can ask for and when, the urgent purchase goes away and off-palette swag stops being the brand's first impression for candidates at university fairs.
Per-recipient traceability is worth as much as the piece. When people operations can cross merch with the HR system, spend stops being opaque and becomes a retention lever across the first ninety days.
The fair material is what moves offer acceptance. Candidates who received material at the fair improved their acceptance rate by eleven points over those who did not, enough to justify the cost of the full fair programme.