Eco-friendly Bags: Effective Promotion and Preservation

British fashion designer Anya Hindmarch's  “I'm NOT A Plastic bag” eco-friendly tote may have heralded the advent of green bags in 2007, but your reusable bag doesn't have to come off the drawing board of an award-winning designer to win the hearts of your target market.

Each reusable bag represents the best of probably all the worlds there are. Here is why:


Reducing Pollution                                                                                         

An estimated one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year. Though these bags can be recycled or reused, more than 97% are dumped, finding their way to the oceans where they strangle marine life or releasing toxic chemicals into the soil of landfills.

Even if you discount that, the barrels of oil that go into plastic bag production number by the hundreds of millions each year. This is fast depleting the Earth's subterranean stock of fossil fuels, which are a non-renewable resource.  

Reusable bags help to curb the problem by being, well, reusable. They serve the same function as plastic shopping bags, except that they  are durable enough to be used over and over again. Using these bags drastically decreases the demand for plastic bags and, as the laws of economics state, cut their supply, hence saving the preposterous amounts of energy used to produce and dispose of plastic bags.

Some reusable bags even take the eco-friendliness to another level: by using recycled plastics like Recycled Polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) from recycled plastic bottles as raw materials for their production. In other words, they turn waste into waste-reducing products.


Powerful Marketing Medium                                                                                         

Apart from the noble cause of saving the environment, these eco-friendly bags also serve another, more immediate purpose.

They're an excellent marketing medium.

Cheap and quick to produce in bulk, these bags are ideal for marketeers, who can choose from a wide range of colours and materials to find a bag that best suits their needs. Once you've decided on one, you can emblazon your brand images or marketing messages on these bags and distribute them among your target audience.

This mobile marketing medium is especially effective through direct association: a member of your target audience is seen carrying the bag with your brand name, and there's an immediate direct visual perception that leads to association between your target audience and your brand. It's even more effective when a targeted recipient of your bag brings it along to areas where members of your targeted group congregate.

While other advertising campaigns cost millions and run for limited amounts of time in the media, the lifespan of the durable, hardy bag is the lifespan of your campaign. As long as it can still be used, your brand will continue to get the exposure it needs.

At the end of the day, your target audience literally gets to take home the brand and brand experience that's contained within every reusable bag you give out. By keeping and using the bag, they've also been given a role the green movement and are now personally involved in fighting pollution; a gift that no other advertising means can provide.