It looks like California may be the first state to ban plastic bags. Many cities already have similar ordinances and the trend is pointing toward more states banning plastic bags in order to reduce landfill waste.
These bans are designed to encourage reusable bags at grocery stores, convenience stores, discount and hardware stores and other retail locations. If an individual does not have their own reusable tote, a paper sack will be offered at a nominal fee, like a nickel per bag. It is estimated that Californians use nearly 19 billion plastic bags every year, which end up in landfills.
These laws can create a tremendous opportunity for companies to get their message in front of customers and prospects, and to promote themselves as eco-friendly.
If you are a retailer, you should immediately begin to offer recycled or reusable tote bags to your clients. Many stores offer bags with their logo and imprint for $1-$3, or FREE with a purchase of $25 or more. Come to view these reusable tote bags as a walking billboard for your business, where thousands of bags are being carried around and your logo and message being viewed by thousands of people.
In a previous blog, it was noted in a study that a tote bag imprinted with a logo and message on it will be viewed 12,000+ times in a year –making the cost per impression (CPI) only $.00025, which is about one fifteenth the cost of an average city billboard ($.003), and 1/28th the cost of an average cable TV commercial ($.007) and the 1/76th cost of an average half-page black-and-white newspaper ad ($.019).
If you are not a retailer, think about working a co-op program with your logo and the retailer’s logo on a bag—with you splitting the cost and the retailer providing the distribution of the bags. Some companies that are vendors to a retailer will pay for the entire bag and count the distribution as the retailer’s equity.
You can even put several logos onto a bag, as there is usually a substantial imprint area. That way, if you can get a total of four vendors, each participant only has to pay a quarter of the cost. And with recycled tote bags costing as little as 99 cents each, that is a small investment to get your imprint in front of customers and prospects for months. Think about the cost per impression for this advertising bargain. If you give away 1,000 tote bags at a cost of $1,000–think about what a better return on investment you would get over a newspaper ad.
Churches, temples, schools and other non-profit organizations can also sell advertising space on tote bags to help pay for the cost of the imprinted tote bags—and get these tote bags to be seen all across the neighborhood, as they will be used at stores and malls all over town.
Don’t view imprinted bags as a cost. Look at them as a vehicle for your advertising message that can be seen over and over again..while positioning your organization as doing its part to help reduce landfill.
Here’s to a greener tomorrow, today.
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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketingSolutions.com, which helps companies that are “going green” to better promote and market their brand through eco-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive green-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 25,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in any price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.
The post States May Begin to Ban Plastic Bags—What Your Organization Can Do To Get Reusable Tote Bags in the Hands of Your Customers and Prospects appeared first on Green Spot Blog.