Beverley Cheng's Blog

These past few classes we have been discussing Promotion, and more specifically, Advertising. Advertising is essentially all that people believe marketing to be, until they take Introduction to Marketing. Then their worlds are turned upside down.

I realize the importance of being creative in the firms advertising, catching eyes of by passers, and promoting what you what your image to be in so many words (and pictures) or less. I was reading Whitney Lindskog’s blog about the different kind of bags that retailers give to their customers, and how eye catching they are. These bags make people do a double take, laugh, and intrigue them into checking out and even purchasing from the store.

This made me start thinking about what I expect from retailers when I purchase products from their stores. If I am going to pay more then $200 for a pair of jeans, I expect those jeans to come in a nice, boxy bag. The way I see it, is it is a winning situation for both parties. I get to carry a nice, non plastic bag (that if I carry more than three at a time, I look like Samantha from Sex and the City), and the retailers get to promote their store.

By spending that little bit of extra money on packaging, the retailers get to increase their advertising in a very indirect way. Imagine the iconic pink Holt Renfrew bag. One glimpse of that shade of pink hanging from some very lucky shopper’s hand, and I know where they have been shopping. If you compare that to a very discreet, white plastic bag with the logo half covered or twisted around, no one will be very interested.

xB.