i’m not a plastic bag

March 17th, 2011 • Uncategorized

I found Claudia Chung’s article, “I’m Not a Plastic Bag”, from her blog to be a very interesting discussion on the use of branding to increase the perception of value. The canvas bag, sporting the words “I’m Not a Plastic Bag”, was sold for $15 in stores. As time progressed, these bags began to appear online and were sold for around $700-2000. The incredible part is that there would still be people willing to buy it. Many facts pointed out by Claudia in her article provide great explanations for this puzzling phenomenon.

Firstly, the bag was launched by British designer Anya Hindmarch. I agree with Claudia in that branding plays an important role in developing the popularity and acceptance of this bag. Anya Hindmarch is a well-known luxury brand, and consumers trust it. This leads to a question of the bag’s price. Being priced at $15, consumers are likely to perceive the value of this bag to be tremendous. Many tote or canvas bags released by designer labels are sold for well over $100; $15 is obviously an incredible deal and hardly captures the value of this product. The $700-2000 price range for the bag, as sold online, is a better indicator of the bag’s value. This high price also shows that consumers perceive this bag as a prestige product, and the high price reflects its high quality. Another point to be made is that this bag was released in limited quantities, and, in other words, had an exclusive distribution intensity. Exclusivity can also increase a product’s value, and I believe that this has contributed to the high price. Lastly, the bag’s purpose, as stated by Claudia, is to promote “the idea that reusable shopping bags can be a fashion statement as well”. Given the increasing popularity of the “green trend”, this has also led to an increase in the perceived value of this product.

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