Oh, Christmas Bag, Oh, Christmas Bag

With the business news - other than Walmart’s latest results - so glum, the Wall Street Journal is turning to lighter topics. (Okay, I know that they’ve had interesting, fun-stuff articles in there for as long as I’ve been aware of the WSJ’s existence - they’re pretty much the only part of the paper I’ve ever read. But humor me here that they’re doing more fluff now that the “real” news is so dire. That’s all I ask, ok?)

Anyway, The J had an article a couple of weeks ago on department store holiday shopping bags.

My quota of department store shopping this year is zero, so I have absolutely no personal idea of what this year’s bags look like. Plus, I’m about 95% of the way to using a reusable tote bag for everything.

But the article on Christmas shopping bags was interesting because it focuses on a couple of issues that are important to marketers (even us B2B technology types): branding and design.

Here are a few of this year’s editions.

With apologies to my dear friend Joyce who works there, I’m not wild about the NM bag, but I do like that retro Barney’s bag (if only because I’m a former Beetle owner). The Saks number is pretty (although a bit bland), and I really like the Bloomie’s bag, which really evokes NY.

Retailers are hoping (probably against hope) that cool bags will draw shoppers. But, let’s face it, all you need to do to get the bag is buy the cheapest thing possible that’s large enough to merit a bag.

That said, people do notice what bags shoppers are toting, and consciously or not get nudged a bit into considering that store if and when they do decide they’re going shopping.

But what’s realy nice about the store shopping bag - holiday or rest-of-the-year - is that they do offer an opportunity to reinforce branding and, through the design, underscore the brand message

Thus, Barney’s is cool, Bloomingdale’s is New York, Saks is pretty but bland, and Neiman’s is showy and pricey.

The closest I’ve ever come to bag design in my career is the LL Bean tote bag we did one year at Softbridge: standard LL Bean boat-tote with the Softbridge logo on it. Lo, these many years later I still use mine. (It’s one of the ways in which I go store bag-free.)

So I’m no expert, but I do like the way in which the design of the bags reinforces the stores’s core message.

Which is something that even us B2B tech marketers need to keep in mind whenever we work on designing the logo, the web site, the brochure, the whatever.

Color, look, feel - you can choose a neutral approach (which may be best if your message is subject to regular change), or one that reinforces your brand. You can also, alas, undermine it.

Just something to keep in mind with the half of your brain that’s not figuring out how to spend a bit less this holiday season.

 

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