Strengthen Store Identification Using Bags

Can a shopping bag build a bond between your customer and your store? Maybe so, according to University of Minnesota researchers.
     Female participants in a study were asked to carry a shopping bag for an hour as they walked around a mall. Some of the women carried a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag. The rest carried a pink shopping bag with no store or brand identification. At the end of the hour, each woman returned to the research site and was asked to rate herself on a list of personality traits.
     Compared to those who carried the plain bag, the women who carried the Victoria’s Secret bag were more likely to rate themselves as feminine, glamorous, and physically attractive. These are characteristics associated with the Victoria’s Secret store and merchandise brands.
     Does this mean that giving your customers a shopping bag with your logo on it significantly strengthens their identification with your store? Well, the study design was more complicated than what I’ve told you so far, and those complexities shape the best ways to profitably use the findings.
     Here are the two complexities:

• Each woman in the study chose whether to carry the Victoria’s Secret bag or the plain bag. Therefore, one explanation of the findings is that women who choose a bag with the store brand on it are saying they want to be considered as having personality traits like the store brand. A classic philosophical question is, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” In this study, we can ask, “Does carrying the bag influence the shopper’s personality, or does the shopper’s intended personality influence the bag they select to carry?” The answer to that second question is, “It works in both directions.”
• Carrying the Victoria’s Secret bag did not have an effect on all the women shoppers. Those for whom it did have the most effect were shoppers who aspired to be better in some way, but felt they couldn’t do it on their own. They are the type of people who depend on brands to help them achieve their self-esteem aspirations.

     The advice for you: For the aspirational merchandise you sell, make branded paper bags available to the customer.
     And, oh yes, a bonus tip: If you sell merchandise like Victoria’s Secret sells, consider that some shoppers might like to conceal their purchase inside a plain paper bag while walking the mall.

Click below for more:
Project Your Store’s Personality
Offer Aspirational Shoppers Subtle Signals