Andy Steavenson, founder & director of leading stockist and distributor of promotional branded bags, Crazy:Bags, takes a look at the traditional carrier and asks: “Is the traditional carrier still relevant in today’s promotional marketing?”
Green, ethical and re-useable bags have become the staple product of choice when it comes to promotional branded bags; and quite right too. But this does pose an important question. Is there still a role for the traditional carrier in today’s promotional marketing?
Simply, the answer would be yes. Versatile and often more attractive, they definitely remain a good product and one worthy of consideration.
Traditional paper carriers offer enormous flexibility, with a wide range of designs, shapes, handle styles and sizes to choose from. Many companies, including Crazy:Bags, offer a customised design service enabling clients to mix and match designs, styles, colours and textures to create a paper carrier to exactly meet any given brief.
From spot UV finishes, laminated and hand finished to internal printing; there are infinite possibilities to create something dramatic, fresh and exciting for your brand. When brand and promotional marketing is about creating experience, the traditional carrier is perhaps the most easily adaptable blank canvas to work from.
It is also too simplistic to assume that the traditional paper carrier is a less environmentally sound option. Advances in technology and processing techniques, have generated alternative ways of being green. Kraft bags for example, are 100% degradable and manufactured from sustainable forests, with FSC and recycled products extending choice still further.
The ultimate objective of any promotional product is to generate awareness; to create a compelling message that gets your audience talking about you, heightening understanding and recall, so that yours is the brand that people associate with the product or service and yours is the number they call.
It’s about creating experiences that people want to talk about and integrating that throughout the whole of the campaign; creating real value rather than perceived value. By considering a sweep of products, you have the chance to continually refresh and update, adding flexibility and longevity to your campaign.
We have perhaps become guilty of losing sight of the bigger picture. Priorities rightly placed on the green agenda, have potentially led us to become blind to the wider marketing mix and the dexterity a range of products can offer our clients.
It is important we as an industry remember to keep a wider view; to look at the best and right products to suit your brand, your message and your event or promotional activity, deploying promotional items like bags to their full advantage.
It is a question of appropriateness. There are times when an eco-bag is the best and right choice. But equally the same is true of the paper carrier. They are still relevant and they do still have an important role to play in today’s promotional marketing.
For further information on the UK’s leading importers and stockists of unbranded promotional, paper carrier & eco-bags, please call on 01892 752 154 or visit us at www.crazybags.co.uk.
