Welcome to the world PLENTY magazine

Here’s a completely new genre of magazines. Not restricting itself to the folks who give ecological living a dowdy image, these guys are telling you that a sustainable lifestyle needn’t be boring or lacking pizzazz. In fact, it’s a whole new aesthetic. Their website is http://www.plentymag.com/ In a well written story about the launch of this magazine, James Gorman of the New York Times says “Her name is Abigail. She comes from Ford Models in New York. And her outfit is accessorized with a hose from a gasoline pump that she has covered with her hand as if it were a tempting, but forbidden, pleasure.” I love it. Good sense going stylish, ecological concerns being taken mainstream. Hats off to the guys who thought this concept up. I hope they are a huge success and lots of folks follow their lead. I completely agree. I suspect if the world just saw how attractive and economical our cotton and jute bags are many would swear off plastic and carry them for the sheer pleasure of using a great looking product. http://www.badlani.com/bags/

EcoLogical behaviour makes good business sense...

Cherri Gann, associate editor at PPAI wrote an article in December 2004 where she concluded that bags are a wonderful promo choice. “One great thing about bags is that everybody uses them,” says Andrew Spellman, vice president of corporate markets for TRG Group in St. Louis, Missouri. “Since everyone has stuff to hold, there’s not one person who doesn’t have a bag of some sort. Promotionally speaking, there’s an inherent use value for the recipient, and this means, for the advertiser, there’s the frequent opportunity for seeing the company logo.” Carol Goebelt, in LaPuente, California, adds they go beyond function: “Besides suiting the need for function, people buy bags for style. They are an extension of the person, and different styles may fit one person but not another. I completely agree. In today’s world one-size-fits-all just doesn’t cut it. That’s why, at Norquest, we encourage our customers to customize what they are ordering. No fixed notions, no minimums, we don’t put any limits on our customers’ imaginations. It’s our job to make whatever they dream up and we enjoy it. What goes into choosing a great bag? “Find out exactly who the audience is,” says Mary Jo Welch. “Men are not tote bag people and will use them only when necessary whereas women love them. If kids are involved, a drawstring backpack might do the best job of covering all the bases.” Ahh, that I disagree with. When we're told the audience is male, we design totes that appeal to males. But that, as they say, is another blog. Coming soon... Bags do work. Everyone loves receiving an attractive bag. And we’ve got plenty. See the variety at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ And then do remember to see the product pages and see how economically they are priced. Good looking, economical, and something that everybody wants. Isn’t that how you’d like your next promotion to be?

Coles bay shows the way!

Some people are succeeding in doing completely without plastic bags. The Mercury, an Australian daily tells of how the tourist town of Coles Bay celebrated their first plastic bag free anniversary! Here's what the story said: President of Coles Bay/Freycinet Tourism Association and bakery owner Ben Kearney said an estimated 350,000 plastic bags had been saved from the environment or landfill. You've got to hand it to these guys. The Australians are achieving a lot even without the tax. On a voluntary basis they seem to be moving people towards using cloth bags instead. Sadly most of the world still thinks cloth bags are expensive. They aren't. See how affordable they are in my bags section http://www.badlani.com/bags/ , and then take a moment to do some calculations. Imagine if a savvy company sponsored the reusable cotton bags that got used instead. One of these is used instead of almost 500 plastic bags. So, sponsoring 7000 cotton bags would have made them the hero of this story. 7000 cotton bags would have cost less than $ 5000. Try and equate the goodwill earned with spending $ 5000 on advertising. The two just don't match. This is a huge branding opportunity.

You too can be admired like Patagonia and Body Shop are

Patagonia and Body Shop are just two of the New Age brands that have built their appeal on EcoLogic; meaning a deep and sincere respect for the environment. You don’t need mega bucks to earn that kind of respect. As long as you are sincere and act on your beliefs. Saying so across a million ugly hoardings will achieve less than one customer walking out of your store carrying a reusable cloth bag with your logo on it. Every consumer who looks ate it will know that you act on what you believe. This is what Patagonia says: Our company mission statement: "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis", gives us purpose and urgency. You can make the same statement when you hand out cloth bags. And for less than you think. See what we have to offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ and then write to me if you’d like to plan a strategy based on good sense. I respect folks who want to achieve miracles on tight budgets, and I enjoy working with them rajiv@badlani.com

PPP – The Polluter Pays Principle

Malta today imposed a tax on plastic bags. Smart guys. They have one of the most beautiful environments in the world and they intend to keep it that way. Amazing how the little countries catch on fast. God was so kind to the US in so many ways, but their government doesn’t seem to have caught on to such a simple logic. Plastic bags are bad for your environment. Taxing them reduces usage sharply. So, instead of raising taxes and making everyone pay for cleaning up that problem, why not focus the tax on the folks who are making the mess? Ireland introduced a tax and plastic bag usage fell by 90%. How many times… asked Bob Dylan... The answer this time is visibly blowing in the wind! Everywhere you look. Used plastic bags littering every tree, every bush, every fence! Stupid, when attractive reusable bags are so economical. See how attractive and how economical our shopping bags are at http://www.badlani.com/bags/shoppingbags.htm

Thank you, Winston Churchill, Thank you Hansard Society!

Winston Churchill founded The Hansard Society in 1944 to ensure that government remained truly representative of the peoples’ wishes. Today it sees weblogs as a powerful medium for the expression of these wishes and encourages parliamentarians in England to become familiar and recognize this medium as the basis of e-governance. At their site http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/programmes/e-democracy/blog_intro they’ve listed 9 weblogs as commanding “respect in the ‘blogosphere’”. One of these is this blog, the one you are reading at this very moment! Feels good, to have someone say nice things about us. Thank you, Hansard Society! Also feels good to have the message acknowledged that plastic bags are a menace, that this issue is one of substantial consequence and that far better alternatives are available in the form of reusable bags (see them at http://www.badlani.com/bags/shoppingbags.htm

San Fransisco sees the light

CBS News today carried a story saying that San Francisco officials believe that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs. San Francisco may become the first city in the United States to charge shoppers for grocery bags. The city's environmental commission is expected to ask the mayor and board of supervisors Tuesday to consider a 17 cent per bag charge on paper and plastic grocery bags. Their goal is to reduce plastic bag pollution. Plastic bags jam machinery, pollute waterways and often end up in trees. They are also ingested by wild life and cause them to suffer even as they die premature deaths. Officials believe that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs. Grocers and bag manufacturers argue that many people already reuse their plastic bags. But you know and I know that this is not true. How many times have you reused a plastic bag? Maybe once in a blue moon. Other interested opponents call the plan an unfair and regressive tax on shoppers. I’m sure you will agree that this argument is facile. Far better, more attractive options exist in the form of reusable fabric bags. See the fantastic range available at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ and then click on various styles to be pleasantly surprised at how economical they are. Considering that each of our bags gets reused between 100 and 500 times, they are much, much cheaper than plastic or paper bags

Australia values its ecology more than most countries

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation today announced that a man named Australia's local hero for 2005, is a baker from the island state of Tasmania. Ben Kearney, 32, of Coles Bay, was nominated for the award by community members, for his efforts in ridding the tourist resort of plastic bags. The town has since become a model for community-based environmental campaigners throughout Australia. Mr Kearney accepted his award during Australia Day festivities in Canberra, and says he will share it with Coles Bay residents." They've supported me from day one with this idea and have been really enthusiastic and have worked as hard as I've worked to make it the success that it is," he said. "So, I really consider this award to be really about the community." The Australians are achieving great things without even taxing plastic bags, through positive action. Makes so much sense. Environmentally friendlier bags are attractive and affordable. See how attractive and affordable at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Ecological Economics.

My compliments to Arrissia Owen Turner for the well written article titled "Paper, plastic and pocketbook-could bag charge hit Big Bear?" Her article appears here http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/ In her article she's said "For, say, a family of four who buys maybe 14 bags worth of groceries during a weekly trip to the grocery store, that would be an additional $2.38. If half of those bags get double bagged, that would be $3.57. Plenty of penny-pinchers aren't pleased. If instead they were to buy eight canvas bags at $4.99 each (canvas bags hold more groceries than plastic or paper bags and the bottom never falls out), the family would save money within 11 trips to the store." Here are some facts that make fabric bags even more attractive. From the shop owner’s point of view they are much, much cheaper than giving away plastic bags, because fabric bags get reused as many as 500 times and display his name and logo every time they get re-used and become a walking billboard for him. If a few Big Bear store owners got together and imported fabric bags from us in India, they would cost them just 99 cents, not the $ 4.99 price you might expect. With customized names and logos attractively printed for each store, even if they are ordering just a few hundred bags each. I mean this quite seriously. See how attractive and economical fabric bags can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags/ Californians are leading the way. This is the only way the world will survive. Our planet cannot sustain the present levels of dumping of a million plastic bags a minute.

Rhode Island realises plastic bags disposal cost

Daniel H. Trafford is the managing editor of the Kent County Daily Times and he’s written a article on a $250,000 advertising campaign to be launched to combat the problem of plastic bags blowing in the wind. It seems that their community spends about $1 million annually just picking up these bags that blow all over the place from trash being delivered to the Central Landfill. It’s nice that they’re catching on. It would be even nicer if they followed the lead of places like Coles Bay in Australia. He’s also mentioned how he, as a kid working in a store, encountered how some people make a hoax of recycling. He’s one of the few that had the guts to object and it appears that his action led others to object too. Click on more to read the full article. I just wrote Daniel a mail hoping he will ask his community to look at the attractive options that exist at www.badlani.com/bags/

Plastic bags are killing marine life. Colliers County catches on.

I just read a story by Eric Staats in the Naples Daily News about how the Colliers County tourism promotion guys had to give up their plans to give away plastic bags to tourists for shell collection when the county environment experts intervened. Nancy Payton, field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation praised the decision to pull the bags off the beach. Like most folks in the US they appear not to be aware that for just a little more than the plastic bags were costing them, they could have imported re-usable fabric bags from us. Attractive totes like the one you see in the picture, which would have been carried home by tourists, who would have become walking billboards for the Colliers County tourism message every time they re-used the bags. I’m sure if they’d known how attractive and economical our bags are; see them at http://www.badlani.com/bags ; they’d have opted for them. I’m just sending a mail to Eric Staats hoping he will pass on the message.

How to save a billion plastic bags from choking our planet

This little polypropylene bag is an absolute wonder. It has cut plastic bag usage in Australia by 1.18 billion plastic bags. That’s a lot of bags. The Australian carried an article about this in their issue of March 12th. Trends, says futurist John Naisbitt, are like horses, easier to ride in the direction they are going. Catch a trend early and you can use it to your advantage. And ecological concerns, especially about the harm plastic bags are doing to our environment, is one that is going is going to get a huge amount of public attention, particularly in the US. Considering we can deliver these to you at less than 75 cents, our #B06 bag is a great vehicle for you to use as a brand building device for your company. See these and some other great promotional items at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

See what plastic bags do to your countryside

Kathryn B. Brown, a family health nursing professional, points out in the East Oregonian that using plastic bags and drinking bottled water isn’t good for people. “All this unnecessary plastic in our world is unhealthy for people and the environment” she says, contrasting her own environment with what she observed in countries that are taxing plastic bags, “the difference was the lack of plastic trash” Those countries don't see this kind of sight any longer. I'm sure Kathryn would approve of the attractive and economical shopping bags we offer at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Welsh take note of Ireland’s plastic bag tax’s success

A story in the Daily Post reported The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is renewing its demands for government action after an increase in plastic-based litter on beaches in Wales during its annual Beachwatch survey. Andrea Crump, MCS's litter projects co-ordinator, said a tax on plastic bags in Ireland reduced waste by 90%. "Plastics such as nets and bags are known to entangle marine animals, which can drown as a result, she added, "bags and small plastic pieces can also be swallowed by marine animals, such as turtles and whales, which may then starve as a result." People easily adjust to doing without throw-away plastic bags. Reusable fabric bags are attractive and economical options. See how attractive and economical at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Reusable bags WILL catch on!

Martin Sloan, writing in The Birmingham News, has just written a great piece “Reusable Bags could catch on”. One look at this picture and you can see why they have to catch on! He quotes folks who have appreciated the need to use reusable fabric bags instead of choking our world with plastic bags. More power to you, Martin. Folks like you will save our planet, despite the myopia that most of the world still demonstrates. See how attractive and economical reusable fabric bags can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Pretty up a tote bag and win yourself a prize!

Martin Sloane of The Birmingham News got a tremendous response to his article on switching to reusable bags. So great, that he’s decided to kick off a contest. To enter you have to decorate a reusable bag (no paper or plastic, folks) and send clear picture of it to Martin at the Birmingham News or email it to him at site4savings@hotmail.com The winner gets $ 100, the second prize is $ 50 and third prize is $ 25. Kids are encouraged to enter, and the winning photos get featured at Martin’s website http://www.martinsloane.com/ Great going Martin! Keep this up and you’re going to do a lot of good to our planet! Reusable fabric bags are a practical and simple solution to a problem of mounting proportions. They are attractive and affordable as you can see at http://www.badlani.com/bags This is Chloe, a talented graphic designer who ordered bags from us with one of her beautiful designs. Makes us proud to be associated with folks like her.

What’s a cotton tote got to do with branding?

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore discussed the power of transforming ordinary transactions into experiential events in their book, “The Experience Economy.” “It’s not about entertaining customers, it’s about engaging them,” they wrote. Kevin Roberts, CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi, recently built on Pine and Gilmore’s theory of customer engagement in “Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands,” his new book. Successful direct marketers are in the experience business; they court their customers in intriguing ways, fueling their passion for meaningful experiences. It’s more than a win-win. It’s a way of life for these companies and their customers. In an earlier story on this blog, I wrote about how Patagonia and Body Shop are two mega brands that have internalized people’s ecological concerns into their strategy and have won a huge and loyal following. These two brands can comfortably call themselves Lovemarks. Their customers feel good about selecting their products over others, trusting these brands to have followed the most ethical and ecological route to making the products they proudly use and associate themselves with. Giving away a cotton shopping tote with your logo on it shows people that you are aware of the problems being caused by plastic bags and are doing something positive about it. When they re-use these bags, they do so proudly, displaying your brand’s and their own concerns. What a testimonial, and at such a small price! If you don’t know how economical it can be for you to give away cotton shopping totes, give yourself a pleasant surprise at http://www.badlani.com/bags/

Washington DC shops to charge 31 cents for plastic bags

I just read an article in The Decatur Daily which is published in Alabama, where Vickie Brooks, front-end manager for a store called Kroger says that stores in Washington, DC are charging customers 31 cents per plastic bag. This came as news to me. Searching for this only led back to this one story. I hope this is true. Reusable cloth bags will begin to look truly viable to shoppers in DC and clean up that city’s environment in no time. A 12 cent tax reduced plastic bag usage by 95% in Ireland. Clearly taxation works. Vickie herself has used cloth bags for years when she buys groceries because she sees how many plastic bags the store uses daily. The Wall Street Journal says the United States consumes 100 billion plastic bags annually, requiring about 12 million barrels of oil to produce. And plastic bags, which look like food to marine animals, cause more than 100,000 marine animal deaths per year. Plastic bags are not biodegradable, but rather, photodegradable. They break down in sunlight into smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil and waterways. This affects us very directly. A shocking statistic says all adult Americans now urinate plastics. Brooks said it might not be long before every community will follow a growing trend in larger cities that charge customers for plastic bags. Most Americans assume reusable cloth bags are expensive. Visitors to http://www.badlani.com/bags are pleasantly surprised to discover how inexpensive they are.

Internal Branding

Too many discussions on branding focus on projecting a brand to external audiences. To the extent that branding gets considered as being synonymous with advertising. I disagree. I think the place a branding exercise starts from is within the organisation. It is only when an organisation is in total internal agreement on the subject of “who we are and how we behave” that it is actually equipped to deliver a consistent branding message to the external world. One of the most effective ways to make this happen is to conduct role-playing exercises on how the folks within the organisation would like to be treated by the suppliers they do business with. At some level each one of us a buyer of goods and services, and we have no difficulty in differentiating between who gives us great service and who doesn’t. Human beings have a wonderful characteristic. We all know what we like and what we don’t. Stands to reason that if an experience doesn’t appeal to us, it wouldn’t appeal to our customers either. It isn’t difficult, then, to take this into a discussion of where we could improve our service standards. This is a simple exercise, doesn’t cost anything at all, and helps bind the organisation into one that is on the same wave-length where service and quality are concerned. It works. Try us out for your next requirement of bags and see how we measure up. If we don’t exceed your highest expectations, please tell us so. We’ll listen and we’ll learn every time. And you’ll have an even more pleasing supplier. A look at www.badlani.com/bags/customers.htm will tell you that our efforts have met with some success, but we believe we have a lot more to achieve. To all the customers who’ve said kind things to us. Thank you. Your appreciation matters a lot to us; it helps to keep us striving. But, please don’t pull your punches. If we do anything at all that doesn’t please you, please tell us! We also use this to learn how to deal with the folks who we buy from. We don’t like being treated in some ways, and those guys are every bit as human as we are.

US businesses bought $ 16.9 billion worth of promo products in 2004

2005 looks even better, suggests an ASIC survey. ASIC stands for the Advertising Specialty Institute. “Companies are looking for new, more effective ways to spend their marketing budgets, as many are discovering that advertising on satellite radio, TiVo television or the Internet is not as effective as it once was” says Greg Muzzillo, founder and Co-CEO of Proforma, said to be one of the top 10 promo product distributors. I’m convinced this is part of a worldwide trend that is leading away from broadcasting marketing messages through mass media to customized messages being narrowcasted to specific customers. The customization potential of promotional products makes them especially appealing as does their topicality and association with events. The Promotional Products Association published an article in December 2004 saying bags are a wonderful promo choice. Why? Because everybody uses them. Since everyone has stuff to hold, there’s not one person who doesn’t have a bag of some sort. Promotionally speaking, there’s an inherent use value for the recipient, and this means, for the advertiser, there’s the frequent opportunity for seeing the company logo. They are an extension of the person, and different styles may fit one person but not another. I completely agree. In today’s world one-size-fits-all just doesn’t cut it. That’s why, at Norquest, we encourage our customers to customize what they are ordering. No fixed notions, no minimums, we don’t put any limits on our customers’ imaginations. It’s our job to make whatever they dream up and we enjoy it. Bags work. Everyone loves receiving an attractive bag. And we’ve got plenty. See the variety at http://www.badlani.com/bags You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how economically they are priced. Good looking, economical, and something that everybody wants. Isn’t that how you’d like your next promotion to be?