Customisation is what Spice is all about

There’s a fascinating article here at Infomat.

Trends, they say, can help track changing definitions of what constitutes value to consumers.

The customer-made trend, co-creating with your customers, is the most important one to watch. Not because everything has to or will be co-created in the future, but because tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of consumers around the world is a complete departure from the inward looking, producer- versus-consumer innovation model so common to corporations around the world.

Can’t agree with them more! At Spice Bags we’ve dedicated ourselves to understanding your needs and creating exactly what you need!

Your consumer wants a resuable bag. Is she/he going to get it from you or from someone else?

IKEA announced it wouldn’t give away free plastic bags and would charge for a sturdier reusable bag.

How do you think their customers reacted? Here are some actual customer comments:

Chris (UK): “This is great news. I’m all for taxing plastic bag consumption. The waste is abhorrent but the main benefit is it makes responsible consumer behaviour unavoidable and the more it is made to seem “the norm” the more likely it is to become so”.

Lara (US): “I was in Ireland this winter and they charge 10 cents for a bag everywhere. I’m under the impression it is a bag tax implemented by the government. I wish we’d have one here in the U.S.!”

Alison Bellamy (UK): “Within two seconds I realised that Ikea was a forward thinking empire and was indeed doing the right thing, as part of their bit to help save the planet.

Plastic carrier bags don’t disappear. They lie aroud in landfill sites polluting the ground and atmosphere and are non-degradable. They take possibly hundreds of years to break down, although no one knows for certain as plastic hasn’t been around long enough.

Much of the litter found on beaches is made up of plastic carrier bags which have been washed ashore.

So as I bought a heavy duty reusable Ikea sack, which is like a blue potato sack with handles, I felt virtuous and righteous and pledged right then and there that I will stop using carrier bags wherever possible. It makes perfect sense.

When I got home, I just had the one big bag. There was no decision about where to stuff the old carrier bags and no waste. I hung the bag in the cellar and have even re-used it again at the supermarket.

Good on you Ikea, who needs carrier bags anyway?”

Reusable bags are probably the most powerful and economical advertising and branding weapon available today. And the Spice Team is happy to customize them to suit your budget and your precise needs.

Fashion forecast for 2007 onwards: Think Green

The Daily Mail says that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact they’re having.

“Not so long ago, a good day’s shopping was represented by unbridled credit card abuse and armfuls of carrier bags — preferably glossy paper ones with smart rope handles”

“Today, shopping for the sheer pleasure of it is no longer enough. We want more than something new and pretty to take home - we want to know we made the world a better place by buying it and that the bag we’re carrying didn’t damage the environment”.

Carrying a visibly eco-friendly bag now has the kind of cachet that carrying an expensive designer bag does, that such concern puts you into the bracket of people like Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts.

This generation of protesters may not be making placards and taking to the streets, but they’re making big business sit up and take notice.

The New Age Consumer

The Independent, UK, in a recent article notes that companies are now more concerned than ever about environmental issues.

The smart ones know they have to be, because their consumers are driving them to thinking.

“Shoppers are becomingly increasingly frustrated by the voluminous packaging that fills their bins when they unwrap food. That irritation has been picked up in research. Consumers shouldering the hassle and moral unease about generating this vast, obvious waste could choose to patronise street markets that are cheaper and less wasteful. Consumers aren’t just annoyed because packaging is awkward, many are worried about the environment. And big companies are only too aware that, with climate change rapidly rising up the political and public agenda, green issues cannot be ignored.”

If that ain’t good news, what is?