The future of shopping bags?

In my sociology class on Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Business, my professor mentioned how companies (such as Ecko.) are making their shopping bags fashionable so people are beginning to carry the shopping bags around as a fashion statement. I got so excited when I heard him talk about this because I feel this is one of the coolest things happening in the branding world, of which I have secretly been longing to happen all my life.

I have already noticed Bloomingdale's doing this, as several girls have been carrying around tote bags that weren't made out of brown paper, but has the exact same design and look as the 'big brown bags' that the store shoppers generally use to carry their Bloomingdale purchases. It looked great on those girls, and it looks great on the brand as well. :) I hope that more and more companies will take on this trend (not just because I've already been wishing for this to happen), but because doing so will not only help the brand's image in stating that they care about the environment but also more likely make consumers appreciate and reuse their real shopping bags more often. In addition, providing these types of bags strengthens the brand's relationship with its customer and positions the brand higher in the customer's mind as that person is now carrying the bag as a fashion or designer bag. Depending on if the person owns the bag, upon buying it now the customer's touchpoint with the brand is even more personal than when that person used to throw away or recycle the shopping bag. For companies that decide to pursue this venture, the closer proximity will also push brand managers of the retail stores to pay more attention to their shopping bag design (to me, the second or third most close in proximity touchpoint of the brand other than the instore experience and the actual product itself), especially if the bag is going to be resuable, the design must be good so that people will actually purchase the bag and are willing to carry them around as a fashion statement. Focusing on the shopping bag design will help ensure more simple and clearly focused branding. I believe that simplicity is key to everything. In design, and in life and especially in branding. Landor's New York Managing Director Allen P. Adamson wrote an amazing book called BrandSimple, a book I recently finished on the importance of simplicity when doing branding. It's a DEFINITE MUST read! Paying more attention to a branding signal such as shopping bag design forces the brand to communicate itself more clearly to its customers by requiring the company (if they want to brand effectively and successfully) to look at its core essence and identity and communicate that through consistent, simple and hopefully aesthetically appealing design on their shopping bags. In addition, letting customers carry around the bags is a perfect way to increase brand awareness and enables free advertising. What a perfect way to go!