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Just the other day I went to the grocery store to pick up a couple necessities toiletries. On my way into the store were a couple of Boy Scouts and their parents. I love helping little kids with their endeavors. I feel a great sense of reward making a kid smile and have a feeling of accomplishment in the activities they do. I was always one of those kids who outsold the others in school fundraisers and in collecting donations for charities. Anyways, I decided to head over and see what it was that they were promoting.

The Boy Scouts were handing out blue plastic bags for people to fill with food to donate to the local food bank. I had no intention of going to the store to buy anything more than toilet paper and a toothbrush, but I wanted to help the kids succeed and donate to a good cause.

Now, I don’t know if they purposely planned to have blue plastic bags or not, but these were the only colored grocery bags in the whole store. Every isle you went up and down, someone else had one of those blue plastic bags. Even more importantly, those people were filling them up with lots of food. What an extremely effective marketing strategy, just like someone getting a present in one of those famous blue Tiffany’s bags (expensive jewelry I have yet to buy anyone). I am positive that people overfilled those bags to avoid being the only one who didn’t fill his or her bag. I know I was having a secret competition with the people around me to get the most food in my bag.

Moral of the story and marketing lesson goes like this:

• Find a need that needs to be met (food shelter needing food).
• Passionately seek to fill that need (bunches of eager kids with free weekends).
• Find a unique way for others to help (standing in front of a store with a bunch of kids).
• Encourage competition, good feeling and other people’s money (blue plastic bag).
• Reap what you sow (collecting all the food and giving it away).
• Add value (so far everyone has benefited and not much was lo$t in doing so).

This was such an easy way to get the maximum effort and cooperation out of people in one afternoon. Unknown people showed up to the store in order to buy whatever and go on with their day, but they made a quick, easy choice to help others. In doing so, these people entered into a feeling of generosity and silent competition with other shoppers. Each person filled that bag in order to be seen as someone who is charitable for a good cause. In the end, hungry people were fed, Boy Scouts were rewarded, average Joes left with a sense of accomplishment, and I ended up with a blog post. See the power of one blue plastic bag?