I was thinking about the “go green” push and how certain companies and brands have embraced it while others haven’t. I’m sure demographics have a lot to do with it but I was thinking as a whole, it seems there has to be ways that you could embrace going green, not for the sake of the environment, but for the sake of return customers.
What if McDonalds were to give you a nice looking, cup-holder fitting, reusable cup – with the premise that reusing your cup saves you maybe $.25 or more off of your purchase. Would you keep the cup and reuse it if it were a nice BPA-Free design? I guess it could get funky if you left it in the car but maybe they have a quick cup wash gadget or they could come up with a nice solution. The point is to try and entice you to come back. Whether you’re just getting a refill or an apple pie, the mere fact that you’re returning creates better odds that you’ll expand on your purchase. If anything, you’ll have a bunch of homeless people walking around with McDonald branded cups in some very high traffic areas – a win-win.
I wonder if grocery stores like Whole Foods could do something similar with bags…Give away discounts to those customers who use their own bags. Personally, that would make it more enticing for me to walk back to the car after remembering that I left them there. Or, instead of the those membership cards, apply the same membership discounts to people who use the reusable store bags. The cost of the normal “free” bags are hidden in the markup anyways right?
What do you guys think?