The Medford Team has used customized cloth shopping bags for several years. Yes...generic, unmeasurable advertising. Not everything has to have an ROI.

Hi Will, a lot of people use these when shopping. I would forget to put them back in my car once unloading at home. Plastic bags are still allowed here. 

Not sure you would have a good ROI!

Will,

We did that for some of our clients.  However, it has to look REALLY GOOD!  Did it work?  Maybe in some areas it will.  Most states have had this is effect for years now.  Our Albertson's was the first to do that than Santa Barbara made it effective through the cities.  I would think it would be too late in states that have ecologically minded for a long, long time.  A

Same category as ball point pens, refrigerator magnets, etc.  Except that getting an ROI might be a challenge.  As others pointed out, those bags are expensive. 

And as Ron and Alexandra Seigel "A" and Richie Alan Naggar  said, the bags need to look really good.  At a trade show I once got a bag from a national marketing company.   That bag was really flimsy and did not reflect well on that company.  On the contrary, I still have a couple of "Trulia" bags that look very sharp and professional.

It is not something I would do, Will Hamm 

A nice sturdy bag would be a good gift yet for marketing, likely no return on the investment. 

What is the goal?
A gift to your sphere?
A CTA to those who may see the bag for the moments it's in plain sight?
Where it will be may be seen greatly influences the message on the bag. From the end of the check-out to the boot of the ride really provides little opportunity for a message to get out.
So, maybe a bigger better beach/park bag is a better choice. A knap-sack for instance, will be visible for a much longer period of time. A graphic of a 'magic square' with the CTA to discover more magic.

Good idea but expensive. My bank had some made with their name on it and in a bright blue. They were too small and the straps looked weak.  I never looked at their logo but I did remember I got them from them. So a sturdy bag would be appreciated and remembered. What to put on the bag reminds me of nice polo-type shirts that have logo on them. I like a plain shirt minus the logo and dont buy them for that reason. Its my shirt not your billboard.  So it is with the bag. Also, I question the hard return on investment. 

Like anything with our name on it (outside of a contract), the ROI is branding.  Consistency and layering and people know who you are.  I have reusable bags with my name on them.  This week a received a pic of it being used on a beach in Aruba.  I've had clients post a picture of theirs at work noting how handy it is.  So what?  WELL...  who is top of mind for them and their contacts when the topic of real estate comes up?  Me.  That's the ROI.  ;)

I have done it and people love it!

Big canvas bags that comfortably fit on the shoulder. I need to do those again.

Client gifts. Too pricey to hand out to everyone.

Most people don't pay attention to what's on the bag.  They are mostly balled up or shoved to the bottom of the cart until needed.  At least in my experience.  I've had some very "provacative" ones over the years that Commifornia has been doing this B.S. (such as the Royal Couple right after the wedding, the FBI logo) and only once did I get any comments.  It was on the British one at a British food store.

Hello Will Hamm it depends on the area, but it might be a good idea.

We are still not using recyclable bags during the pandemic. I would not do it & yes how would you know if it's working?

Paper and plastic are still available here at no charge. Reusable bags were only seen occasionally before the pandemic then stores banned them. It is still not recommended to use them and will probably be a long time before they are used again. I have never been a fan of them in general and less so for advertising. Your marketing dollars can be spent in better places that will provide more exposure and ROI.

I put that in the same category as buying a spot on the shopping cart and it's not worth my marketing dollars.

Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist summed it up concisely for me!

I am sure people will appreciate them, however they are very expensive from a roi point of view.

If it's a quality bag, it's expensive and how would you measure ROI or decide whom to give them to? Personally, I hate using anything that advertises something... so I have bags in my car, but they are anonymous. Reusables were banned during the pandemic... not sure what the status of them is now. We have both plastic and paper options here at no cost. I can see where a nice bag would provide some type of top of mind awareness for those who know you... as for the rest... not so much.

If they're going to reinstate the ban on single-use grocery bags, I may buy myself a little utility cart and do away with the bag issue completely. 

I was given a couple of free bags from different grocery stores and I use them for my weekly shopping.  I like not having a bunch of bags to throw away.

It is a nice gift for clients and or sphere but need to do an upgrade to a good size qualty bag. Too expensive and little to no ROI for general marketing reach.

Will Hamm like @Cara Riley suggested yesterday, focus on a future need.  A byline like "Ask me why you should remodel your basement today 2021".  Also like the larger square bags.  The black ones are classy with logos for branding but I would go with a byline for a CTA😎

A nice, discreet design might work for name recognition if you gave those out to your clients.

I reuse cloth bags we were given two years ago.  I have forgotten who provided them, although they are branded!  

Oh I used to do this for my flooring business - purple bags w/ logo.  We woul give customers a free hardwood cleaniing product and instructions within them. The cleaning product also had a sticker w/ logo and phone number.  We did get more repeat customers over time, but hard to tell if that was from this...except a few people told us that's how they found our phone number.

Others would find it just by typing debbie+floorinng into google.

Will, I don't see it as a good ROI. Our grocery stores were giving bags away many years ago, we have a ton of reuseable bags and half the time forget them in the car. 

Save your money for more effective marketing opportunities.