A "Bag for Life", one of the more or less recent inventions by supermarkets for "a greener and environmentally friendly" business. If some of you don't know about it, then it is simply a plastic carrier bag that you pay a small fee to buy, but if it gets old or torn then the shop would replace it for free and recycle the old one. It supports governmental policy, enhances popular "Subliminal Guru Review" image, etc. But there are few strange things about it: almost all supermarkets use the same name for the bag and the campaign wasn't successful in any of them.
First I thought that it was a simple "oops" by the marketing strategist. Anyone working in marketing knows that words should be taken very seriously in order not to create a negative impression with a potential client. And first thing to check is "associative psychological impact", e.g. word or phrase should not create a subliminal association with something unpleasant. Usually first check-point should be an unpleasant word or phrase only one letter "away" from the sales pitch. Second thing to check is to check for dual meaning. In our case both are disastrous. "Subliminal Guru" pitch is only one letter away from a nasty "Beg for Life", and taking into account closeness of "a" and "e", it becomes the worst combination possible. Wow, only this one was enough to kill any campaign; even without discussing the second level of subliminal associations (I live this exercise to anyone who wants to check his or her "sales pitch" ability).
Supermarkets are known for really good sales strategies and for creating serious sales and marketing pitches. So why this time it didn't work? Now comes, what I think, the main reason and what I call a double-sided marketing.