Electronic Retailer - October 2011 - 28

SPACE BAG: THE PERFECT HYBRID

Bag existed on the market, JamiesonDunne says. They were not only a new product, but a new product category unto themselves. Sweeney and Johns introduced Space Bag on home shopping network QVC, using a pitchman named Jan Mueller. A series of infomercials followed, hosted by Mueller. Profits from the DRTV campaign were used to expand into consumer catalogs and to gain a foothold in some retail outlets, such as The Container Store. In 2000, the founders switched from infomercials to one- and two-minute DRTV spots. They brought in Icon to handle media buying. Lazkani says that the switch to short-form gave the campaign a major boost. In 2001, Jamieson-Dunne joined the company, bringing retail and branding expertise she had gained at Proctor & Gamble. In 2002, New West Products was bought by Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a multibillion-dollar conglomerate. The San Diego operation became ITW Space Bag. Besides financial backing, what ITW brought to the table was manufacturing capability, Jamieson-Dunne says. With ITW’s manufacturing muscle, the founders’ DR and marketing skills still generating cash flow, and her own retail and branding savvy, the move into high-volume big-box stores like Walmart and Target became feasible. From the beginning of its push into retailing, Space Bag set out to build a lasting brand, not just to cash in on a classic DR-novelty spike. Johns and

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, the company received photos from people who reported that the only household belongings they had left were the ones stored in Space Bag.
Sweeney deliberately stayed out of the “As Seen on TV” section of retail stores, Jamieson-Dunne says. “Mostly we’re in the storage section.” The company built its retail brand methodically, as it added new sizes and versions of the product. Space is a precious commodity in brick-and-mortar stores, “and you don’t get space until you prove you deserve it,” Jamieson-Dunne says. Space Bag now has a 4-foot planogram in Walmart – “4 linear feet that the consumer can see.” For a niche product, that is some serious retail presence. foreign competitors haven’t come in” with copycat products, Jamieson-Dunne says. Rubbermaid and other companies make tub-like plastic storage containers to accommodate clothing and bedding, but they take up more space and they are not airtight. The second key DR characteristic is that Space Bag is eminently demonstrable. “Before your eyes, a huge stack of clothing goes into a bag, and you watch it compress,” Jamieson-Dunne says. For television viewers, therefore, “it requires no leap of faith.” Third, the product pitch is aimed at universal needs that really exist and that aren’t going away. Space Bag makes it possible to protect and store clothing, pillows and other such closet-filling items in much smaller spaces. JamiesonDunne says the company’s top target audience today is empty nesters and other Baby Boomers who are moving to smaller homes and condos “but who are still collectors.” Another key emerging audience is young mothers in their 20s and 30s. Because the sluggish economy has made them more cost-conscious, they want to preserve older children’s clothes for younger ones, or for kids they might bear in years to come. Space Bag is not a recession-proof product, Jamieson-Dunne says, but since part of its appeal is to people who are trying to save money, it is a recession-resistant one. A DRTV commercial playing on Space Bag’s website in August offered nine vacuum-sealable bags of various sizes plus an organizer for $19.95 plus shipping. As the commercial points out, the replacement cost of a single ruined sweater – one stored unsafely – would be greater than $19.95.

Why DRTV Still Works
Today, Space Bag can be found at more than 15,000 individual stores. So why does the company maintain its DRTV campaign, and how can that campaign operate on a nearly break-even basis? Because, Jamieson-Dunne says, “Despite our success at retail, the product has DR characteristics that are too good to give up.” First, Space Bag remains unique. To this day, there is nothing else like it on the market. Space Bag’s vacuum-sealable designs are still patent-protected, “and we have kept the prices low enough that

Courtesy of ITW Space Bag

electronicRETAILER | October 2011

Electronic Retailer - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Electronic Retailer - October 2011