Lemme Try That
Sampling is huge . . . and not just for Girltalk (who was amazing at lollapalooza, btw). I’m talking about the old promotional trick of product sampling. It looks like it’s making a comeback. And with the economy tightening even more, I’m guessing it’s going to increase. In the past month of grocery shopping I’ve been offered samples of pizza, pretzels, ice cream, chicken tenders, cheese, vegetable dip, taco chips and, surprisingly, beer! (no wonder I volunteer to do the grocery shopping!) I accepted them all, i admit, but I was doing research. I only bought one of the products–the pizza–but it turns out there’s a scientific reason for that. According to Arbitron, who did a scientific survey just published, sampling is more effective when you haven’t heard of the product before. I was already familiar with the other brands . . . although i DID go back for seconds on the beer sample just to make sure. Arbitron also found that people like getting a free taste. Nearly 2/3rds of shoppers admit to trying samples, and 35% of them bought the product right away. And more than half of the people who tried a sample said they intended to buy it in the future. That’s amazing. More than a third of the people who tried a product they had never heard of went ahead and put it in their shopping cart! Nice conversion! What other kind of marketing does that?
Yes, it’s expensive, and yes, it’s a lot of lifting, as they say. But it’s instant gratification, and a little reward. It’s way more dynamic than couponing, and one of the only tricks you can do with a perishable product. And don’t forget–the sampled product often replaces a competing brand in the cart. So you’re launching your brand AND stepping on the competitor at the same time. Sweet. As grocers control their real estate with an increasingly iron fist, it’s nice to have a tool that consumers love and retailers recognize as tied to sales. Everybody talks about street-level marketing, and this is as close to the consumer as you can get.
Come to think of it, I also sampled bourbon in a bar recently. The sampler bought my table a free round of their whiskey, with no strings attached. There was no signage, no fanfare. She wasn’t even wearing any flair! The all-time best sampling program I ever experienced is now illegal, but at the time it really worked. A brand of chewing tobacco handed out full packages of the stuff for free on my college campus. You could take as many pouches as you wanted, and they were on campus for weeks. I wound up with an apartment full of free tobacco, and a brand preference that emerged about 2 months later when i ran out of the free stuff. I spent the next 10 years breaking that habit . . . .
