During a recent interview, I was asked what the two biggest demands or trends are in the sampling industry today. That was an easy question to answer, since our clients tell us what matters most to them: innovation and accountability.
Consumer packaged-goods manufacturers and retailers are demanding real innovation to differentiate their in-store sampling programs. And total accountability is essential in determining the success of a promotion. So providing accurate sales performance data is critical in calculating the return on investment of any in-store event. The industry as a whole has been trending toward more sales data analysis. No surprise there—how else will a brand justify its spend on in-store sampling?
All too often forgotten in the overall evaluation of an in-store sampling event’s effectiveness, however, is acknowledgment of its media value.
A contributing factor to overall ROI is the impact of point-of-sale (POS) display components at an in-store demo and the number of impressions achieved during a six-hour event. Traditionally manufacturers spend millions of advertising dollars building their brands through print, television, radio, and online media, and their ad agencies calculate the number of impressions made and then convert that number into return for the brand. Traditional advertising is a very broad-brush approach to reaching consumers, and as we all know, it is difficult to measure. Consumer advertising blankets the market with the hope of reaching its target but without absolute certainty of its success.
With in-store sampling events, however, marketers have the opportunity to deliver that same brand message to thousands of qualified consumers at the point of sale. What makes them qualified? They are already in buying mode, or they wouldn’t be in the store. And because they are in the store, where 70% of purchase decisions are made, they are able to take immediate action on the brand messaging.
Still not convinced why in-store POS displays matter? Consider the following scenario: During a standard six-hour Saturday demo at a leading mass-merchandise store approximately 4,000-6,000 shoppers pass through. Of these consumers, an average of 300-500 are typically engaged by trained event personnel, leaving 3,700-5,500 shoppers who might not take part in the product demonstration but still represent valuable impressions. This is where visually compelling point-of-sale display materials become critical. Every shopper passing by the sampling event will gain an image of that brand in the store.
In fact, to ensure more congruency among what consumers see in print, what they see on television, and what they see in the store, we often work with our clients’ advertising agencies to develop the in-store POS in concert with all other campaign elements. Our design team has taken storyboards from planned television spots and effectively translated them into exciting three-dimensional, high-visibility POS materials for our clients’ in-store events.
Again, our objective is not only to make an impression on the consumers who will be directly engaged by the demo but also to maximize the value of the thousands of passive impressions and generate an outcome of interest. So while the cost of POS components that support the in-store sampling program is always factored into the “investment side” of the equation, it is important to recognize the value of the advertising impressions on the “return side” of the final ROI evaluation as well.
CHIEF MARKETER columnist Laurie Carlson McGrath is director of marketing with Schaumburg, IL-based marketing services firm PromoWorks (www.promoworks.com).
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