I find the sampling / demo stations at Malls useful in two ways: 1) The sales person gives a quick show of how to use the product. That takes away some fear of not being able to actually use the product. 2) The tasting or result helps see both the challenge and efficacy of solution. Dyson or Eureka Forbes example being the most memorable on that.
This is a difficult"expense line item" to crack. I get live sampling... Poured coca cola down the throats of youngsters in rural West Bengal in early 2000s 😱
What I find difficult to comprehend are the small sachets that come with QComm orders... Do they really help induce trials? And bring users into the fold? Especially non food items like hair oil, shampoo etc. What's your view?
Oh yes, comes down to company belief. Food companies swear by sampling, as u know. If a free sample comes home, people try it. period. Then if the product delights, they "might" buy it next time. This is one more "high involvement" interaction with consumer with the hope that frequency of interactions (across TV, sampling, digital, disply ads etc.) convert one day. See the problem is the difficulty in tracking. So I always recommend a unique discount code with the free sample for next purchase - in era of ecom/qcom, easy to track vs. my time of all offline purchases.
Yes, discount code with free sample is a good way to close the loop. And easier to execute in today's online world. Thanks for such thought provoking pieces…I enjoy reading them.
I find the sampling / demo stations at Malls useful in two ways: 1) The sales person gives a quick show of how to use the product. That takes away some fear of not being able to actually use the product. 2) The tasting or result helps see both the challenge and efficacy of solution. Dyson or Eureka Forbes example being the most memorable on that.
agree 100%
This is a difficult"expense line item" to crack. I get live sampling... Poured coca cola down the throats of youngsters in rural West Bengal in early 2000s 😱
What I find difficult to comprehend are the small sachets that come with QComm orders... Do they really help induce trials? And bring users into the fold? Especially non food items like hair oil, shampoo etc. What's your view?
Oh yes, comes down to company belief. Food companies swear by sampling, as u know. If a free sample comes home, people try it. period. Then if the product delights, they "might" buy it next time. This is one more "high involvement" interaction with consumer with the hope that frequency of interactions (across TV, sampling, digital, disply ads etc.) convert one day. See the problem is the difficulty in tracking. So I always recommend a unique discount code with the free sample for next purchase - in era of ecom/qcom, easy to track vs. my time of all offline purchases.
Yes, discount code with free sample is a good way to close the loop. And easier to execute in today's online world. Thanks for such thought provoking pieces…I enjoy reading them.
thanks for reading!