Product sampling has long been a marketing tactic. For years advertisers have used product sampling to get products in the hands of consumers. Free food samples being hawked at the grocery store, the newest fragrances getting spritzed in your direction in department stores, free packets of laundry detergent or shampoo being stuffed in your mailbox or your local newspaper — these have been everyday occurrences for many years.
New marketing tactics have taken product sampling to a new level. Research indicates that consumers are seeking experience-based advertising — in other words, they want to try before they buy.
The idea is to promote your product or service as part of a consumer experience rather than in an intrusive way. Today advertisers aren’t simply sending consumers free samples or handing them out at stores, they are strategically placing free samples at locations that make the sampling of the product relevant to what the consumer is doing at a certain time.
It’s about reaching consumers where they are, rather than asking them to find you by tuning into a television station or reading a magazine. Much like the old saying, “If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain,” advertisers strive to deliver messages to consumers in a way that’s convenient and meaningful to them.
Here’s a good example of this new style of product sampling: A coffee company decided to forgo its usual advertising tactic of placing a billboard next to heavily populated bus stops. Instead, the company installed machines to dispense their product free of charge in spots where consumers would be likely to drink a cup of coffee while waiting for a bus.
Another good example is a Sony promotion at the London Zoo. For a limited promotional period, zoo visitors were invited to borrow a DVD camcorder for an hour, free of charge. Participants got a two-minute demonstration and then were free to roam the zoo and record their visit. The camcorder had to be returned, of course, but they could keep the DVD, which included prerecorded product and purchasing details.
An old model of this type of promotion would involve making the offer to consumers through traditional advertising, then having them trek to a store to pick up the complimentary camcorder, take it to the zoo and, finally, take it back to the store. This new model eliminates any effort on the part of the consumer — all they have to do is show up at the zoo, which they were going to do anyway.
A more elaborate illustration of product sampling is the emergence of something some advertisers refer to as “pop-up retail.” This is a more polished version of the temporary Halloween and Christmas stores that appear in vacant retail spaces.
Nike used a “pop-up” retail technique to extend its marketing reach and created a Nike Runner’s Lounge in a vacant storefront in Vancouver along a major running route in the city, to coincide with that city’s half marathon. The location provided a place where consumers could, among other things, gather with others for a run, get free massages and refreshments and, most important, “test-drive” Nike’s line of running shoes.
This new style of product sampling, combined with partnerships, is also on the rise. Luxury hotels and carmakers have joined forces for some high-end product sampling. Guests at the hotels are invited and even encouraged to test-drive automobiles such as Jaguars and Mercedes-Benzes.
Traditionally, these same automobile manufacturers might have placed a full-page ad in the literature found in hotel rooms. They may still do that, but they’ve taken it to the next level by providing an experience in a place where the demographic they’re trying to reach can be found.
Those are just a few of the examples of the way product sampling is being used to maximize advertising efforts today. You’re probably not going to run out and form a partnership with the London Zoo or install machines to dispense complimentary samples of your product, but you may want to think about how you can use product sampling 21st-century style to help reach your business goals.