8 Steps to Disruptive Product Sampling

Reach Your Target Demographic, Reduce Waste and Maximize Your ROI

There are many tactics available to the brand marketer when it comes to putting a sample in the hands of consumers.  Whether the effort involves sampling in a grocery store, on a street corner, at a festival, by mail, or some other tactic, the ultimate goal of the marketer is to disrupt consumer purchasing behavior in such a way that handing out a sample drives that consumer to buy the product they just tried. Marketers call this successful outcome ‘conversion’.  The higher the conversion, the better return on investment the marketer will enjoy from the sampling effort.

          

While any sampling effort will lead to conversion, here are 8 steps you can take to maximize conversion:

1.  Have a Great Product - This may seem obvious, but a great product packaged in a beautiful, easy-to-open sample package is the first fundamental step to sampling success.  Conversely, a bad product (or poorly designed sample) spells doom for your campaign and your ROI analysis.

2.  Target the Right People - The next step is to zero in on the audience that is most likely to buy your product.  If your target is moms of toddlers, daycares are a fantastic place to reach them.  If seniors are your niche, how about senior centers?  Grocery store sampling is great if your product is for the masses, but if your target is moms for example, how do you keep a 70 year old man from asking for a sample?

3.  Target the Right Geography - The next step is to choose your geography carefully, especially if your product is newly launched.  If your product is available only in Whole Foods, it only makes sense to sample your product in geographies where Whole Foods are located.  Sampling in an area where the product is not available creates confusion and frustration for your target.

4.  Choose a Relevant Location - While geography is important, another aspect of location is the actual location where the sampling is taking place.  Sampling at the ‘moment of need’ is the best case scenario and should inform what locations you choose to sample from.  If your brand is a shampoo, target locations where showers are taken (such as a health club, spa, rec center, hotel, or at home).  If your brand is a snack for kids, go where the moms are (and where kids like to snack), such as schools, rec centers, martial arts studios, or gymnastics facilities.  

5.  Have Informed Evangelists (Or Let the Product Speak for Itself) - In an ideal world the person accepting your sample is receiving it from someone who knows both the product and the target consumer well.  This ‘pie in the sky’ scenario is found at industry trade shows (where the company founder is often working the booth), but for most consumer sampling you typically have to make a choice among the following:

• A trained ambassador - This is someone who is paid to distribute your samples.  They typically don’t have a relationship with the person receiving the sample.  They may or may not have an authentic, emotional connection to your brand, but they are trained to act like they do!
• An influencer - This is someone who has a pre-existing relationship with the target consumer (such as a health club manager or a daycare director), but may have little experience with your product.
• Neither (let the product speak for itself) - Some samples are so good and/or simple that you don’t need a person there to explain the product.  These types of products work well in subscription boxes or other sampling by mail strategies.

6.  Avoid Duplication - Leverage tactics that don’t encourage duplication.  Some tactics (such as subscription box sampling) inherently reduce the risk of duplication (one sample per shipment). Others (such as festival or street corner sampling) encourage duplication as the ambassador may be trying to ‘unload’ the samples during the hours of their shift.  With venue-based sampling, we have learned that sending fewer samples than requested to each venue, and sampling just one flavor per venue (instead of 3 for example) is an easy way to discourage duplication.

7.  Avoid Waste - Some tactics (such as sunday newspaper sampling and e-commerce mail order sampling) encourage waste by sending samples to people whether they want one or not.  Some of these samples end up in the garbage.  Other tactics such as venue-based sampling allow the consumer to leave the sample if they don’t want it, allowing another interested consumer to receive it.

8.  Surprise and Delight - Perhaps the most important aspect of effective product sampling is reaching your target consumer unexpectedly, at a time of need that disrupts their typical patterns. Asking your target to register online to receive a sample is the opposite approach that encourages unrelenting ‘freebie seekers’ to come get your sample (or any sample) because it’s free.  Some of these ‘virtual customers’ are registering for every free sample available on the web. Avoid these customers by finding your target while they are going about their day, and surprise them with a delightful sample that meets an unfulfilled need. These people are the ones you want, they are not looking for free stuff.  They are open to trying out new solutions that help them with their busy lives. If someone they trust hands them something unexpectedly that fits their tastes and lifestyle, they will pay you back over and over again by becoming a loyal customer.  

The Handit2 Network focuses on disrupting consumer behavior with our venue-based product sampling. Venue-based sampling offers unique access to consumers, reaching them where they live, work, and play. The venues have close ties with the brand’s target audience. The venues benefit from this type of sampling because they love offering their customers an unexpected gift.

Venue-based sampling is more cost effective than many other sampling tactics. We eliminate the need for brand ambassadors as the venue staff functions as the brand ambassador. Consumers like this model as they receive the product sample and information from someone they know and trust.
             
The Handit2 Network’s sampling strategy has several other advantages:

• We target relevant demographics – We focus on venues that attract moms, men, women, millennials, athletes, seniors, and pet owners.  We can filter venues based on local demographics such as income, ethnicity, or other demographic variables
• We can geotarget around stores that sell your product – Provide us with a list of stores and we’ll only target venues within 1/3/5 miles etc of those stores
• We reach ‘real’ consumers – We reach your actual targeted consumer in the real world, not virtual freebie seekers who will go to great lengths just to get something for free.
• We create buzz – We encourage consumers to share their brand experience with their family and friends both offline and online, generating highly sought after word-of-mouth advertising.
• We surprise consumers – Consumers are excited to receive an unexpected, yet highly relevant sample in a place they frequently visit and trust.
• We can incorporate new and/or trendy venues – We are monitoring consumer trends and constantly replenishing our network with new venues such as spin studios, extreme fitness studios, pole dancing studios, etc.  Want tattoo parlors?  We’ll build a network for you.
• We spend your budget wisely – Multiple samples are shipped to a single venue (minimizing shipping fees), there is little sample waste, and valuable and measurable feedback is collected from venues and consumers.

If you are interested in sampling your brand to unsuspecting consumers, email us at info@handit2.com or call 303-532-4437.