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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
16. Sales Promotion © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
major study conducted by the Promotion Marketing Association in 2002 found that the
vast majority of consumers receiving a sample either use it right away or save it to use
sometime later. 27 Sampling generates much higher trial rates than advertising or other
sales promotion techniques.
Getting people to try a product leads to a second benefit of sampling: Consumers
experience the brand directly, gaining a greater appreciation for its benefits. This can
be particularly important when a product’s features and benefits are difficult to
describe through advertising. Many foods, beverages, and cosmetics have subtle features
that are most appreciated when experienced directly. Nearly 70 percent of the
respondents in the PMA survey indicated they have purchased a product they did not
normally use after trying a free sample. The study also found that samples are even
more likely to lead to purchase when they are accompanied by a coupon.
While samples are an effective way to induce trial, the brand must have some
unique or superior benefits for a sampling program to be worthwhile. Otherwise, the
sampled consumers revert back to other brands and do not become repeat purchasers.
The costs of a sampling program can be recovered only if it gets a number of consumers
to become regular users of the brand at full retail price.
Another possible limitation to sampling is that the benefits of some products are difficult
to gauge immediately, and the learning period required to appreciate the brand
may require supplying the consumer with larger amounts of the brand than are affordable.
An example would be an expensive skin cream that is promoted as preventing or
reducing wrinkles but has to be used for an extended period before any effects are seen.
Sampling Methods One basic decision the sales promotion or brand manager
must make is how the sample will be distributed. The sampling method chosen is
important not only in terms of costs but also because it influences the type of consumer
who receives the sample. The best sampling method gets the product to the best
prospects for trial and subsequent repurchase. Some basic distribution methods
include door-to-door, direct-mail, in-store, and on-package approaches.
Door-to-door sampling, in which the product is delivered directly to the prospect’s
residence, is used when it is important to control where the sample is delivered. This
distribution method is very expensive because of labor costs, but it can be costeffective
if the marketer has information that helps define the target market and/or if
the prospects are located in a well-defined geographic area. Some companies have
samples delivered directly to consumers’ homes by including them with newspapers.
Sunday papers have become an increasingly attractive way of mass distributing samples.
However, there are also a number of newspapers that can now distribute a sample
into a subscriber segment as small as 250 households with little increase in costs to
marketers. Many newspapers distribute samples through polybags which
are plastic bags that serve as covers for the paper and deliver a promotional
message along with the sample.(Exhibit 16-12).
Sampling through the mail is common for small, lightweight, nonperishable
products. A major advantage of this method is that the marketer has
control over where and when the product will be distributed and can target
the sample to specific market areas. Many marketers are using information
from geodemographic target marketing programs such as Claritas’s Prizm
or Microvision to better target their sample mailings. The main drawbacks
to mail sampling are postal restrictions and increasing postal rates.
In-store sampling is increasingly popular, especially for food products.
The marketer hires temporary demonstrators who set up a table or booth,
prepare small samples of the product, and pass them out to shoppers. The
in-store sampling approach can be very effective for food products, since
consumers get to taste the item and the demonstrator can give them more
information about the product while it is being sampled. Demonstrators
may also give consumers a cents-off coupon for the sampled item to
encourage immediate trial purchase. While this sampling method can be
very effective, it can also be expensive and requires a great deal of planning,
as well as the cooperation of retailers.
Exhibit 16-12 Polybags
are used by many
newspapers to distribute
samples
527
Chapter Sixteen Sales Promotion