Are you a brand looking to attract more attention? Do you want your customers to recognise your brand immediately? Well, have you considered product sampling?
If you are launching a new product or wish to draw the attention of your customers towards your brands, it is best to give your product out for free and let them test and it. If they develop a liking towards it, they will automatically come to purchase it. In this way, your sales will increase on their own.
Even though product sampling, as a concept, has been in the marketing armour for long, many brands haven’t explored it’s aspects yet. This article unearths what makes product sampling so revolutionary and why brands are still hesitant to use it.
Numbers Do Not Lie
Every year, the Event Marketing Institute publishes a report called the EventTrack. It talks about the best practices in the experiential marketing field and what makes customers visit experiential market demonstrations.
About 81% of respondents said that they would walk up to a kiosk of a brand if they were offering a free sample. The tally only reduces from thereon. Only 54% of people admit to being drawn in by discounts or special offers, 49% would approach if they wanted to know about products or services, and only 46% would step in if the activation looked interesting.
Statistics indicate a strong preference of customers towards product sampling. Moreover, everyone likes being offered free stuff. Therefore, it remains and always will be one of the best methods to capture your customer’s imagination.
Product Sampling will Get People to Take Notice of Your Product
If you wish to go through the traditional routes, you can run television commercials featuring celebrities and influencers lecturing about the benefits of your product. As a brand, you can also print multiple advertisements in a newspaper detailing how your product is different from competitors. But, all of that will be falling on deaf ears.
Until a customer tries your product, experiences it on their own, and undergoes a journey to discover whether it suits them or not, they will not connect with it. Just providing the ability to your customers to interact and experience your products can make them shift from their regular products to your offering, because experience counts more than advertisements.
For any brand, developing an emotional relationship for either their product or brand is the beginning of having a massive loyal customer base. It is safe to say that the experience of a product sampling drive can also create an emotional connection for the customer.
It Makes Customers Think.
Most customers leave their house for a grocery store with a shopping list. It is very rare that they will deviate from their lists. However, if a representative from your brand stands at the entrance of the grocery store, handing out samples, customers will take notice.
After sampling your product, if they like it, they are more likely to buy your product over the one mentioned in the list. In such cases, targeting is important. If your target customers are college students, it is prudent to approach them at sports events, outside universities, etc. Similarly, if the target audiences are working professionals, it is smart to set up a sampling station in a corporate building with many offices.
In the end, catching customers’ attention is very hard. Customers are busy, and they have their own agendas the moment they step outside the house. So, attracting them to your brand and products through something they can’t resist is a smart move.
Product Sampling Builds Customer Loyalty
According to marketing experts, it is much harder to maintain loyal customer relationships throughout the life of a brand. At the same time, it is challenging and costly for brands to acquire new customers. This is why most brands aim at building strong relationships with their existing customers.
One way to build long-lasting customer relationships is by building customer loyalty and trust. In order to gain the confidence and loyalty of a customer, they have to like you. Handing out product samples of new products or already launched products will keep your brand in the good books of your customer. Handing out free, good quality products without receiving any payment will make your customers think of it as a favour. They will, in turn, like you and buy more from you.
Bottom Line
Product sampling is a wonderful tool to build lasting relationships with your customers. It is a part of every marketer’s armour, and yet many hesitate to use it. If a product sampling drive can indeed lead to more significant sales and enhanced brand loyalty amongst existing and new customers, you should not hesitate. Remember that you are providing an experience to your customers, which they will cherish more than any other form of marketing gimmick in the book. From this side, it already seems like a win against the competition.