Does product sampling work in T&T? The short answer is I don’t know. Like too much of what we do in promotions in T&T (in fact most things), we don’t measure relationships between investments and returns. It’s the same for our advertising, public relations, sponsorships and online campaigns. We believe we can’t do without them to drive sales and bring brands closer to people, and maybe we can’t, but mostly we don’t know what’s working and what’s not.
Some people think it’s a complete waste of time and money. For me sampling needs to be about engagement. If all you do is plunk something in someone’s hand and move on to your next target, then you’re probably not getting the best out of it. I’ve seen conversion rates cited from 5 to 20%, but obviously it depends on the sampling programme and how well it’s targeted and executed.
The brand in T&T that has done a great job with this, in my view, is Monster. It appears that their sampling is their advertising as they do very little ‘above the line” advertising. One of the key planks of their execution is to have people experience the product directly out of the can, which is how people would normally have it. Monster promoters also go where their core user is like bars and construction sites, so they know they are engaging the right people.
So if you’re thinking of adding sampling to your promotions artillery, make sure that samples are keeping the right company and that you have set up some way of estimating conversion. Finally, ensure that you are designing your programme around quality engagement rather than “hitting” as many people as you can.
