Promoting new products is challenging as the competitive marketplace is saturated with similar products. However, the challenge is not the same in the case of existing products of a recognized brand. But, in both cases, product sampling comes in handy. It benefits brands to offer product samples to customers. Wondering how? Well, sampling allows potential customers to get a taste of your product, whets their appetite, and leaves them wanting for more. If your product genuinely addresses the pain points of your target audience and adds value to their lives, there is no other better way to increase the exposure of your product other than product sampling.
Typically, all of us, at some point, have seen food products being displayed in grocery shops, marts, and local stores offered as samples. Product sampling is a traditional method of getting users to try your product, but it still causes problems to companies that attempt it. This is because marketers are never sure if the result will justify the costs of building the product itself.
But the business strategies are slowly changing. While you can still be assured of finding a traditional in-store product sampling, the advent of digital sampling with a mix of creative strategies is shaking things up. But how can brands ever be sure if their products will be well-accepted by their target audience and markets? It helps to carry out pre-market research.
What is Pre-Market Research, and Why Is It Necessary for Product Sampling Success?
Pre-market research helps brands understand how well their products are accepted in the marketplace by the target audience. Pre-market research is necessary because checking your market prior to offering free trials of your product helps you avoid costly mistakes. The data obtained from the research enables you to avoid a mismatch between your target market and your marketing strategy. Factors such as Purchase Rate, Product Appeal, Functionality, and Competition are considered while carrying out pre-market research.
What are the Advantages of Sampling When Marketing a New Product or Existing Product?
Businesses promoting a new and existing product often face a challenging and competitive marketplace. But, by including product sampling into their marketing budget, businesses can have the upper hand in the competition. The use of sampling serves several functions and hugely benefits a brand that is building a new product. It expands the customer base and market share. Enlisted are some advantages of sampling when marketing a new or existing product.
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Product Sampling Builds Exposure
The unfamiliarity of new products or an existing product of a lesser-known brand makes consumers wonder about their effectiveness or potential impact on lifestyle. But free samples can eliminate that sense of unreliability and allow them to test the new market product risk-free. If the consumer likes the product, it establishes confidence and develops their brand loyalty.
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Product Sampling Ushers in Genuine Customer Feedback
Product Sampling enables the customer to share genuine feedback of their experience. The consumers make mental notes on whether they like or dislike the new product and often compare it with a competitor’s product. This creates an opportunity to know more about the target market and how the product can be improved to suit consumers’ preferences.
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Product Sampling is Cost-Effective
Incorporating product sampling into your marketing strategy is cost-effective. It saves money to rectify your mistakes during the promotional stage rather than when the product has launched.
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Product Sampling Creates Relationships
Sample distribution establishes a relationship between the consumer and brand. When you win over your potential customers with a product they love, it gives them a reason to associate a pleasant experience with your brand.
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Front-Line Employee Experience Makes Product Sampling Authentic
Sampling helps your sales staff to promote a product using their first-hand experience. Product sampling eliminates uncertainty and provides the consumer with a hands-on experience. It makes the new product much more authentic for the potential buyer.
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Product Sampling Lends Your Product A Chance to Shine
Product sampling is impactful. It enables consumers to compare your product with your competitors’ product they have been regularly purchasing. It is a no-cost, no-risk opportunity for the consumers to see what brands have to offer.
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Product Sampling Offers Extended Benefits
Consumers who like your samples and find them valuable are driven to recommend the product to their friends and family. This results in word-of-mouth and is more effective in generating an interested base of potential customers.
How Effective Is Product Sampling for New and Existing Products?
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It Drives Sales
35% of customers who try out a sample buy it in the same shopping trip. Encouraging trials drive sales. Enhance the effectiveness of sampling by emphasizing price promotion.
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Sampling Makes Consumers Respond
At a psychological level, the effects of product sampling are more significant than they appear to be. Samplers with the awareness of the presence of others feel socially pressured to make a post-sample purchase.
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It Inspires Trial
Once informed of a brand, consumers are more likely to consider taking a trial, a decision made much easier when the trial cost is zero. Allowing the consumer to try the product decreases the customer’s uncertainty and anxiety about their purchase decision.
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Generates Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the fundamental goal of 81% of brands when employing experiential marketing campaigns. Product samples drive brand awareness before customers even reach your stand.
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It Demonstrates Value and Aids Retention
Marketers understand that acquisition is not the be-all and end-all of a strategy. They should retain customers at all costs by giving something back to the consumer. It is essential to nurture the relationship, providing more value than you are perceived to take.
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It Generates Valuable Feedback
Data is the currency of marketing. It’s important to recognize opportunities to collect data and capitalize on them. Like all face-to-face marketing activities, product sampling gives unprecedented access to deep, considered feedback data from consumers.
Marketing Tips for Before The Launch Your Product
Creating new products takes a lot of effort and money. Businesses must arrange for the production of samples and determine the channels in which they are sold. Some marketing tips for a new product can enhance its chances of success.
- Conduct Marketing Research: Whether or not the consumers like your product must be determined before introducing the product into the market. This is done by conducting market research that can gauge whether your product needs to be modified or not. Marketers can establish whether the customers like or dislike the product concept, features, size, and price and use this information to make changes to the product.
- Conduct Beta Test: Marketers must conduct a Beta test just as they run a full-fledged marketing campaign. A brand can sell the product in several test markets in different geographical areas across the country. If the Beta tests prove promising, the marketers can start rolling out the product at the national or regional level.
- Tracking The Competition: Once a brand rolls out the product, it must continue to keep track of its competitors. A SWOT analysis must be carried out to determine the product’s strengths and weaknesses versus critical competitors and their products.
