Sampling Works

Sep 30, 2008 by Mark Maier

I've noticed more and more retailers putting out sampler stations in their stores and after a read of a recent article in Brandweek detailing an Arbitron study, I understand why. 
"More than one-third (35%) of customers who tried a sample bought the product during the same shopping trip, per the poll of 1,857 respondents conducted earlier this year via the phone. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed reported they would buy a product again after trying it."
We naturally think of food as a sampling but this summer at the Vans Warped Tour I saw sampling take on new meanings as marketers scoured the crowd with MP3 players loaded with snippets of songs from bands and they sold a lot of CD's.  They also took advantage of the "crowd effect" by giving away cool shirts or hats with purchases or to people that fit their profile of an influencer, once it is "seen" then it creates demand. All the same, it's a sample and it works the very same way. If 35% of customers who tried a sample bought the product, that can turn into a really good return on investment as long as the sample doesn't constitute the complete product.  Do you have clients that could use sampling?  Here's one more fact from the survey that suprised me;
"Nearly a quarter of those polled (24%) said they bought the product they sampled instead of the item they initially set out to purchase."
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