From user-generated product reviews to branded viral videos, consumers are inundated with product information on a daily basis.
More often than not, consumers readily rely on these resources to act as their best judgment before making a purchase. A quick online search for any product yields infinite results and consumers are suspended in the realm of possibility. Yet, what they miss out on is a personal interaction, or exclusive experience, that comes with using or testing the brand’s products prior to purchasing.
Product sampling is much more than imparting a try-before-you-buy mentality upon consumers. It’s a powerful tool that builds trust with your audience by unleashing your product’s, and ultimately your brand’s, potential.
2 Benefits of Product Sampling
1. Create Leverage for Your Brand
Product sampling positively impacts brands that have freshly debuted, as well as those with a considerable history in the minds of consumers. It offers the ability to create an impression or even change perception for brands and products alike.
Oftentimes, consumers are inclined to purchase a product when an experience is created around it. For instance, every Sunday home game during the baseball season, Cliffedge teams up with Prairie Farms for Ice Cream Sundays to hand out free ice cream samples at Busch Stadium, reaching over 2,500 Cardinals fans per game!
“Product sampling…is an opportunity to give back to our customers and what better place to than here at a Cardinals game? It creates a lot of excitement,” said Mike Burns, General Sales Manager for Prairie Farms.
Since these events are fostered around an existing fan base, they’ve become a sweet staple of Sunday home games.
By utilizing product sampling, consumers feel like they’re a part of something and as a result, you’ve just given them confidence in your product.
2. Connect with Your Consumer
Boost your product’s influence in your designated market through relationship building in order to build trust with your consumer. After all, according to Forbes Contributor Jeff Boss, “…trust is the basis upon which everything – relationships, performance, results – is built.”
When you have boots on the ground giving consumers a taste of your product, be it literally or figuratively, they connect face-to-face with your potential audience and can make an immediate impact as to how the product is portrayed.
For brands like Grace’s Best Cookies, product sampling has been essential for building an engaged audience in and out of the store around these sunflower-seed-and-rolled-oats creations. Sampling can also be a great way for consumers to provide immediate feedback regarding their experience with the product to on-site brand ambassadors.
Reveal your product’s potential and captivate your audience through product sampling. After all, it’s personal, it’s candid and it’s powerful.
At Cliffedge, we’re all about getting your product into the hands of your consumers in unique ways that will make an impact.
