A lengthy post about the value of samples (Seattle Times – registration required):


Samples = sales surge

Food purveyors have learned that point-of-sale sampling is a
cost-effective way to introduce new products, educate consumers and
generally add to the pleasure of the overall shopping experience. Demos
reach the buyer directly and can generate a considerable bump in sales.

"The fragmented media market makes it harder to reach people via
traditional outlets, so one place vendors can get direct access to the
consumer is through demos," says Brent Ellis, CFO of Warehouse Demo
Services (WDS), one of two companies nationwide that provide
demonstrators exclusively to Costco.

Every Costco store has a WDS supervisor on site just to coordinate demos. Vendors pay for the service, but Costco, WDS and the vendor decide what to sample.

In a no-frills warehouse, sampling helps create the kind of product
differentiation that regular retailers achieve through product
placement and point-of-sale displays, says Ellis. But making a product
stand out from all the others can be a challenge in a traditional
grocery store that carries many thousands more brands than a Costco.

"With in-store sampling, the effect on sales is immediate and easier
to measure than the effect of an ad," says Brian Clearman of New
Concepts in Marketing, a North Carolina-based company that handles
product demos for QFC stores.

"Retailers want to enhance the shopping experience and add in-store
excitement. Manufacturers want to introduce new products and support
retailers," says Clearman. "Sampling can offer feedback, which is
important to the manufacturer, and the bump in sales is important to
the retailer. Typically, we expect a lift in sales of 300-400 percent
from a focused, six-hour in-store demo on a weekend."

One-day sales are important, notes Ellis, "But hopefully you’ve also
converted customers to buying your product more than once. The
investment over time is harder to measure."

Personality’s a plus

Much of a demo’s success can depend on the demonstrator. "People are
all of our assets, and our success depends on our ability to attract
and keep the right kind of person," says Ellis.

Demonstrators typically make about $9 an hour in this area. They
need stamina to work the six-hour shifts, a lively personality and
considerable people skills, but they don’t need to learn much more than
basic knowledge about a product and don’t have to deal with money or
learn the till.

"Demonstration businesses have long attracted a nontraditional work
force — homemakers, students, retirees — interested in part-time work,
short hours and flexible schedules," Clearman says. Part-time
demonstrator jobs often lead to full-time supervisory positions with
benefits at WDS, whose demonstrators often come from Costco’s
membership ranks. "People who shop there think it looks like fun," says
Ellis.

Educating the customer

Sometimes the goal of sampling is to educate the consumer. That is
especially true with organic and natural products. Last August, 7,000
people attended PCC’s annual "Healthy Living Fair" in Issaquah, where
175 food and nonfood vendors sampled their wares.

But PCC merchandising director Paul Schmidt says, "At any time in
any store in any department, our staff has the ability to let customers
try a product. We want our customers to try things they’ve never tried
before, and we don’t want to limit our employees."

Rather than hire outside demonstrators, he prefers to use growers or
producers of the product, or PCC’s own staff, because they have the
most intimate knowledge of the product.

When PCC invited seven ranchers up from Oregon Country Beef for a
Saturday afternoon barbecue at each PCC store, Schmidt says, "They came
with their families and cooked hamburgers and talked about how they
grow the beef. The ranchers enjoyed it as much as the customers."

Usually, when deciding what to sample, Schmidt will choose something
unique. "With grass-fed beef, for example, the flavor is so different
from regular beef that I felt people had to try it."

"Sampling, along with an instantly redeemable coupon, is the best
way to get people to try new things," he says. "Regular coupons
typically have a response rate of 2 percent or less. In a face-to-face
demo, when you can hand the customer an instantly redeemable coupon,
the response rate jumps to 10 to 15 percent. You just get more bang for
the buck."

Tempting the shopper

At Trader Joe’s stores, demonstrations go on all day, every day,
from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. "Demos can start a snowball effect for new
products in terms of demand," observes Micheal Krause, team captain at
the University Place store in Pierce County. "Many of our items are
unique and need to be sampled for people to become familiar with them."

Three Trader Joe employees work in shifts cooking or doing "soft
demos": sampling cookies, candy or other prepared foods. They also have
coffee brewing all day.

"Just the smell of food cooking usually entices buyers," says
Krause, though on one occasion that backfired. They were sampling
fondue, and the stinky cheese smell wafting through the store grew so
powerful, he had to stop the demo.

Trader Joe’s samples what customers say they would
like to try. Perishable foods and frozen foods are used most often
because "that’s where we are growing as a company, and because people
often come in looking for what to eat tonight. They’ll buy something
they have no intention of buying because they tasted it."