Sampling, the power of free samples as a marketing tool grows across the Internet

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Everyone has come across a small crowd in a supermarket, waiting patiently next to a display for the employee in charge to hand them something. A new snack, the results of a demonstration of something they just cooked, a sample of new biscuits...

What you might be expecting to receive may change from time to time - and from the company behind the activity, of course - but what doesn't change is the mechanism that keeps consumers waiting on the other end. Users love to try new things, as long as they can do so in a simple and easy way and as long as it's free.

The appeal of freebies is very high, as is the appeal of trials. In fact, supermarkets do not have a monopoly on this type of action. You only have to pick up a fashion and lifestyle magazine, for example, to find small samples of perfume that will allow you to smell the fragrance in the advertisement (and in some cases even try it).

The action has a name and is a basic part of the marketing strategy. It is sampling, offering consumers a free trial of a product. It works as a first access door to the product and serves to eliminate the barrier of resistance to trying something new. The consumer thus gets to know a product that was unknown to them or that they had not dared to try, and they do so in an environment controlled by the brand.

Just think of what usually happens when we are trying something that all contact number list has just arrived on the shelves in a supermarket. Someone linked to the company tells us while we are tasting it that it is a low-salt ham, some biscuits that are perfect for breakfast or that it is a product that is cooked both ways.

From the physical environment to the new opportunities of the Internet
Sampling is a classic element in marketing strategy. Giving out samples and allowing people to try things before they buy them is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but one that still works very well for companies.

Some analysts make that point clear. One study , which looked at sales at stores that had previously sampled products for a year, found that sales of frozen pizza rose 600 percent, wine 300 percent, cheese 100 percent and beer 70 percent after a sampling process.

For some large chains, such as the US-based Costco, free samples are the cornerstone of their experience: they are full of spaces where consumers can try out their products and then buy them. In a way, free samples activate the principle of reciprocity. You feel like you have been given something and you have to pay it forward.

And not only that, sampling goes much further. After all, it not only works as a way to get to know the product for the first time, but it is also an experience.

In some cases, it is even more ambitious. For example, a few years ago, Shandy Cruzcampo, when trying to promote a new product, covered a ferry with vinyl and turned the Ibiza-Formentera-Ibiza route into the basis for a sampling campaign, which reached all passengers of legal drinking age. Not only was it promoting a product, but it was also making the process particularly memorable.

But sampling not only has a potential trajectory in physical environments and as an experience linked to classic retail, but it has also become another weapon of digital marketing. The Internet has opened new doors to sampling and, above all, has created new windows of opportunity to connect with consumers and turn them into recipients of samples of the products that interest them and that brands want to send them.

Sampling in the internet age also has certain advantages. First of all, it requires the consumer to initiate the process. This makes the recipient of the samples really interested in what the brands are going to send them. It is not like walking through a supermarket and meeting a guy delivering tapas for a new food, but it implies having initiated the process to connect with the brands. The consumer becomes an active element.

To continue, the web helps to profile the mass of consumers in a much more effective way. Companies can access much more data about who they are and what they are interested in, and thus better tailor who they send which products to.

And of course, all of this creates new opportunities and allows us to leverage existing infrastructure.

Samples in the Internet Age
In fact, some "traditional" companies have begun to use the Internet and their own infrastructure to position themselves in the market and to connect with consumers. A few months ago, Correos launched Correos Sampling , a free service that consumers can sign up for and that allows them to receive product samples at home. The consumer has to fill out a form beforehand so that the samples are tailored to their interests and consumption patterns.

Correos is not the only company that has created this type of service or that has tried to position itself in the field of sending samples. A few years ago, Samplia was launched, an application - which is still operational - that allows consumers to access free samples from their mobile phone. The tool works in parallel with vending machines, which dispense the free product as soon as the consumer enters some codes that they receive in the app.

Its creators pointed out at the time of its launch that this ensures engagement, since the consumer is the one who proactively approaches the machine to get the product. In Spain, right now, they have vending machines in shopping centres in Barcelona and Madrid.

Pay for samples
The power of the sample is very high. In a way, receiving free things at home or profiling yourself in such a way that brands give you product samples in a personalized way also works as experiential marketing. It is an event, a milestone, something memorable and desirable. In fact, you only have to think about the boom in subscription boxes for cosmetics and perfume products a few years ago.

Glossybox, Birchbox and the like connected with a very specific group of consumers, who were very interested in the products they were going to let them try. They were so interested that they even paid for it. These subscription systems had a cost, which the consumer paid on a monthly basis (and which was around 10 euros). In exchange, they expected to receive exclusive and unique products, which sometimes had not yet reached the market. They were small objects of desire, although in reality they were product samples.