Sampling remains an important promotional tool for any FMCG brand trying to break into consumers’ long-established buying behaviours. It is widely regarded as a cost-effective means of getting ‘the brand in the hand’ of potential customers and securing initial engagement in the hope of long-term brand loyalty. But marketers can do more to maximise their return on sampling and experiential activity – most notably by capitalising on consumers’ growing preference for online communications and optimising the digital channel.
Digital not only provides the added advantage of being able to target customers more effectively than traditional promotional activities, it also enables marketers to reach consumers via a medium that they are increasingly favouring. What’s more, it can deliver significant savings and operational efficiencies when compared to traditional sampling activities. By engaging with core customers and issuing samples from digital channels, brands can reduce wastage and contain costs. Despite this, it can still be expensive for brands producing samples and shipping them to customers.
As an alternative, marketers are increasingly using digital coupons to drive the trial of products. With 60% of primary shoppers more likely to start engaging with a brand if they are offered something in exchange, such as a money off coupon, and 72% preferring to receive coupons via the digital channel, marketers’ growing use of digital coupons is understandable. It’s therefore not surprising to see that brands are extending the use of digital coupons to augment their sampling activities. Free product coupons can prove a highly effective tool for distributing products – without the shipping costs – and, in the process, incentivising trial.
Digital coupons also provide additional benefits in that they facilitate data capture, allowing marketers to follow up promotional activity and maintain ongoing brand communications. This promises significant added-value to traditional sampling methodology. Too often, brands give away samples without getting an email address up front. Digital sampling, on the other hand, easily lends itself to data capture, enabling marketers to measure brand interaction with individual customers right the way through to purchase.
For brands continuing with offline sampling, the capture of an email address not only allows them to follow-up on the face-to-face contact they have enjoyed, it also presents the potential opportunity to provide a digital coupon offering customers a discount with their first purchase. This simple customer engagement allows marketers to leverage their use of on and offline channels much more effectively.
Sampling will remain an important activity for brands. But for optimal success and long-term brand loyalty, marketers must make sure they are getting the best performance and best value from their campaigns. Digital coupons and sampling provide a compelling opportunity to deliver engaging and integrated brand communications via a medium that reflects contemporary consumer lifestyles. It’s time for brands to get digital.
By Oliver Felstead, Managing Director, Coupons.com (UK).
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