One fine Morning you open the front page of your paper and you find a shampoo satchet stuck on it. Another day, while travelling you get a can of "Red bull".
All these free sampling techniques are used by companies to generate trials of their products. Mostly during the launch phase the companies use such techniques. Reason-de-etre, simple, so many shampoo's, which one to buy and big question "why?".
To go a bit deeper, one needs to give a look at two concepts:
1. Experience goods and post-experience goods.
2. Involvement level.
In economics, an experience good is a product or service where product characteristics such as quality or price are difficult to observe in advance, but these characteristics can be ascertained upon consumption. The concept is originally due to Philip Nelson, who contrasted an experience good with a search good.
Post-experience goods, also called credence goods, are goods for which it is difficult for consumers to ascertain the quality even after they have consumed them, such as vitamin supplements. Potential consumers of these goods may require third-party information, provided by private rating agencies or government bodies.
Why I am mixing Economics and Marketing. But it is true. What would a sample delivered to you will do if you after its consumption you are not able to conclude. Say, a sample of Vitamin C tablet delivered to you free of cost, would you purchase it after consuming.
Here my definition of consuming would include not only taste buds, but also hearing, smelling and seeing.
A consumer’s buying task is affected significantly by the level of purchase involvement. The level of involvement describes how important the decision is to the consumer; high involvement is usually associated with purchases that are expensive, infrequent, or risky. Buying also is affected by the degree of difference between brands in the product category. The buying task can be grouped into four categories based on whether involvement is high or low and whether brand differences are great or small.
For example, toothpaste is a high involvement category for mothers' and any decision on which toothpaste to use would depend on many factors and one factor can be a "trial".
Based on above two factors I personally feel that sampling is best suited for Experience goods of high involvement category products.
_________All these free sampling techniques are used by companies to generate trials of their products. Mostly during the launch phase the companies use such techniques. Reason-de-etre, simple, so many shampoo's, which one to buy and big question "why?".
To go a bit deeper, one needs to give a look at two concepts:
1. Experience goods and post-experience goods.
2. Involvement level.
In economics, an experience good is a product or service where product characteristics such as quality or price are difficult to observe in advance, but these characteristics can be ascertained upon consumption. The concept is originally due to Philip Nelson, who contrasted an experience good with a search good.
Post-experience goods, also called credence goods, are goods for which it is difficult for consumers to ascertain the quality even after they have consumed them, such as vitamin supplements. Potential consumers of these goods may require third-party information, provided by private rating agencies or government bodies.
Why I am mixing Economics and Marketing. But it is true. What would a sample delivered to you will do if you after its consumption you are not able to conclude. Say, a sample of Vitamin C tablet delivered to you free of cost, would you purchase it after consuming.
Here my definition of consuming would include not only taste buds, but also hearing, smelling and seeing.
A consumer’s buying task is affected significantly by the level of purchase involvement. The level of involvement describes how important the decision is to the consumer; high involvement is usually associated with purchases that are expensive, infrequent, or risky. Buying also is affected by the degree of difference between brands in the product category. The buying task can be grouped into four categories based on whether involvement is high or low and whether brand differences are great or small.
For example, toothpaste is a high involvement category for mothers' and any decision on which toothpaste to use would depend on many factors and one factor can be a "trial".
Based on above two factors I personally feel that sampling is best suited for Experience goods of high involvement category products.
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