Arbitron Tracks Product Sampling Effectiveness

An ARBITRON survey on product sampling found that the marketing successfully reaches 70 million consumers every quarter and secures considerable results in both brand awareness and loyalty. Chief among its conclusions are that one-third of customers who try a sample will buy the product in the same shopping trip, and 58% of those surveyed reported that they would buy the product again.

Consumers were grouped into Acquisitions (those who were new to the sampled product); Conversions (those who had heard of the product but had never bought it); and Retentions (those who had previously purchased the product). While 85% of the Retentions and 60% of the Conversions said they would purchase the sampled product in the future, sampled products encouraged 47% of the Acquisitions to purchase the product again.

Other highlights of the survey included:

• 28% of those surveyed reported that they have been offered product samples within the past three months.
• 64% of those surveyed claimed they had accepted product samples. 66% of the customers characterized as Acquisitions accepted samples, as well as 63% of the Conversions, and 63% of the Retentions.
• 35% of those surveyed claimed they purchased the sampled product on the same day. Twenty-six percent of the Acquisitions bought the product right away, as well as 19% of the Conversions, and 31% of the Retentions.
• 24% of those survey claimed that a sampled product had specifically replaced an item that they had planned on buying: 20% of the Acquisitions were planning to make the switch, as well as 33% of the Conversions, and 18% of the Retentions.

"This is exciting news for marketers and advertisers who are looking for alternative ways to make an immediate as well as long reaching impact on consumers with a high return-on-investment," SVP/Sales, Out-of-Home Media CAROL EDWARDS said. "This study enforced that the sampling approach is both effective in making new customers aware of products, while also establishing a firmer identity with those consumers who have considered the product before."

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