We have talked about the consumer advantages offered by sampling programs (5 Consumer Advantages to an Experiential Marketing Sampling Program) and we have also outlined the different types of sampling programs you should consider (7 Types of Sampling Programs to consider for Your Nest Campaign). If you are looking to interact with your consumer right before the point of purchase, you need to be sampling at retail. Here are some things to consider while planning your retail sampling program with your experiential marketing agency.
- Know what you want to take from the program – Are you looking to launch a new product and gain awareness and excitement or are you trying to increase sales? What are your program objectives? The answers to these questions will help you decide what your program looks like.
- Know where you want to sample – You should decide what locations are going to give you the best results. Will your target demographic be there? Will you reach enough people? Get the most out of your program by finding great places to sample.
- Know who you want sampling – You should have an idea whether you want two Brand Ambassadors at each location or five. Do you want only men? Or only women? Both? What do you want them to be wearing? What kind of personalities do they have? Make sure you hire the right Brand Ambassadors for your program.
- Decide how much space you will need – If you are planning on having a small footprint you may be able to sample in-store and interact with consumers at the point of sale. If you have to deal with space limitations product sampling can be activated outside of the store.
- Decide the best time to activate the program – When will you get the most traffic? You need to know if you want to be there on the weekdays or weekends, mornings or nights, summer or winter. You will want to talk to each store about their specific traffic patterns.
- Know who to contact – Start contacting from the top down: district managers, store managers and clerks. Make sure everyone is involved in your program.
- Gather the correct results – What information is needed to decide if your sampling program is a success? You don’t want to get to the end of your program and realize you don’t have what you need! Check out our blog on How to Create Effective Event Recaps for your program.