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Product Sampling Immediately Boosts Awareness, Sales: Arbitron

Product sampling reaches 70 million consumers every quarter, and one-third of customers who try a sample will buy the sampled product in the same shopping trip, according to the Product Sampling Study by Arbitron and Edison Media Research.

Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed reported that they would buy the product again. Sampling also secures considerable results in both brand awareness and loyalty, according to Arbitron.

Consumers were grouped into three categories: Acquisitions, or those who were new to the sampled product; Conversions , or those who had heard of the product but had never bought it; and Retentions, or those who had previously purchased the product.
85 percent of the Retentions and 60 percent of the Conversions said they would purchase the sampled product in the future; samples encouraged nearly half (47%) of the Acquisitions, those who had never heard of the product before, to purchase the product again.

“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,” says Carol Edwards, svp of sales, Out-of-Home Media for Arbitron. “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.”

The study also showed that:

• 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 Acquisitions accepted samples, as well as 63% of Conversions, and 63% of Retentions. 35% of those surveyed claimed they purchased the sampled product on the same day. 26% of Acquisitions bought the product right away, as well as 19% of Conversions, and 31% of Retentions.
• 24% of those surveyed claimed that a sampled product had specifically replaced an item that they had planned to buy. 20% of Acquisitions were planning to make the switch, as well as 33% of Conversions, and 18% of Retentions.

About the study: Arbitron and Edison Media Research conducted a national telephone survey from January 18 to February 15, 2008. 1,857 respondents, ages 12 and older, were selected at random from Arbitron’s 2007 fall diarykeepers. In geographic areas where Arbitron diarykeepers were not available (representing 8% of the population), a supplemental sample was interviewed through random selection.