5 Things I’ve Learned About Food Marketing During Sampling Events

The only surefire way to get anyone to buy your edible good is to get them to taste it. And the only surefire way to know what someone thinks of your edible good is to ask them – while they’re sampling it. Sampling is real-time market research, an important part of your marketing strategy that delivers the qualitative results you’ll need to improve your product and communication to customers.

Here are five things I’ve learned about food marketing during in-store demos. How many WTF moments can you find here?

1. Establish relationships with the department manager for your product. Obviously, if your product is in different states, you may not be able to do this, but perhaps your regional rep or distributor should. Having a good professional relationship with the dept. manager can make sure your product gets good placement and can even offer insight into how your product moves.
2. Know where and how your product is placed. I once did a demo for a beverage and found the product in the broken section of the coolers (the lights were out, leaving the product in the dark) with a different product and price point on display. Not only was the dept manager indifferent about the lighting situation (“Yeah…It’s been broken for a while”), he also was not interested in placing the correct price labels under the product (“I don’t do the labels for the coolers. The guy who does them isn’t here.”). For another product, it took me at least 3 times each at two locations of the same chain to get them to print and list the correct price.
3. Try to organize a staff demo for your product. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone in to do a scheduled demo only to hear the store manager ask if they even actually carry the product or the staff for the department feign surprise because they didn’t know the product was carried in their store (or even exists).  Staff demos are more likely to get your product recommended and increases upsell opportunities.
4. Find out what customers think about the supermarket your product is placed in. There’s one supermarket in NYC demo specialists like to joke about as “the place products go to die”. Would you want your product there? I’m always amazed at how much people are willing to disclose about their customer experience. Beyond, “I love coming here. There’s always something to sample!”, I’ve also received, “I really hate shopping here but it’s the only market near my house.” “The prices here are inflated.” “It’s always freezing in here.” “The customer service here is terrible.” The in-store experience is an important part of the consumer’s overall shopping experience. Research shows that the happier shoppers are to be in a supermarket, the longer they’ll stay, and the more they end up buying.
5. Coupons move product. This should speak for itself but if you don’t understand how valuable coupons are for closing the sample sale and encouraging the upsell than it probably means your product moves well and you’re reaching your sales goals without them.

What are your sampling insights?

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