Giving examples, show how sampling can be an effective sales promotion technique

What will be an ideal response?

Sampling is a sales promotional technique that provides potential customers with the opportunity to try a product or service at no cost. A typical sample is an individual portion of a consumer product, such as breakfast cereal, shampoo, cosmetics, or detergent, distributed through the mail, door-to-door or at a retail location. Kikkoman brand soy sauce was unknown in the United States until they initiated a sampling program in American supermarkets and gave free samples of food seasoned with Kikkoman. Today they have a considerable size market in the United States. Similarly, Unilever launched Axe deodorant body spray in the United States with print ads and in-store sampling as promotion strategy. They hired female models to offer samples to male shoppers at Walmart and Costco stores. This was also very successful. Cost is one of the major disadvantages associated with sampling. It may also be difficult to assess the contribution a sampling program makes to return on investment. Event marketing and sponsorships are used to distribute samples at concerts, sports events, or special events where food and beverages are served to large numbers of people. Sampling may also consist of non-food items such as free viewing of cable TV channel at no cost for a certain period of time or no-cost trial subscriptions to a computer service or newspaper service. Web sites can also be used for requesting free samples. Compared to the other forms of marketing communication, sampling is more likely to result in actual trial of the product. In China, for example, shoppers are reluctant to buy full-sized packages of imported consumer products that they have not tried or if products have higher prices than local brands. Proctor & Gamble's dominance in China's shampoo market can be attributed to the company's skilled use of market segmentation coupled with an aggressive sampling program. They distributed millions of free samples of its shampoo products. After the no-risk trial, many consumers became adopters.