New Year New You; Top 5 Ways to Optimise Sampling in January
Whilst many of us in the UK are deep in the midst of ritualistic engorgement in the build up to Christmas… marketers of Health & Wellbeing brands will already be rubbing their hands at the opportunities that come with January.
After eating half your weight in roast potatoes, chocolates & a variety of creamy festive themed cocktails throughout December – it will come to no surprise that a significant percentage of the population will have healthier living at the top of their New Year resolution lists.
Sampling is a crucial part of the marketing mix, especially for brands that believe that the taste of their product is a key selling point. But beyond the taste, sampling also gives the opportunity to talk to consumers about the key messages and benefits (whether it is low calorie, high protein or medium vegan) whilst they have the product in their hands.
But with so many brands vying for the same audience and shouting out similar messages in January, how can brands use sampling effectively to cut through the noise and engage with their audience authentically and with impact?
We’ve outlined 5 key tips for how to make the most of sampling in January:
- Get in there quick!
Habits are formed quickly, and in January New Year’s Resolutions start straight away on January 1st (even if they may not last till the end of the month).
Being amongst the first product that consumers associate with a healthy lifestyle is the most powerful wat to create a connection with them, and will help generate a positive perception of the brand, drive immediate sales & build a relationship that will last.
- Where is everyone!?
One of the key challenges of engaging with your audience with sampling in January is that people change their normal routines – to either avoid temptation or become more active.
There is obviously the opportunity to target health focussed activities, but there are also ways to engage with a targeted audience if they are hiding at home and have limited their time out of the house strictly to trudging to work.
At Flavor we are the UK’s only ‘Integrated Sampling Agency’, which means that we use a variety of sampling techniques to best target & engage audiences wherever they are. As part of this, and alongside highly targeted Brand to Hand sampling, we would look to employ either one or a mix of Social Sampling, Direct Sampling, Office Sampling & Door Drop Sampling to get your product tasted by the right people no matter.
- Taste isn’t a dirty word…
Whilst people are looking for healthy / vegan / alternative options to their normal purchases, you shouldn’t messaging around the taste of your product. People will do a lot to improve their lifestyle, but if they don’t have to compromise on taste – why would they!
If you can balance your messaging so that it tells your audience about the health benefits as well as it tasting great then you have a much better chance of getting your product bought, and your brand appreciated over your competitors. Sampling goes a long way to making sure that consumers know that your product tastes great, it’s just as important to make sure that the right consumers are receiving the product though.
- You don’t need to be an Island
Rather than fighting for market share on your own, there are several ways that you can work with complementary brands, products and services to get samples into your audiences’ hands.
Partnership Sampling utilizes just these sort of complimentary brands – from blenders Bikram, alco-free to aerobics we find the perfect partnerships to create live & interactive opportunities for samples to be distributed.
We also have a database of over 300 subscription schemes throughout the UK, complete with detailed audience breakdowns, that allows us to place samples in curated boxes that get delivered directly to your audiences homes alongside complimentary and aspirational products.
- Outlive the fad
Although January is a great opportunity to boost sales from this increased level of interest in healthier living, many resolutions inevitably are lost along the way. Rather than accept the boost, and a few new customers – a strategic and effective sampling campaign gives the opportunity to build a relationship beyond January. Through well planned engagement, and in-depth measurement & insight we can plan even more effective future activity to build advocacy and lifelong purchases.
At Flavor, we offer an integrated sampling approach to curate the mix of sampling techniques to deliver optimal results for every campaign. We look after all sampling elements in under one roof to drive efficiencies in targeting, relevance, measurement & ROI…
If you would like to find out more about social sampling or any of our integrated sampling techniques you can get in touch [email protected] & 07977 148784