Free samples can be useful marketing tool

Long Island Business News, Jan 7, 2005 by Claude Solnik

For the past two years, runners at the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge at Jones Beach have gotten a special treat at the finish line.

Sure, there's the sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a 3.5-mile run. But participants also got the opportunity to replenish their bodies and stock up on some carbohydrates when they were greeted with free samples of Kozy Shack rice pudding.

We've been running in [the Corporate Challenge] as a team for many years, said Elini Carlavsky, captain of the team that ran for Kozy Shack. But that [2003] was our first time sampling product at the event.

The big question is this: In the marketing arena, does the well- known maxim 'give and you shall receive' really apply?

The answer: Yes, according to some companies that have built their businesses at least partly by giving away free product samples. For them, Try it, you'll like it is more than just a phrase; it's a business philosophy.

Take Kozy Shack Enterprises, which started out 35 years ago as a small deli in Mineola and today generates more than $100 million in sales. For the Hicksville-based company, giveaways are a marketing linchpin.

America Online and Colgate Palmolive, too, use free samples as a way to grow market share. And so do a number of local restaurants.

You want to interrupt the normal routine and get people to take a different action, said John P. Benfield, CEO of Great Neck-based CoActive Marketing Group Inc., which has conducted sampling programs for a slew of firms, including Hilshire Farms.

Giveaways are most commonly used, he said, in product introductions, re-introductions and revamps - as in the new and improved version of something.

Ad agency EGC Corp. doles out samples for several of its clients, including Nivea (hand cream), Lifesavers (candy) and Sterling Optical (Mr. Magoo DVDs), which recently dubbed the myopic, 1960s cartoon character its spokesperson.

For local restaurants, giving prospective patrons a taste of what the chef has to offer can be an effective means of standing apart from the crowd.

We conducted a mailing campaign where we offered a free catered lunch to companies in the Melville area - no strings attached, said Don Ravella, owner of the Garage Eatery, a restaurant and caterer in Islandia. We were able to land many corporate clients in that area as a result. They liked what they got, so they continue to order.

Ravella said handing out free samples doesn't cost much, and the restaurant's corporate catering business increased 34 percent from 2003 to 2004.

People look forward to it, he said. I send hand-written thank-you notes for [their catering business] each week, and I enclose coupons for a free lunch at the restaurant. I think the free samples work out well.

And giveaways are just as effective with non-food items.

AOL has been particularly aggressive in getting its product into the hands of potential customers, offering CD-ROMs with free trial software.

The reason you get the AOL discs in the mail is they want you to try their service, use it and opt for it, Benfield said. They want to increase their penetration.

Trade shows are an especially popular venue for free samples.

DEI Management Group, a 25-year-old sales training firm in Manhattan, gives away best-selling books such as High Efficiency Selling by founder Stephan Schiffman.

We use book giveaways to get business cards and contact information for those who visit our booth, said Jeff Goldberg, director of sales and training at DEI. Giving away items almost always gets my attention, even if it's only to decide that the item isn't something I want.

Sampling can also mean throwing in an extra item free when somebody buys something from you - a free jar of peanut butter with a loaf of bread, for instance.

And selling sample-size, very inexpensive products is yet another way of getting a particular brand into potential customers' hands.

By putting an extremely low price on an attractive product, you're essentially giving it to the consumer at cost, with no profit, said Benfield. The intention is to have consumers self-select.