Show and tell— and sell

From pushing pizza and pasta to selling snacks and sausages, the time-tested practice of in-store demos reigns in supermarkets as perhaps the most effective way to drive incremental sales and enliven the shopping experience. Done right, it's a win-win for both retailers and manufacturers.

Because it's been proven to build brand awareness and enhance loyalty, sampling ranks among the most valuable tactics manufacturers can use to gain trial and increase sales of a new product. And many new suppliers are forgoing traditional promotional expenditures while increasingly relying on product demonstrations as an essential element of their overall marketing mix.

For supermarket retailers, in-store demos provide a beneficial means of bolstering the total brand image of a store by adding an element of interest for shoppers, who are invited to slow down, taste a sample, and interact with the demonstrator.

"It's a proven fact that in-store events slow people down and encourage them to spend more money—not just on the products being sampled, but all the stuff around it," says Caroline Nakken, principal of Mass Connections, a national in-store marketing company based in Cerritos, Calif.

In-store demos touch on all the hot buttons that go over particularly well with the public, adds Nakken. "They say to consumers, 'You've entertained me; it's fun; you're giving me something for free; you've minimized my risk to try this; and my kids love to come here—versus telling me only about what it costs in a weekly ad.'"

More and more, says Nakken, brand building is moving to the store, which is the most logical place for the marketer to connect with busy consumers. In-store events, she says, "are not only wonderful for the manufacturer, which will hopefully get a customer to stay with their product forever, but also for retailers, since consumers generally credit the store for handing out the samples and providing the fun." With extremely brand-loyal shoppers, she says, "this is how manufacturers get them to try their product, and the end result almost always guarantees an increase in product sales."

A recently released survey from the Promotion Marketing Association reinforces the notion that samples trigger brand conversion and consumer purchases (see story below). Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they are more profoundly influenced by samples and demos than by traditional ads.

Sampling is also shown as a key influencer in brand-purchasing decisions, according to the trade group's Trial and Conversion VI survey, which found nearly 94 percent of surveyed consumers saying they agree or strongly agree that sampling is a risk-free way to try new products. Further, 85 percent said a coupon distributed with a sample makes it easier to buy the product.

"This Trial and Conversion survey underscores the range and effectiveness of product sampling and demonstration to U.S. consumers," says Claire Rosenzweig, executive director of the New York City-based PMA.

The survey shows how promotional tactics can be used successfully in tandem, notes Rosenzweig. "For instance, coupons and samples have great synergy. Seventy-four percent of respondents who received a coupon for a free product or service used it to obtain that product or service gratis."

Most in-store demos are done by independent contractors who accept assignments from demo-service businesses, which incur the labor or training costs for the product demonstrators. Nakken says less than 1 percent of in-store demos are conducted directly by retailers. Typical demo sessions last six hours and are scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.

A million demos a year

Mass Connections works with a pool of approximately 100 different agencies across the country to facilitate roughly a million events annually through its retail division, says Nakken. The ideal lead time for an in-store event is six to eight weeks, she notes, but most get about four weeks.

"We focus on retail events, so our clients are as much retailers as they are CPG companies," she says. They include Ahold, Albertson's, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Lowe's, Stater Bros., and Wal-Mart from the retail segment, and Frito-Lay, Heinz, Kraft, Maybelline, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble from the supplier side.

"Retailers who are using these new marketing dollars to drive their own business are in turn driving the return on investment for in-store marketing," says Nakken.

When it comes to what the folks at Wal-Mart call "retail-tainment," she adds, Wal-Mart and the clubs stores do it best. Club stores sample heavily, especially on weekends, but don't tap manufacturer funds for most of the other marketing options used by supermarkets, she says.

"Wal-Mart is the pioneer with what's happening now for in-store events," says Nakken, "and the manufacturers are really seeing the return on brand image being played out in the stores. In-store marketing is entering a golden era that will provide opportunities for retailers to enliven the shopping experience of their customers and for manufacturers to enhance the image of their brands."

What is prompting this opportunity is a change in consumer lifestyles and the resulting effect on where and how manufacturers spend their marketing dollars. "Consumers have less free time because they're juggling more responsibilities at work and home, and as a result there's a decline in TV viewership, which is increasingly spread out among a wide array of channels," says Nakken. Consequently, she contends, this once-reliable method of reaching the masses with brand messages is becoming less effective.

"Even if we're pouring juice in a cup and talking about the added calcium and new packaging, there's an event that's going on. Now much of what we're doing is going to the next level with premium giveaways and interactive events," says Nakken, noting a recent campaign done for Suave that was staged in a mock bathroom complete with a sink, a bathtub, and a stand-up shower made from cardboard.

Bill Bishop, president of Willard Bishop Consulting in Barrington, Ill., says retailers who have grasped this concept have done a better job of satisfying shoppers by working with brand marketers collectively. "This is an opportunity for retailers to drive sales and customer satisfaction," says Bishop, who hails the renewed interest in in-store marketing events. "This gives retailers the ability not only to sell products, but to brand their stores."

For years, center store grocery products have accounted for the majority of in-store demos, but the fresh categories, particularly meat and produce, "are segments that are really heating up and coming alive," says Nakken, whose firm has worked with a variety of commodity boards like the Washington Apple Commission and the California Avocado Commission. Nakken says event marketing is especially effective with tropical and organic produce and tofu products that consumers may not normally try.

Harris Teeter events

During her company's work with Harris Teeter, Nakken says, the Matthews, N.C. chain executes a consistent array of in-store produce events, which include at least 10 to 15 stations during every grand opening. Her firm has also conducted several fresh meat events with Harris Teeter over the last year, including a highly successful event for Nueske bacon in February that resulted in an 836 percent increase in sales during the demo period.

Safeway, in its Valentine's and Mother's Day in-store promotional lineup, featured a non-traditional product, Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream, a new chocolate liqueur created by the makers of Skyy Vodka.

"What sets Vermeer apart from all other chocolate liqueurs is real chocolate rather than the flavored syrups used in all other brands," says Melissa Lilly, marketing v.p. at MK Spirits in San Francisco. "It's all about taste with this product, and we obviously needed to get the word out and found that talking to customers directly is certainly among the best ways to go."

In the three weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, the product was featured with a $2 off coupon in a cross-promotion with a dozen roses in the floral sections of 200 Safeway stores. "It was a different twist on a traditional roses and chocolate promotion, which worked so well that Safeway came back to us and offered us an interesting promotion for the Friday and Saturday before Mother's Day," says Lilly.

Since California food retailers are prohibited from sampling alcoholic beverages, the promotion was instead conducted with Dutch chocolates and informational brochures that were distributed to consumers in 25 Safeway stores.