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Sampling is a Competitive and Winning Tactic
Spring is in the air! March Madness is around the corner, and baseball begins in the new Nationals Park in our nation's capital at the very end of this month. Harold and I last discussed the importance of new product promotion in our January column. In the average supermarket, over 30,000 items are for sale, and many are new products (a new item is considered "new" for 30 days). We wrote about the importance of having depth and breadth in new products as they augment your 'Fresh' and 'Variety' image, and produce the shopping experience for which your customers are yearning. We want to open the spring season with some new retailer-specific recommendations based on our research which we believe will also create the position needed to win in the increasingly competitive marketplace.

Sampling: The Four-Corner Offense
The practice of sampling is often planned but more often poorly executed. We suggest positioning your store as the one that creates an exciting experience via sampling products in multiple places to draw the customer throughout the store. Harold and I refer to one innovative sampling practice as the four-corner offense. Dean Smith, the former men's basketball coach at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was a master of the four-corner offense. We think a spread offense with four sampling stations around the store is a good way to create passion and excitement during the customer's shopping trip.

In each of the four stations, have helium-filled balloons, themed music, costumed associates (e.g., in chef's outfits) or other exciting colors to draw attention to what's sizzling in the pan and being given away at each demo point. For safety, use pretzel sticks (as opposed to toothpicks) so that the customer is left with nothing in their hand once they consume what is being sampled.

Please do not be myopic in the sense that you shy away from this practice because you must give away cases of food in the beginning with no guarantee that this tactic will engender purchases of the sampled goods. This is not only a great way to introduce new products, but it is also a way to test your house brands, wines and cheeses against those that are more well-known or experienced. I have conducted research pairing a store's house brand, lesser-known products or new items against more experienced products, and it's really eye-opening to see how often the house brands or lesser-known foods fare well in comparison to the national brands or well-known foods - and it is exciting to see what is purchased simply because it was sampled.

Customer Interaction
Sampling is also a great way for your staff to interact with customers. Our January 2007 column noted that interacting with customers is associated with a 23 percent increase in spending. We suggest having employees specifically charged with asking people which sample they enjoyed most during the visit. In addition, these associates should make clear where customers can find the remaining sampling stations on that specific visit. Sampling plus employee/customer interaction should bring a lift to your top line.

We also suggest that you give a card to your customers asking them to indicate which of the sampled items was most pleasing and why. This is information you will want to note for future promotions on the most celebrated sampled items. In addition, you may ask what you could do in terms of product changes or merchandising tactics to make these favorite items more apt to be purchased "instead of" (as opposed to "in addition to") the other products in that category. If the form is completed before the next visit (within seven days), perhaps this returning customer could get a free house-brand item of his choice up to a certain amount of money. The form becomes an incentive coupon.

This practice accomplishes four things. First, it engages the customer via an interaction with an employee. Second, it encourages them to come back to your store within seven days. Third, it makes your sampling survey salient and reinforces your position as the retailer that offers multiple sampling stations while the customer shops. Fourth, it leads to coupon use. In our April 2007 column, we discussed that coupon shoppers spend 41 percent more on average than non-coupon shoppers. Interestingly, coupon shoppers come to the store reporting that they will spend less on average than non-coupon shoppers. In fact, as our data indicate, they spend more. So, by sampling, increasing customer involvement in enhancing your product's taste and the way it is merchandised, and encouraging a return visit within seven days via the offered coupon, you can combine several of the recommendations made in our columns written over the years here at The Gourmet Retailer. We think that these four recommendations combined with a four-corner offense could be instrumental for you as you begin to "spring" forward this March to enhance your top line for 2008.

Our shopper traffic research will unveil some quick and manageable tactics which could have a profound impact on your top line as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty. For more information on how we can cater our research to meet your specific needs, please e-mail me at Kenny.Herbst@mba.wfu.edu. Alternatively, feel free to visit my Wake Forest University profile page at www.mba.wfu.edu/herbst (on this site, click "website" under my photo to visit my personal Webspace). I can also be reached via phone at 336-758-4215.

Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He earned a Masters and Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, Dr. Herbst earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University.

Dr. Herbst has been interviewed about his food research and industry expertise by, among others, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and Woman's Day. In July 2007, he gave a keynote presentation on his in-store food shopper research at Shopper Insights in Action. He has also recently spoken at FMI and IDDBA. In April, he will present his top tactics for retailing and merchandising at the 2008 NARMS Spring Conference and Annual Meeting in Williamsburg, Va.

Harold Lloyd was the President and CEO of a 14-unit retail organization for 10 years. His practical, exciting ideas and dynamic presentation style have combined to earn him a highly regarded reputation reflected in his top ratings at numerous appearances at such prestigious events as the annual FMI and IDDBA conventions.

For almost two decades, Harold has worked very closely with small and large businesses to provide a "powerful push in the right direction!" His mission is to provide qualified, executive-level assistance to companies on a "temporary basis," eliminating the need to add permanent top management overhead. To further assist his clients, Harold authored the book It's About Time, focusing on time management.