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Food and Beverage brands are shifting more and more to digital, and relying less and less on physical contact with consumers when it comes to marketing and demonstrating the taste and benefits of their products. CPG marketers must look beyond using food demonstrators in supermarkets and find new product sampling ideas to reach new shoppers, and drive consumer packaged goods sales. This apparent shift in consumer behavior has produced a few alternative cpg strategies starting to garner interest in the retail CPG market and one is gaining a lot of momentum, the use of contactless product sampling.
In 2020, we saw the emergence of “closed sampling” where retailers would leave out pre-packaged samples in a container on the open floor for shoppers to grab at their own convenience as they walked around the grocery store. As grocery curbside pick-up became a more popular and COVID-safe approach to shopping, brands like General Mills have revved up the number of samples that it has paid to place in curbside pickup orders at retailers, including Walmart, Kroger and Target.
In 2021, an even newer approach to product sampling was introduced to the retail market. Retail technology startups like Sampoll saw a way to create a new contactless and staffless solution that can increase product trial and store velocity for CPG brands in retail. What does this consist of? It consists of geo-targeted paid media offers and using AI-enabled branded chatbots that entice potential clients and persuade them to take part, and trial product. These offers are great because consumers can redeem them immediately, thereby producing instant satisfaction!
Digital product sampling programs are awesome because now CPG brands can reap a variety of benefits. For example, by using a contactless method, CPG brands can appeal to consumers that are weary of interacting with in store demo staff at in person product demonstration events.
In addition, CPG food companies will now have access to vital analytical data that can be used to hyper target customers and gain invaluable information about consumer behaviour. This information is paramount to mapping out an accurate customer digital journey and pinpoint new CPG marketing trends.
Moreover, CPG brands can run month-long campaigns digitally, versus in person marketing campaigns that can only run a few times a month. It also allows them to infinitely scale as CPG brands can now engage with consumers anywhere and anytime from a single campaign. This is a tremendous sales opportunity and will increase CPG sales for top CPG brands.
Ecommerce sampling promotions can be run on different platforms. For example, social media sampling campaigns can be utilized to hyper target customers across a vast distance of digital geographies online.
In addition, positive discussion on social media regarding your CPG brand will help build brand loyalty and spread brand awareness.
Digital marketing campaigns will be more widely used due to the rise of new safety precautions and the need for alternative digital solutions that offer increased scale while cutting costs.
Therefore, many businesses such as CPG brands must react accordingly and be apt for contactless product sampling programs versus in person demo events. Results include the acquisition of critical analytical data, and a more efficient use of marketing dollars with real ROI.
Contact a Sampoll rep today to explore new ways of doing retail product sampling for your CPG brand!