One of your worst fears as a CPG brand is getting dropped by your key retailer due to low sales. Yikes! A multi-channel strategy for product trial (product sampling & demos) can make all the difference.

Whether you are offering discounted or free samples of one or several products, you will see an increase in sales almost immediately at the beginning of your campaign. You may be thinking, “how will my sales increase, if I am only receiving half or none of the profits?” Sales doesn’t always correlate to money. When it comes to retail sales, the goal is to move your products on and off of retail shelves as swiftly as possible. 

One of the most challenging aspects for marketing consumer packaged goods is building and maintaining customer loyalty. Many CEOs of CPG brands focus their marketing strategies on attracting new consumers, but fail to implement a tactic to keep them. According to SalesCycle, “returning loyal customers spends 67% more than new customers”. Instead of putting most of your marketing dollars in lead generation, you should consider investing in a customer loyalty program.

Who would have thought? Honestly… Who would have thought how much impact COVID has changed the retail space in 2022? From contactless curbside pickup to groceries delivered onto your doorstep, retailers are making it easier for their consumers to shop using technology. When it comes to retail sampling, consumers aren’t seeing in-store demo products as they have in the past. Since there aren’t many brick and mortar retailers doing store demos anymore, many CPG brands are moving towards using retail sampling technology. 

Almost everyone in the world now owns a cellphone. It’s no surprise that people check their phones up to 160 times a day, or once every 9 minutes, to look at text messages, social media feeds, emails, and more according to Findstack. The question is who would have thought a simple text message could help bring in more sales for your CPG business?

Did you know that in 2021, “the highest share of consumers in the United States would discover coupons or promos through emails from followed brands or online searches”, according to Statista. Before you jump on the coupon app bandwagon, let’s explore other coupon programs you can use to up your CPG sales.

The phrase in store promotions is in the CPG brand bible, so if you don’t know it, here is your chance to learn. According to Retailmenot, “promotions spark in-store purchases for 91 percent of shoppers who use in-store promotions.” For most consumer packaged goods brands, in-store marketing is a way of connecting with their customers, while striving to give them the best experience in the retail stores.

When was the last time you made a purchase without looking at the reviews first? According to Qualtrics, 93% of consumers say online reviews determine their final buying decisions. If your brand is lacking product reviews, how is that affecting your business? For CPG food and beverage brands, it could be tough receiving reviews from your consumers.

According to a study done by XP2, the Food and Beverage industry has an average shopping cart abandonment rate of over 55%. That means that 1 out of every 2 shoppers that are ready to check out of their shopping cart, suddenly get cold feet and leave your online store without making a purchase that day! What can you do to reduce shopping cart abandonment? You should implement an e-commerce sampling strategy and de-risk the buyer journey for your online store. 

Customer experience for CPG brands is the new battlefield in grocery retail! 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, according to a study by PwC. There are a million products for consumers to choose from, so how do you plan to stand out against the competitors? It’s simple, you need to invest and implement a shopper marketing strategy for your CPG brand.

Dr. James Richardson cites in his book, “Ramping up Your Brand”, that “roughly 80 percent of premium food/beverage brands fail to make it past $1 million in retail sales.” It goes without saying that most emerging CPG brands are having a more difficult time with sales velocity than their more established competitors. That may seem like a no brainer, but there are many factors that contribute to this. Lack of awareness, a marketing strategy, and not knowing how to measure their sales velocity in retail stores.

The stakes are high for the CPG industry, as the potential lost revenue from brand switching is estimated at $1.6 trillion USD, a 29% increase from 2010 according to a study done by Accenture. In addition, Deloitte recently came out with a study that shows brand loyalty in several major product categories has declined over the years. The problem that most CPG brands are facing now is brand awareness and a failure to implement redemption programs into their marketing strategies.

In-store demos come with inherent obstacles. For example, limited customer reach due to limitations of daily foot traffic per store. Also, a possibility of exposing your product to uninterested audiences which doesn’t equate to more retail sales. Chances are that a good portion of shoppers that walk by your in-store demo may not necessarily fancy your superfood bars or veggie burgers. 

In store sampling has always been the gold standard when it comes to immersive experiences to create awareness and drive initial sales in brick and mortar stores. This type of instore advertising allows potential customers the chance to engage one-on-one with promotional events staff aka brand ambassadors to create more personable and memorable experiences.

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 store demo staffing consists of hiring staff to conduct in store demonstrations. In store marketing has been a widely used product marketing strategy for decades. Marketing managers often use in store promotions to stimulate the sales of new or existing products. 

Redeem your “Instant Samples” the same day! No more having to wait 4-6 weeks for your free samples to arrive. Our virtual brand ambassadors will share local Instant Sampling events that are happening near you! These events typically run for 60-90 days, and in some cases a limited supply so we encourage you to redeem your Instant Samples as soon as possible.

Consumer shopping behaviors are changing faster than ever before! The global pandemic has pushed consumers onto the internet to get their dopamine rush from online shopping. In fact, over 4 trillion dollars was spent buying goods online in 2020, which is almost 30% more than the year prior. 

It goes without saying that conventional in-store sampling has been practiced by a variety of CPG brands throughout history because it works. Studies show that 73% of consumers are more likely to buy an item if they get to try it first. 

We have been hearing about Big Data, data this, and data that for years. But data is nothing more than units of information, most often numeric, that are collected through observation. More technically put, data is either qualitative or quantitative, that measures sets of variables about one or more persons or objects.

2021 kicks off the “roaring 20’s” by establishing itself as a year of building on a reopening economy and accelerating momentum.

Field Marketing is a branch of marketing in which brands get their products in front of consumers “out in the field” at retail locations, events, college campuses, or in public locations. Field marketing initiatives include promotions, demos, and direct sales.

With an increase in the percentage of Americans getting COVID vaccines, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel and glimpses of hope that we may be heading towards a sense of normalcy in 2021. 

Sampoll made local headlines in the March 2021 edition of a well-known news publication, Valley LIFE Magazine, a well-known news publication that gets distributed to over 100,000 homes through central Connecticut.

According to e-commerce platform, Shopify, conversational commerce is a term coined by Uber’s Chris Messina in a 2015 piece published on Medium. It refers to the intersection of messaging apps and shopping. There is an increasing trend toward interacting with businesses through messaging and chat apps or through voice technology, like Amazon’s Echo product, which uses voice commands to connect to your favorite companies.

Picture this - you developed your target list of potential stores and cross out the stores that don’t fit your criteria such as discount grocery outlets since you are selling a premium beverage product. Why should this store carry your CPG product? Did you bring anything other than some print materials?

Do you feel the love? Probably not. Why? There are thousands of new products that enter the market each year, which only fuels the over-saturation and increases the competition for you, the brand, to compete for consumer attention. 

If you put yourself in the shoes of a typical shopper it’s all about sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste when evaluating an item for purchase. That’s why retailers like Costco lure customers in with free samples, and stores like Ulta Beauty allow customers to try on certain makeup and fragrance products. 

You just launched a new plant-based food product in the market. You are eager to get your new product SKU stocked on the shelves at retailers across the country but then you realize one thing...It’s SO MUCH HARDER than you originally thought.

How well do you actually know your customers? No, really! How well?! The Sampoll team thought it would be a great opportunity to discuss the importance of getting to know as much as possible about your customers.

Dear CPG brands and agencies, I regret to inform you that your Google Forms are making your life harder(not easier) when it comes to managing and reporting on in-store demo product sampling campaigns (and that doesn’t get any better as you transition to digital sampling).

Why Sampoll can make your brand’s sampling feedback experience fun for customers while traditional surveys can’t.

This is not another cliché New Year’s resolution post, rather, it's a promise to you that we're doubling down on releasing amazing new features to help make 2021 the best year yet for your brand’s product sampling and testing campaigns! 

As a consumer, the simple experience of walking into a retail store and seeing booths setup with free samples is now an incredibly nostalgic experience.

In a recent Instagram poll executed by Sampoll 85% of respondents preferred local coffee brand, Rebel Dog Coffee over Dunkin’ Donuts. Let's discuss the critical macro/micro consumer trends that are driving this result!

If you are reading this you must be interested in making some changes to your marketing strategy. Perhaps you've already started experimenting with new ideas. We've got a few ideas for you as well!

The Sampoll team is proud to introduce the new Covid-Safety Checklist tool to help your promotional field staff adhere to the Covid-19 safety guidelines established by the CDC and WHO.

Sampoll joins one of the country’s top accelerator programs, The Brandery (Cincinnati), which is owned and operated by the Gener8tor Fund.

In keeping with the theme of increasing forward momentum, and developing critical partner relationships...

2020 is underway with serious momentum as the Sampoll team closes a new investment, doubles down on product enhancements, and continues to secure critical partners.

Have you heard someone mention “AI” (artificial intelligence) recently? How about “Big Data”, “Predictive Analytics”, or “Machine Learning”?

Local Connecticut based SaaS business has kicked into overdrive with full rebrand, new partnerships, and acceptance to NewChip Accelerator.