We’re monitoring a retail sampling campaign where the vast majority of consumers (81.9%) had never head of the brand before they came across the retail activation.
We find it’s key to measure a consumer’s experience with a brand when evaluating the impact of any experiential marketing campaign, retail sampling is no exception. There are four levels of consumer brand awareness each of which aligns with the key phases in the consumer purchase decision cycle.
- Need: Have you ever heard of the brand before
- Awareness: You are aware of the brand but have never purchased/ used
- Trial: You’ve used/ bought before but are not a current customer
- Purchase: You are a current customer.
We find consistently, in almost all industries, that the greater the brand awareness, the easier it is to generate new purchase intent with event marketing.
This marketing is doing a great job. When asked, we find that 77.3% of consumers who sample this product report that they are “Extremely Likely” to purchase the next time they are shopping for groceries and 83.0% report they will buy “today” before they leave the store.
No complicated facial recognition software or overly expensive retail foot-traffic tracking solutions. Just a simple three or four questions to a random sample of consumers who tried the product. We then look to see what retail chains, markets, and activation times maximize these results and do more of those things that work to maximize purchase intent.
It’s hard to introduce a product for the first time and expect consumers to leave with it in their cart. However, if you manage your methods with the right data, even a brand new product to the market can have significant purchase intent the day of activation.
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollyclark/1688432907/