The Hands-On Experience
When you were little and had to sneeze, reaching for a magazine could get you a slap on the hand.
But millions of newspaper and magazine readers will be able to do just that with impunity this month when Kimberly-Clark launches the broadest sampling program in the history of its Kleenex brand, in support of its newly enhanced tissue-with-lotion product.
The enhancement comes via a proprietary surface technology years in the making that makes the new tissues both softer and stronger. Kimberly-Clark is confident users will feel the difference — if they can feel the product.
For that reason, the company this month is mounting a sampling campaign that will put 60 million samples in places you couldn’t previously find a Kleenex. Free-standing and shelf retail displays will include dispensers so shoppers can pop up a Kleenex with Lotion and try it. Magazine spreads in O and Good Housekeeping will offer sample tissues, as will newspaper coupon inserts targeted at young families. A sampling van will tour selected U.S. cities later this winter.
Why such a broad initiative? Because just talking about the new product won’t do, says Amy Popp, Kleenex associate brand manager. “We realized in focus groups that once people had the chance to feel the product, they understood what a dramatic improvement this was,” she says. “We had to look at marketing differently and find new ways to get the product into consumers’ hands.”
According to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast, marketers will spend almost $2.3 billion on product sampling in 2008, an increase of about 5% over the $2.15 billion spent in the same channel last year.
As in past years, sampling in 2008 has tended to get out of the store and off the street corner and into more targeted environments.
For example, last month General Mills set out packaged samples of its Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix product at 500 “meal-assembly kitchens,” central cooking locations where busy moms can prepare several meals at once. Customers were able to snack on the product while putting together their meals, or to bring some home along with pre-cooked meals.
“We believe this promotion will generate trial with a key demographic for us — busy moms,” General Mills marketing manager Molly King said in a statement.
Online sampling is also gathering momentum as Web communities bring together individuals who share a common interest in trying new products — and very often in spreading the word in their own blogs and discussion groups.
Earlier this year nail-polish company OPI introduced a brush-and-go lacquer pen called Nic’s Sticks, and wanted to sell the product to consumers rather than to professional salon experts. To generate awareness, the company worked with SheSpeaks.com to encourage trials and drive retail sales. SheSpeaks members, who must register and provide demographic targeting information before joining the network, were able to log onto a Web site and order one of five colors along with five $1 coupons toward product purchase at Walmart and Target.
From April through June, the Nic’s Sticks campaign saw 800,000 conversations on the SheSpeaks.com network and generated 120,000 unit sales. Each woman “sold” 13 pens to her friends, either through straight word of mouth or by passing along coupons, which they were encouraged to do. And about 30% of members write their own blogs, amplifying the impact of any promotion they take part in.
The OPI coupon redemption rate with SheSpeaks was 300% over what the company achieved with a magazine coupon running at the same time, and 1,200% greater than an FSI initiative. Why? “One, it’s a targeted female population,” says SheSpeaks founder and CEO Alize Freud. “Two, this is opt-in permission-based marketing. These people volunteered to engage with the brand, and that’s critical to making any campaign work well.”
SNAPSHOT
Sampling spending will reach $2.3 billion in 2008
Web communities help marketers target their samples to specific demographics
