Imagine having the best product idea in the world that could rival the most prominent business names in the market today. It even comes with an awesome strategic business plan with meticulous consideration of demographics, competitors, and research.
Everything goes according to plan, and the business is open for consumers to come in and flood it, but weirdly enough, nobody came. The place was empty.
In between the amazing product and the strategic business plan, what went wrong?
What this amazing business venture lacked is brand awareness. It is a dog-eat-dog world out there, and if people do not know anything about you, no matter how fool-proof the business plan is, it will not succeed.There are a few ways to get more consumers for your product, and the answer is product sampling.
Product sampling is simply handing out free products, as a trial run, to potential consumers.
It started back in the 1850s by a soap manufacturer who realized that handing out free samples grew his business. Nowadays, product sampling has become a widely used strategy across many different industries.
As an added twist of the product sampling evolution, we are now moving into the digital realm, with brands targeting new consumers through social media and email with e-coupons and special online-only offers.
You know that it’s essential to find ways to establish your products on the market by driving brand awareness and creating consumer loyalty, and thus increasing sales.
Purity, with its experienced product sampling team, has grown to understand that the strategies behind product sampling are constantly evolving. There is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy and our success lies in taking the time to understand the brands we are working with, along with their consumers, so that we can help them to achieve sensational results.
Sampling agency works in a very efficient and effective manner. They use various methods which unfold in certain number of steps.
STEPS:-
An operational sampling process can be divided into seven steps as given below:
1. Defining the Target Population:
Defining the population of interest, for business research, is the first step in the sampling process. In general, target population is defined in terms of element, sampling unit, extent, and time frame. The definition should be in line with the objectives of the research study. For example, if a kitchen appliances firm wants to conduct a survey to ascertain the demand for its micro ovens, it may define the population as ‘all women above the age of 20 who cook (assuming that very few men cook)’.
2. Specifying the Sampling Frame:
Once the definition of the population is clear a researcher should decide on the sampling frame. A sampling frame is the list of elements from which the sample may be drawn. Continuing with the micro oven ex, an ideal sampling frame would be a database that contains all the households that have a monthly income above Rs.20,000. However, in practice it is difficult to get an exhaustive sampling frame that exactly fits the requirements of a particular research.
3. MEASURING THE UNIT:
A sampling unit is a basic unit that contains a single element or a group of elements of the population to be sampled. In this case, a household becomes a sampling unit and all women above the age of 20 years living in that particular house become the sampling elements. If it is possible to identify the exact target audience of the business research, every individual element would be a sampling unit. This would present a case of primary sampling unit
5. FINDING SAMPLE SIZE:
The sample size plays a crucial role in the sampling process. There are various ways of classifying the techniques used in determining the sample size. A couple that hold primary importance and are worth mentioning are whether the technique deals with fixed or sequential sampling and whether its logic is based on traditional or Bayesian methods. In non-probability sampling procedures, the allocation of budget, thumb rules and number of sub groups to be analysed, importance of the decision, number of variables, nature of analysis, incidence rates, and completion rates play a major role in sample size determination.
6.KNOWING THE PLAN:
In this step, the specifications and decisions regarding the implementation of the research process are outlined. Suppose, blocks in a city are the sampling units and the households are the sampling elements. This step outlines the modus operandi of the sampling plan in identifying houses based on specified characteristics. It includes issues like how is the interviewer going to take a systematic sample of the houses. What should the interviewer do when a house is vacant? What is the recontact procedure for respondents who were unavailable? All these and many other questions need to be answered for the smooth functioning of the research process. These are guidelines that would help the researcher in every step of the process
7. OPTING:
This is the final step in the sampling process, where the actual selection of the sample elements is carried out. At this stage, it is necessary that the interviewers stick to the rules outlined for the smooth implementation of the business research. This step involves implementing the sampling plan to select the sampling plan to select a sample required for the survey.
In the whole process a plus point is offering free sample products. Product sampling is the process of giving free samples away to customers. The idea is, once they try the product for free, they’ll be more confident in paying full price for the same item.
Giving away your product for free can feel a little daunting. After all, someone has to pay for it—and when it comes to free samples, you eat the cost. But don’t let that dissuade you. Free samples have been proven to boost sales by as much as 2,000%. Free product samples have proved to be very much beneficial for each and every company as it provides great outcomes.