tiffanybangle3

You've seen them at events. Young people who stand out at concerts, or at the mall, or on a street corner with a new toothpaste or a new soft drink flavour they'd like you to try out. Ever wonder if it works?David Nichols, the Vancouver-based vice-president of Marketing at Inventa Sales and Promotions calls this type of sampling an "interactive brand experience." While intuitively he's always believed that if you get the product or service into the hands of the client's target market in a comfortable environment the cash registers will ring, he couldn't prove it. "One of the flaws in our industry was there wasn't a commonly accepted tiffany bracelets on sale tool-there's no gross ratings point or anything like that," he says. "We needed to start doing things to justify our existence."

That's why Nichols hired Toronto-based market research firm IMI International to track results of a program Inventa ran last year for Nestles Coffee-Mate Liquid. Nestlé was trying to overcome a perception that Coffee-Mate is a cheap substitute for milk, rather than a great-tasting enhancer that comes in several flavours.Working with Nestlé's advertising team and promotional agencies, Inventa developed a "taste, tease and reveal," national sampling program that hit commuters on their way to work. "The great thing about this campaign was that we were able to guarantee the target market (of) coffee drinkers tiffany cufflinks on sale to sweeteners," he says. "If they said no to our coffee, they weren't our target market anyway."

Inventa sampled 325,000 people and estimated that 98% of those fell into the target market-25- to 45-year-olds (with a female skew). Inventa took the names of close to 1,000 people willing to be tested by IMI. Don Mayo, managing director of IMI, says his company created two "cells" of 100 people each: a test cell of those exposed to the Inventa sampling program; and a control cell of those exposed to all other marketing initiatives except the sampling program.Nichols says results showed an increase in incremental awareness of 42% for those who had sampled the product compared to those who had only been exposed to print ads.

The groups were tested for unaided awareness of milk, cream, creamer and coffee whitener brands by tiffany key rings on sale a list of names that included Coffee-Mate and competitors (such as Parmalat, Beatrice and Carnation) and being asked which brand first came to mind. Nichols says 23% of those who had sampled Coffee-Mate mentioned it compared to only 12% of the control group.

Not surprising, aided awareness was significantly high-er. Asked if they were aware that Coffee-Mate Liquid came in several flavours, 25% of the control group knew of these flavours compared to 69% who had sampled the product. "So this is a great way of reaching people and making sure they remember what (product) you've interacted (on) with them," says Nichols.In terms of convincing people to buy, IMI found that 22% of the control group said they tiffany earrings on sale definitely, very, or somewhat likely to purchase it compared to 64% of those people who had already interacted with the brand, "This is where the big bang came for us, the predisposition to purchase the product. It wasn't just the sample, it was the experience they were having around this cool campaign," says Nichols.

IMI then asked "Are you using Coffee-Mate Liquid now more often, less often or the same as yon were three months ago?" Two per cent of the control group said they had increased usage compared to 16% of the people who had interacted with the product. And when IMI asked if they would be likely to recommend Coffee-Mate-very or somewhat likely-10% of the control group said they would, but 56% of the brand interaction group said Coffee-Mate would be return to tiffany sale they'd recommend.Nichols says his company has since tested two more campaigns, with similar results. One was for Campbell's Ignite line of meals; the other was a mall-based campaign for Telus Internet products.