By Josh Sommers
Posted: March 05, 2010
Sometimes gifts, or a really great deal, is what it takes for people to try, or retry, a product.
Banks offer free kitchen gadgets or promotional products when you open certain types of accounts or sign up as a customer at a new branch. Casinos often offer free slot dollars for new players. Getting a trial subscription for a newspaper or satellite radio service is usually pretty easy. For many businesses, special offers to drive new business are part of an effective marketing program.
Fresh coffee or else!
When Quick Chek, a chain of high-end super convenience stores, opened a new shop in Middletown last year, it rolled out the new location with free coffee for the first week. With Quick Chek’s guarantee for fresh coffee brewed every 20 minutes (ensured by buzzers that alert staff when coffee sits too long), the offer played up on their strength and uniqueness (fresh coffee or else!), while generating traffic into its new location. This special offer, of course, was promoted with print ads and outdoor signs. Quick Chek’s free coffee deal is a great example of a marketing tactic to create a trial usage of a product. If, indeed, the coffee was that good and the store met all of its visitors’ needs, they were likely to come back again.
Super Bowl stunt pays off
Existing businesses, with many years under their belts, can also re-energize their brand with sweet offers to get consumers to try them again. Last year, Denny’s sought to reconnect with some customers that may have been overlooking the restaurant — with free food. The stunt, announced with a TV ad during last year’s Super Bowl, offered a free Grand Slam breakfast to everyone in America the following Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was so successful, Denny’s did it again this year. Sometimes you have to shake the tree a bit and get people talking. This out-of-the-box idea, which many companies would have balked at, created a huge publicity bounce for Denny’s and got lots of people to sample its product again — and for the first time.
If your product is solid, why not entice potential customers with a taste? Don’t be the best kept secret. Special offers, samples and promotional giveaways can create important consumer trial of your product or service. It doesn’t make sense for all businesses, but for many companies, it can certainly shake the tree.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a leading Hudson Valley advertising and public relations agency. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 294-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at www.advertisingandpr.com. His column appears Fridays.
