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Using Freebies To Leverage Retail Brands

Guest post by: John Clark

Article Overview: In an era when consumers have an ever shrinking spending dollar, retail brands are facing fierce competition to capture new sales. In addition to advertising and marketing, brand managers are turning to one tried and true promotion. Marketers are offering free samples to break into markets and segments and even take some market share away from their competitors.

Using Freebies To Leverage Retail Brands

In an era when consumers have an ever shrinking spending dollar, retail brands are facing fierce competition to capture new sales. In addition to advertising and marketing, brand managers are turning to one tried and true promotion. Marketers are offering free samples to break into markets and segments and even take some market share away from their competitors. Advertising agencies know that consumers are fickle but loyal. It's basic human nature to resist change and embrace the familiar. It is that invisible hurdle that a brand must leap to first capture, and then keep, a new consumer. One way to achieve that is by using freebies to leverage retail brands.

Whether your brand represents consumer packaged goods like detergent or bologna, or it offers services such as tax preparation or carpet cleaning, a give-away promotion can bring new customers and sales to your brand.

One method is a freebie program, also called a sampling promotion. In this case, a brand offers its own products or services, usually free of charge, in an attempt to get a new customer to try them. Gambling that a certain percentage of those consumers will become loyal customers, the initial cost of their product is offset by future sales.

A second way of using freebies to leverage retail brands is by giving away the products or services of others. Generally called a premium item, these usually inexpensive collectibles will be imprinted with the brand's name and logo and will generate a certain level of brand loyalty and appreciation even though there was no new sale. The name recognition and familiarity will, in many cases, lead to future sales.

While those are examples of inexpensive freebies, brands with more costly products and services don't have the luxury of giving away their offerings completely free. If they do, a media driven PR event may be utilized to generate equal value. Regardless of the segment or industry, using freebies to leverage retail brands is one of the oldest and most successful methods available to marketers.

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Article Tags: brand managers, consumers, free samples, freebies, market share, marketers, marketing, retail brands, segments
Referred by: http://www.saveonquotes.com



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