How Successful Is Your Demo Program?

Some people may think it is a trick question. Let me assure you it is not. Unfortunately some brands will only pay for demos because the retailers require them to support the "exposure" of their products. If this is your "strategy", the most successful demo is the cheapest one. In this case the demo budget is viewed as a promotional expense and no direct return is expected, except continuing to keep the product inventory on the store shelves.

If you think that only major brands are big enough to afford aggressive field/experiential marketing, you are missing the point - it is their commitment to demo programs that made them big. The brands that strive to promote products on the store floor, to the consumers who are there to buy, do it to lower customer acquisition costs. The success of such a strategy depends on effective execution to bring the desirable results. Well planned and coordinated demo programs are known to generate significant and lasting increases in revenue.

One of the most critical elements of planning is to decide which stores and at which times would likely have the most advantageous environment for your products to shine - even the best tasting products with the most creative packaging and sales sheets would not have a successful demo at the low traffic store. On the other hand, the pressure of very high traffic will cause even the best Brand Ambassador to give away too many samples without converting them to sales.

The most successful programs not only consider shoppers' demographics of a store, but also plan a frequency with which a sequence of demos should be scheduled in that store to maximize sustainable conversion. It is often far more profitable to invest in a smaller number of the "right" stores, than throw money at the wide range of locations in an effort to cover the market.

Recruiting and training quality Brand Ambassadors, demo table setup, selection and presentation of flavors, coordination with stores and inventory availability - are all key ingredients for "cooking" an effective field marketing campaign. However, without deciding on how to measure success you are not likely to achieve consistent results.

Recent research from Customer Experience IQ used four metrics to measure demo program effectiveness:

1. Traffic engagement - what percent of passing shoppers stop to taste the product
2. Product engagement - how much time a shopper spent by the demo table
3. Conversion rate - what percent of shoppers, who tasted the product, make a purchase
4. NPS (Net Promoter Score).  

The abstract of their study is available below*

It is important also to measure the performance of individual Brand Ambassadors and correlation between the time of each demo and the product re-order data. The exact set of metrics depends on your products and your demo reporting capabilities.
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