Tempo Strategic: Get up to speed

Free samples are one of the most tried-and-true ways to get people to love your product, but “social sampling” goes a step further by tapping into deeply rooted psychological principles.

Social Sampling Makes You Feel Special

We all know everyone loves to feel special, and getting early or exclusive access to a brand makes people feel important. Sampling can be used both as a sign of high status and as a reward for brand loyalty; for example, Burberry launched its “Burberry Body” fragrance in September by providing free samples to 7.6 million facebook fans before it hit stores. When consumers feel that a brand elevates their “status” they may develop positive associations with that brand. After all, doesn’t Burberry perfume smell better when you are one of the select few chosen to wear it?

Social sampling, on the other hand, involves providing consumers with products to share with others. Kleenex recently unleashed a wildly successful campaign, “Softness Worth Sharing,” that allowed consumers to send free tissues to friends. One million packs of tissues were sent out.

Although social sampling campaigns focus less on exclusivity, the act of sharing also makes people feel important.  As this blog post discusses, a recent study from the Haas School of Business determined that “rise in status seems to be strongly correlated primarily by actions that enhance a person’s value in the eyes of fellow group members—that is, by acting in ways that signal task competence, generosity and commitment to the group.” Generosity is yet another way to increase your status.

How to Use Social Sampling in Your Marketing Plan:

For the most powerful impact, tap into both exclusivity and sharing. Don’t just provide free samples or coupons to “influencers”—bloggers, active tweeters, etc.—but provide a mechanism for them to share with their friends too.

To build the maximum positive association, remember that the root of social media’s success is Word of Mouth.  That one-to-one personal recommendation still has a 70% influence on brand preference.  When you give people a way to share with friends, you are the agent of a positive association for them, and the likability extends to your brand.

When it comes to social sampling, be exclusive but not stingy.  What goes around will come back around to your brand.

Did you know, 2012 is the first year the Super Bowl will be streamed live?  This means the digital and social media integration for this gigantic advertising spectacle will carry a whole new level of weight this year.

Check out our list below of Social Media trends heading our way, and make sure your brand is up to speed!  We’ll even give you a cheat translation of what each trend really means for you…

1. “Social TV Integration” - Translation: Take the last presidential election for example… the best way to keep TV viewers engaged is to incorporate Social Media into programming. 

2. “TV Is Going Online in a Big Way” - Translation: The increasing amount of consumers live streaming is putting an enormous emphasis on the digital and social media integration for TV advertising.

3. “Facebook Credits Take Center stage” – Translation: Facebook Credits is a virtual currency that enables people to purchase items within applications on the Facebook platform. (One US dollar = 10 FB credits).  Eventually, it’s expected Facebook will expand these credits into a micropayment system which will be open to any FB application.

4. “Big Business Has Woken Up” – Translation: It is more important than ever for brands to treat social platforms as a way to communicate with consumers rather than just a way to advertise to them.  Brands are having conversations with their fans instead of the traditional one-way message or ad.

5. “ROI Is Still Huge” - The new change involving ROI is that social media engagement is being more accepted as a legitimate metric.

Want more? Read this quick article.

Before buying, we used to research the “big stuff”, like cars and washing machines.  Now we’re looking for information about absolutely everything– right down to the ingredients in our cereal, what those tiny green dots are in your toothpaste, and what your mice think about your mouse traps.  Everyone is officially researching everything before they buy it.

It’s so important to see how your consumers are finding you, what they are looking for, who your target audience really is and where they are coming from.   Check out this Emarketer article to see how your online shopping cart can influence your customer’s real life shopping carts.

Here are a couple main points from the study:

- “During the year-long study, nonbranded search terms averaged about 73% of all queries referring shoppers to retail sites.”

- “In-store buyers who searched using nonbranded terms clicked on organic links 2.6 times more than the average shopper.”

- “More than 5% of clicks—one of the leading activities—went to store locator pages, indicating a propensity for cross-channel shopping.”

- “Nearly three-fourths of these cross-channel shoppers expected to be able to check product availability before heading into a store.”

This holiday season, your Ecommerce site matters more than ever.  Why?  We’ll give you 5 quick reasons, so you can get back to your cookie making and last minute shopping deals…

1. Online sales are growing faster than offline sales

2. The web influences almost half of offline purchases

3. Holiday shoppers research more online in a shaky economy

4. Online is a major source of inspiration for gift shoppers

5. Consumers planning to spend more on holiday shopping have an affinity for digital channels

Want more?  Read on…