Back when I was just a poor, struggling carpet cleaner, we did not have much money for food, let alone dining out.
The McDonald’s dollar menu was my best friend some days.
But there were days when we just needed to get out of the house with kids. While I was poor in resources, I was not poor in being resourceful (big difference there)
One night after a particularly profitable day, I announced to the family that we were going on a road trip in our beat and battered 300k mile Honda. The Honda was a big step up from cramming the family in the passenger seat of my carpet cleaning van.
Our road trip took us to…. Drum roll please…. Costco! the giant food warehouse… Hey! We needed a few bulk items like toilet paper and shampoo and I was flush with cash. Once the shopping was over, I promised the family we could hit Denny’s or Ihop.
But as we toured through Costco, we wandered out of the toilet paper aisle to discover we were in the frozen food section. and the wonderful aroma of either meat or vegetable being deep fried wafted over us.
As we followed our noses, we came upon Gladys. The source of that olfactory goodness. She was cooking and handing out dinosaur chicken nuggets, which my kids practically lived on. So we all had a little plastic shot glass of chicken nugget.
I looked down the aisle, only to see another food station giving out samples of root beer. BAM! We all did shots of root beer. we continued around the store, filling our tummies with all of the free samples. Making the circuit 5-6 times. By the end of the night, Gladys was just handing the kids a fist full of nuggets.
Ah… those were the days….
Fast forward to 2020, and the ‘ronademic shut down all those tasting stations. For 18 months, the poor man’s buffet was shut down.
But Costco just announced that the sampling stations are back! Woot, woot!
Also making a comeback…
- Wholefoods is reopening their self-serve salad and hot food stations
- Starbucks is now allowing customers to to bring in their own reusable cups
What’s this got to do with your business?
A lot!
Free samples should be a part of your marketing strategy. 86% of consumers said they have purchased an item after sampling (Ad Age, 06/14/21)
I have used the “free” strategy successfully in all of my businesses; Free room of carpet cleaning, Free mold inspection, $1 trial membership… OK well that’s close to free.
Any niche or industry can use the “free” or “freemium” model. I would love to hear about any “free offers” you are running in your business. Just reply to this email. Ya just might win a prize.
