Thursday, August 18, 2011
Recall vs Precision
In class, I ego-surfed Google to find information about myself online. In the first 20 entires - there were no items relevant to me. There is nothing about this Jeff Johnson information void that would make a design/marketing/advertising agency hire me. I am glad there's nothing bad - but the lack of anything useful, interesting, or good is equally negative. There were 0 entries in the first 20 for a score of 0.
IA- TAO Journal Update - A Sampling of Samples
On August 17, I was in the Whole Foods on Ponce De Leon Avenue in Atlanta and noticed an unusually large number of food samples being offered for customer consumption. These samples were mainly offered in self server displays with small blocks of cheese, spoons for sampling salsa, or fresh produce. There were also small sample displays - like the one in the chilled seafood salad section where customers could grab a sampling spoon and choose from five different prepared seafood salads. Finally, there were also people serving samples to customers one at a time and interacting with them. I thought it would be interesting to observe how people behaved with each different type of sample offering and see what trends, observations, and anomalies I noticed.
Trends
Whole Foods has introduced beer "growlers" - a growler is sort of like a "box of beer." Customers select the vairety of beer they want and an employee fills the growler in the store from a tapped keg.
As part of the growler introduction, Whole Foods was handing out small beer samples. I was surprised to see that 5 out of the 9 people I watched sample beer also purchased a growler. Those results made me think that people who were interested and excited about the beer samples were avid enough consumers that they were mostly willing to make a growler purchase. I imagine that 5 out of 9 is a tremendously successful sales rate when gauging purchases resulting from or encouraged by free samples.
Another growler trend I noticed is that the interaction customers had with another human being seemed to create more of an impact than the self serve sample stations. I believe the human connection contributed to growler sales.
There was also someone offering samples of premium marinara sauce - and the product was made and named after the person handing out the samples. I listened to her share her story, inspire customers and engage them in conversations about marinara sauce and pasta, and all four people I saw speak with her walked away with jars of her marinara sauce - including me. When the product was brought to life by someone with a real stake in its success and with an obvious pride of ownership, in my view, customers were connecting with the person, then the product and because the product was good - it created an added value - a face to go with the name on the jar and the sense of encouraging an entreprenuer.
Observations
I observed some different behavior in the produce and cheese sections of the store. Let's begin with produce. All of the produce samples were in self serve stations and included items like grapes, cherries, grape tomatoes, fresh salsa, and orange segments.
First, I observed that a number of people took samples of everything that was offered in the produce section. Sampling also appears to be an activity people feel shy or slightly hesitant about as most people would mill about if someone else was taking a sample and wait until they had the sample station to themselves - or as private as it could be in a public grocery store setting.
Next, I noticed that almost half of the 8 people I watched sample cherries came back and got another sample and in 5 of the 8 repeaters, the second sample was larger than the first. Of those 8 double dip samplers, I did not observe any of them pick up a container of cherries to purchase. There were people purchasing bags of cherries, but I did not observe any of them sampling the cherries from the area where free samples were offered.
I also noticed that small children who could reach the samples were not only excited to see them, but had none of the adult hesitation to take a sample and often took more than one piece and shared with the adult they were with.
Anomalies
I was very surprised to see some behavior that I think came very close to stealing. Obviously, free samples are free and a cost of doing business for those organizations that choose to offer them. There are definitely shoppers who view samples as free merchandise and don't actually sample - but do something I can only describe as closer to snacking.
I watched one woman actually take a handful of paper towels from her purse and fill the towels with handfuls of cherries. She did not make any purchase in the store at all.
Next, I watched as 4 employees from departments other than the produce department come and take some samples and go back to their assigned tasks.
And finally, I noticed that the steady stream of produce samplers did not translate to the prepared seafood salad station. Even though the seafood salads were nicely displayed and clearly on ice, shoppers would glance at them, ignore them, or even avoid them. It's likely food safety concerns regarding cold salads, seafood, and open containers that can be accessed by the public made these samples much less appealing.
In conclusion, it seems that sampling is more an act of goodwill on the part of the retailer than a chance to "try it before you buy it." The exception seems to be in the beer aisle. Beer drinkers were happy, assertive samplers who by and large made immediate purchases. The more I think about it, I would be much more excited to sample and buy beer than say, smoked shrimp and orzo salad too.
Trends
Whole Foods has introduced beer "growlers" - a growler is sort of like a "box of beer." Customers select the vairety of beer they want and an employee fills the growler in the store from a tapped keg.
As part of the growler introduction, Whole Foods was handing out small beer samples. I was surprised to see that 5 out of the 9 people I watched sample beer also purchased a growler. Those results made me think that people who were interested and excited about the beer samples were avid enough consumers that they were mostly willing to make a growler purchase. I imagine that 5 out of 9 is a tremendously successful sales rate when gauging purchases resulting from or encouraged by free samples.
Another growler trend I noticed is that the interaction customers had with another human being seemed to create more of an impact than the self serve sample stations. I believe the human connection contributed to growler sales.
There was also someone offering samples of premium marinara sauce - and the product was made and named after the person handing out the samples. I listened to her share her story, inspire customers and engage them in conversations about marinara sauce and pasta, and all four people I saw speak with her walked away with jars of her marinara sauce - including me. When the product was brought to life by someone with a real stake in its success and with an obvious pride of ownership, in my view, customers were connecting with the person, then the product and because the product was good - it created an added value - a face to go with the name on the jar and the sense of encouraging an entreprenuer.
Observations
I observed some different behavior in the produce and cheese sections of the store. Let's begin with produce. All of the produce samples were in self serve stations and included items like grapes, cherries, grape tomatoes, fresh salsa, and orange segments.
First, I observed that a number of people took samples of everything that was offered in the produce section. Sampling also appears to be an activity people feel shy or slightly hesitant about as most people would mill about if someone else was taking a sample and wait until they had the sample station to themselves - or as private as it could be in a public grocery store setting.
Next, I noticed that almost half of the 8 people I watched sample cherries came back and got another sample and in 5 of the 8 repeaters, the second sample was larger than the first. Of those 8 double dip samplers, I did not observe any of them pick up a container of cherries to purchase. There were people purchasing bags of cherries, but I did not observe any of them sampling the cherries from the area where free samples were offered.
I also noticed that small children who could reach the samples were not only excited to see them, but had none of the adult hesitation to take a sample and often took more than one piece and shared with the adult they were with.
Anomalies
I was very surprised to see some behavior that I think came very close to stealing. Obviously, free samples are free and a cost of doing business for those organizations that choose to offer them. There are definitely shoppers who view samples as free merchandise and don't actually sample - but do something I can only describe as closer to snacking.
I watched one woman actually take a handful of paper towels from her purse and fill the towels with handfuls of cherries. She did not make any purchase in the store at all.
Next, I watched as 4 employees from departments other than the produce department come and take some samples and go back to their assigned tasks.
And finally, I noticed that the steady stream of produce samplers did not translate to the prepared seafood salad station. Even though the seafood salads were nicely displayed and clearly on ice, shoppers would glance at them, ignore them, or even avoid them. It's likely food safety concerns regarding cold salads, seafood, and open containers that can be accessed by the public made these samples much less appealing.
In conclusion, it seems that sampling is more an act of goodwill on the part of the retailer than a chance to "try it before you buy it." The exception seems to be in the beer aisle. Beer drinkers were happy, assertive samplers who by and large made immediate purchases. The more I think about it, I would be much more excited to sample and buy beer than say, smoked shrimp and orzo salad too.
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