How brands are using sampling to win over parents during back-to-school season
As students and parents get back into the swing of the school year, tween deodorant brand Miles is showing up at music festivals, backpack giveaways and minor league baseball games from Dallas to St. Paul.
Founder Carly Broderick, who launched the personal care brand in 2021, said giving away samples has been a key marketing strategy for the brand to gain awareness, especially during back-to-school time. She said free samples are proving to be to one of the most effective ways to get customers to try the product before buying it, given that most sales at this time come from Amazon.
“Among the key tenets of our product formulation are the elevated and sophisticated scents that we developed with teens in mind. So, sampling just makes a ton of sense for us because getting those scents in front of people is important,” she said.
Based on the success of 2024’s efforts, Miles is distributing around 30% more deodorant samples compared to last year. From a sales perspective, it’s seeing increased success around limited-edition drops, like a “Spring Break” scent, at Whole Foods and Amazon.
Back-to-school season is a time when shopping habits are ripe for change, thanks to new routines, schedules and commitments. For brands, that means it’s a prime time to get on customers’ radars and become their new favorite must-have. Snack company That’s It, known for its chewy two-ingredient fruit bars, is activating around back-to-school events as it continues to target moms as a key customer base. On the online grocery front, Instacart is giving away free items like Orgain kids’ protein shakes and Mott’s applesauce pouches during its DealWeek that runs August 11 to August 17.
For Miles, sampling proves to convert customers. One partnership with PinchMe, an online sampling platform, yielded a nearly 15% conversion rate off of 10,000 samples. The size of the sample has proven so popular that Broderick is launching a three-pack of sample sizes on Amazon, as she heard that customers loved the smaller stick for tossing into backpacks, purses and gym bags.
“We learned that the minis were a great intro to the brand and that our customers loved the size for on the go,” she said.
Patrick Jammet, partner at experiential ad agency Promobile Marketing, said back-to-school is a popular time for pop-ups and sampling events because it’s one of the last major activation periods before the holidays.
“From a budgeting perspective, once we get into Q3 and Q4, brands start to see where budgets and sales are going to land,” he said. “That’s when you’ll hear: ‘We need to jump-start with this retailer,’ or, ‘We’ve got extra budget to spend.’ It’s the classic ‘use it or lose it’ scenario. At the same time, brand teams are starting to plan for the following year, so September through October is also when planning for next year’s budgets and activations happens.”
Jammet said that, when building a sample strategy, a challenging aspect is being clear on the goal of the campaign, which may be awareness, conversion or driving more retail partnerships. He also said that it’s paramount to put other strategies on top of sampling, whether that’s additional in-store displays or targeted advertisements. Currently, Promobile is helping Liquid IV with an activation that lets people sample its mixes using a customized Rivian, and it also gives away packs for people to take home.
“The best activations drive awareness, consideration and trial, all in one move,” Jammet said.
That’s It has been involved in sampling “since day one,” said head of marketing Christina Ritter, as founder Dr. Lior Lewensztain helped kickstart brand buzz in 2012 by handing out samples at farmers’ markets. As the brand grew, it gave away samples at places like Camp Celiac, tapping into communities of people looking to avoid certain allergens. “The allergy community is a very connected community,” Ritter said. “They talk to each other a lot on social media, a lot of word-of-mouth. When we give that community a product sample, they try it, love it and tell everybody about it. That’s a little of the secret sauce.”
The brand later focused on the athletic and fitness communities by sampling at athletic clubs and dietitian practices. More recently, That’s It energy bars have appeared at major events like the Boston Marathon. This year alone, the company aims to give away 10 million samples. But this back-to-school season is the first time the brand is able to feature samples of its Crunchables, a bite-sized, crispy snack that comes in individual pouches that launched this past spring. It’s also focused on college activations this year around its That’s It Energy bars, aimed at Gen-Z college students.
According to Ritter, getting the product into the hands of people who may buy it, Ritter said word-of-mouth is where the brand sees the biggest return.
“In a community, if you can get strong word-of-mouth by getting the product in front of them, it pays off over time. The ROI isn’t instant, but it’s real when you look at it in the long term,” Ritter said.