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I witnessed an interesting situation this week while eating dinner in the food court of the mall. I saw the importance of location, name branding, and the power of samples in business.

I had already made our dinner purchase from Subway, then sat back and watched others make the same buying decision. Why did we choose Subway over their competitor next door, another sub shop?

I have to think the first element in our decision was location. Subway was the first restaurant as you entered the court. So they take the advantage on that point. We hadn’t even noticed that there was another choice until we sat down to eat.

Secondly is name branding. My daughter knew the name Subway, has eaten there many times before. She had not heard of nor eaten at the competitor. Apparently a well known name has some power. Both restaurants had sub sandwiches, but I watched people line up to get their subs at Subway, while the competitor had no customers at all. Is Subway that much better? Probably not, but I suspect the namebrand recognition (familiarity with the product) plays a large part.

I then observed the competitor workers’ frustration. They knew they needed to do something. So they cooked up some sample food and handed it out to a passerby. The potential customer took the sample but then proceeded to make his way onto his original destination, Subway. I felt a bit of frustration myself watching the little guy struggle to find customers. I thought, “Ah, that’s too bad that their strategy didn’t work.”

Then I was pleasantly surprised to see the man leave the Subway line and return to the competitor and purchase his meal there. “Ah, it did work.” I was happy for the little guy. So there is power in sampling.

One of OUR most powerful marketing strategies IS samples. We know as a new company that many have not heard of us nor experienced our products yet. We also know that many are very tied to their current brands. So how do we overcome those factors and switch consumers over to our products? … samples, one sample at a time.

It is what intrigues them enough to purchase and once they purchase, they are confident themselves that it is the best product on the market. And we then achieve the ultimate goal of having repeat buyers, thus establishing brand loyalty.

Can the little guy beat em? Yep, and sampling is the way to do it.

So want a scent sample? Leave me a comment and I’ll send you one.

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• Enjoy the Process
• Perspective
• Essential Quality of Effective Leadership
• “Remarkable Motivation Secret – Hint, It’s Not Related to Money”
• Don’t Let Others Limit You

Tags: best product on the market, brand loyalty, buying decision, competitor, current brands, location, name branding, namebrand recognition, potential customer, power in sampling, power of samples, powerful marketing strategies, repeat buyers, restaurant, sample food, scent sample, sub sandwiches, subs, Subway, switch consumers, ultimate goal

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