Picture this... It's an early Saturday morning and you were summonsed to make a brief store run because there was no more orange juice and you’re running low on eggs which are required for the delectable French toast you can't stop dreaming about. You're suddenly faced with two vital options. a.) Skip the OJ and substitute French toast for good old fashioned buttered toast. b.) Make a mad dash to your grocer's freezer. Of course without hesitation, you choose the latter, and with a kid in tow who won't take no for an answer, the two of you are ready to run in and out as fast as possible. 

But not so fast, what you may not have realized, is that our neighborhood grocery stores are prepared for you, like soldiers embarking on battle. These coupon carrying, early risers, are armed and dangerous with hot griddles, exotic sauces and sampling spoons all ready to reel-in an unassuming patron. In this case, that would be you.

After hundreds of years of specializing in the neighborhood market place, our local stores have gotten it right. In fact, they've nailed it! Why? Because, they understand the buying behaviors of their shoppers and have learned how to cater to each profile type. They have mastered the practice of monitoring buying habits and are using it to increase sales volume; particularly with the Saturday morning samples. 

Let's recap what they know... Saturday and Sundays will be by far, amongst their busiest days. Saturday shoppers are slightly different than Sunday shoppers because Saturday shoppers usually come in the store earlier and hungrier. I know that sounds comical, yet it's true. They either come in hungry and ready to buy due to the early morning hour where the food being bought will be immediately prepared; or they've been (miscellaneously) shopping all day at other type stores and the grocery store is the last stop before home. Sunday shopping is usually planned and prescribed to achieve what I call “on-purpose” shopping.

Business Owners of the world, let us take a quick note here. Knowing our industry's buying habits and trends helps us to understand, forecast and better plan for their arrival. Analytics can be very helpful with figuring this out.
 

Next, once you are in their store, hungry and ready to buy, they purposely have “hot and ready” or “cold and fresh” samples available for your consumption. How convenient is it that their product be irresistibly accessible, swaying our usually rational decision making? These guys are undeniably good. They’ve provided us with an in–demand product (food) as a free sample, and then handed us coupons to buy up an entire store shelf of the goods. Is it because they realize that in your vulnerable state of hunger, you'd be willing to try free samples of foods you'd ordinarily not consider? And next, once lured and hooked, did they know you’d pay for these items in much larger quantities than had you not sampled? Of course they do and all of the above is why they do so; we've all been willing victims for years. I use that phrase admirably and mostly because I hope business owners take note from our grocery stores. They have mastered the blue print of customer conversion thru sampling new and established products.

Dawn Nicole’s Summary.

1.) Understand your industry's trends and spending patterns

2.) Have product available to meet the demand

3.) Be willing to earn credibility and reputational trust by offering a small sampling of your skill set or product.  Otherwise known as the demonstration.

4.) Offer relational deals and discounts. For example, although I just sampled blueberry pancakes I received a discounted coupon for Blueberry and multigrain flavored pancakes and possibly a coupon on the syrup.

Although my Business’s focus is not marketing, I am an expert business strategist who dominates in effective messaging and business content. For this and more strategy sessions be sure to visit us at our website http://www.dawnnicole360.com/blog/ or Call 704-709-0329