I normally wouldn’t go to the drug store and buy Burt’s Bees Milk & Honey Body Lotion. Their products seem a little pricey, i find it silly they put a picture of a cow on the bottle and I usually like to buy Bath & Body Works products. However, when I was walking in downtown Vancouver last weekend a woman handed me a small sample of Burt’s Bees Lotion. After using up the free sample in less than a day I was compelled to seek out this lotion at the closest store. Handing out free samples is one of the greatest ways to recruit new customers. I might not have known how great it was until I tried a small amount but now I am hooked. It most likely did not cost the company a large amount to manufacture these small samples and by doing so they will make more profits in the future due to the new customers they attracted from the samples. Not only am I going to buy it but I’m going to tell my friends how well the lotion moisturizes my skin. The companies profits will most likely go up and their brand name will become stronger and more well known thanks to the 29.5 ml sample bottle.

Try it! You’ll love it!

The other day my friend and I were waiting at the cash register in Safeway. She reaches for a pack of gum, not just any gum, but Strides “Mystery” Flavor. She didn’t care that it was the most expensive, she just wanted to know what flavor it was. After studying marketing the last couple of weeks I recognized this extremely clever marketing strategy and saw a consumer, my friend, fall right for it. Stride was cunning when they decided to introduce a new flavor that kept people wondering what it taste like. New consumers were attracted to the gum because of its brightly colored case and were puzzled as to what they flavor could be. Of course they could just ask someone who has tried it before what it taste like if they did they would be attacked by ostriches… Take a look!

Dunkin Donuts joined Baskin Robins, Yum! Joined Pizza Hut, and now Cold Stone Creamery from Scottsdale, Arizona and Tim Horton’s from Oakville, Ontario have joined forces to offer the perfect balance of coffee and ice cream. The CEO’s of each company met at a restaurant industry gathering in Toronto in 2008 and just one year later they merged the two restaurants together. Just like any major decision they had to first conduct market research to make sure consumers were interested. After collecting data and analyzing the market the CEOs agreed to test out their idea in two Tim Horton’s in Providence, Rhode Island. The outcome was worth the risk and they exceeded their revenue targets.

This co branding strategy is estimated to increase Cold Stone revenues and since Tim Horton’s only has 500 locations in the U.S, the partnership should help them expand. They also figured out through market research that ice cream sales peaked around 4 pm. Due to the exploratory research they intend to offer more Tim Horton’s products in the morning and more Cold Stone at night. The chains intend to continue advertising separating however more research is being done to figure out how to advertise the co branded locations together. In order for any company to be successful they must conduct research in order to understand the market and what their consumers are demanding; that is exactly what these companies are trying to do.