Free Samples!

Yesterday my friend Bernice told me that McDonald’s was offering free food! It was their new “fresh baked buttermilk biscuit sandwich” and they were giving each customer one for free and the promotion was for two days during their breakfast hours. This was their first new breakfast launch since the launch of McGriddles in 2003. Of course I felt enticed to go but sadly it would be inconvenient for me to stop by a McDonald’s on my way to school. I think that by offering samples to customers it would be a great way for them to taste test new products and spread the word to other people and use word of mouth marketing as well. Also, it may improve the consumer’s view of McDonald’s if they feel that they are being very generous in giving out these free sandwiches for two days. I’m sure most customers don’t mind picking up some free food once in a while! This may even attract customers that do not usually frequent McDonald’s to stop by and hopefully regain their business. Even though McDonald’s is already a very successful international restaurant chain, they still need to extend their breakfast line and create some new products once in a while in order to remain competitive. I did some research and found that McDonald’s gives away $2 billion a year in free food!

Another website I know of that gives away free samples is www.brandsampler.ca. If you sign up for an account, you can answer a very short questionnaire about your product usage/preferences and then it enables you to choose a few product samples that they will send to your home free of charge. I have collected quite a few of these samples now and they include things like shampoos, mouthwash, a teeth whitener strip and even a small sample of Pringle Stix once. The site is sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. I think that by doing the questionnaires, P&G can learn about the products that consumers are currently using and collect useful data on consumer consumption. Although a downfall of this is that consumers may never end up buying the products they have sampled, they may choose to do so one day or spread the word about it if they think it’s good or bad and thus giving the product some free advertising. It’s always nice to get free stuff so if you want a few extra shampoo samples for the next time you run out I encourage you to sign up!