SURVEY FINDS SAMPLING STRONG SELLING TOOL
By Adnews Staff
Want to get people to buy something? Give it to them. This is one inference that could be drawn from a study of 1,000 consumers across the United States, conducted by Yankelovich Partners and Gannett Co.'s USA Weekend magazine. Seventy-three per cent of respondents said they would be willing to try free samples of something new. Sixty-three per cent said they would give it a try if it was recommended by a friend or a relative. However, advertising was not found to be so persuasive. Twenty-five per cent said they would try a new product or brand if they saw it advertised on television. Only 15% said they would be tempted by a newspaper ad, 13% by a magazine ad and 15% by in-store advertising. A trifling 3% said a celebrity endorser would persuade them to put out money for a new product. The study looks at how people make their purchases and divides consumers into five psychographic-style categories.