Program overview

The Goal: A leading condiment brand tapped into Sampler and 84.51’s retail sampling program on Kroger.com with the goal of increasing sales for their Spicy Mayo among net new consumers. 

The Experience: After completing their online grocery order, Kroger shoppers had the opportunity to self-select the Spicy Mayo sample, which was delivered directly to their homes in a Kroger branded sample box. The box included a recipe card for Spicy Chicken sandwiches, which drove further education around how consumers could introduce the Spicy Mayo to their cooking routines. Post-trial, consumers were asked to share their thoughts and feedback on the product experience.

The Results: The brand drove awareness of the product - almost 100% of the 39k+ consumers who received the samples were new to the brand. Thanks to the closed-loop measurement on Kroger.com, the brand was also able to tie back a 3x lift in sales to the sampling program when compared to a equivalent control group of shoppers who did not sample. This type of measurement is a first of its kind and allows for a reliability in post-trial conversion reporting that is unique to the program.

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Quantifying the Impact on Retail Sales

Sampler’s first-of-it’s-kind Kroger.com program allows brands to quantify the success of their campaigns via closed-loop measurement. For this program in particular, a pool of 21K+ Kroger households who sampled the Spicy Mayo were matched with identical control households who also made a Kroger e-commerce transaction during the program timeframe, but did not sample. Sampled households converted to purchase at a 3x higher rate vs. the control group, resulting in a 16% increased conversion to brand purchase. 

Among those that sampled? Almost 100% were net new to the product, with almost 75% having never tried the brand before!

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74%  Of shoppers who sampled were new to the brand (had not purchased in past 12M)

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‍Optimizing the Digital Shelf | Increasing Advocacy

In addition to driving new household penetration and a lift in sales, the brand was able to optimize their Kroger Digital Shelf by driving credible, recent, and impactful product reviews. Prior to the program, the product had 0 reviews on Kroger.com, after working with Sampler - that number skyrocketed to 5,207! 

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Collecting Consumer Sentiment and Identifying Recurring Themes

Through consumer feedback collected by Sampler post-trial, the brand was able to identify robust consumer insights - ranging from demographics, consumer sentiment, purchase intent and themes among product feedback. This is invaluable information that will help them to inform future marketing and product development. 

Insights at a glance: 

• Positive sentiment overall, praise on the taste and flavor
• Cooking habits, go-to usage for the product 
• How the flavor and spice level were perceived
• Versatility of the product 
• Where the item fit in consumers cooking habits and routine
• Perceived value 
• Family Data 

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Interested in integrating sampling into your digital shopper marketing mix or learning more about our Kroger program? Speak to a sampling expert!

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