14. Sampling thru sampling meth ods thus far described are available to all manu facturers, whether they market their goods thru dealers or not. The manufacturer who sells thru dealers, however, has access to many other kinds of sampling. Dealers who know that a manufacturer will treat them fairly, who believe in his product, and who are satisfied with the profit they derive from its sale, are often willing to help the manufacturer dis tribute samples of the product among their custo mers for the purpose of increasing its sales. There are several common ways of sampling with the co operation of dealers.
15. Sampling with coupons.—Coupons are used in many ways in the distribution of samples. One fre quently used plan is to distribute coupons from house to house or by mail, the coupons to be exchangeable for full-size samples at any store or at certain stores listed on the coupon. This is, in effect, house-to house sampling, but with most of the waste eliminated. Of course, the manufacturer who uses this method runs the risk of failing to reach many desirable possi ble customers who will not go to the trouble of turn ing in a coupon to their grocer in exchange for a free sample, altho they might use samples if the samples were left at their doors.
Another method of using coupons is to publish them in newspapers, instead of distributing them from house to house. A coupon, clipped from the paper and handed to a dealer, entitles a person to a sample of the goods. Sometimes there are no strings what ever to the offer; at other times the advertisement specifies that only one sample will be given to an in dividual or to a family. In still other cases a sam ple is given for a coupon only if a purchase of the manufacturer's goods is made at the same time; in other words, a coupon and five cents will purchase two five-cent cakes of soap.
Coupons for a new product are sometimes packed with older products of a manufacturer. The pur chaser of the older product finds a coupon in it calling for a sample of a new line. He either sends the cou pon direct to the manufacturer or, more often, ex changes it for a sample at a dealer's.
16. Samples free with purehases.—Instead of re quiring the possible customer to present a coupon, some manufacturers authorize dealers to give a sam ple of a new product to every purchaser of the manu facturer's older goods. For instance, when Violeta Soap was introduced in certain tefritories grocers were authorized to give away three cakes of the new soap with every twenty-five-cent purchase of any of Ar mour's other products. Sometimes the offer is a sam ple free with any purchase, regardless of the kind or value of the goods bought. When Air-Line Honey
was introduced in Chicago, the distributers pro claimed an "Air Line Day," when a free sample of the honey was given to every purchaser in every gro cery store that handled the goods. Some dealers now advertise "Sampling Days," at which times they give away samples of various kinds. Many adver tisers, however, feel that such wholesale distribution is not profitable.
17. Sampling in delivery packages of Shredded Wheat have at various times been distributed to dealers, who were asked to include one of the samples in every assortment of goods deliv ered during a certain period. Some manufacturers find that grocers will not take the time to distribute their samples in this way; in such cases the manufac turer often stations his own men in the large stores to put samples in the delivery packages for the grocer.
18. Sending samples with other any manufacturers, instead of trying to sample systemat ically among a dealer's customers, simply send the dealer a few samples in the hope that he will distrib ute them where they will do the most good. When Wrigley's Doublemint gum was introduced, samples of it were sent with filled orders for the older Spear mint brand. Several sample bottles of Dioxogen were formerly shipped with each dealer's first order of the regular size packages. This is a good plan when the manufacturer can be reasonably sure that the dealer will really give the samples to purchasers.
19. Sampling at favorite method of sampling is in connection with demonstra tions. ManUfacturers of food products and toilet preparations often obtain permission to establish dem onstration booths in the stores of dealers who handle the goods to be demonstrated. Here visitors not only actually try the goods, but they are also given sam ples to take home with them. Crystal Domino Sugar was introduced in this way.
Occasionally manufacturers have thought it best to establish demonstration and sampling booths in stores that do not handle the goods displayed at the booths. Food products, for instance, are sometimes introduced thru demonstration booths in department stores that do not have grocery departments. This plan is followed because of the large number of peo ple that visit department stores, and in the belief that this method of distributing will result in the good will of small grocers, who might possibly be antag onized by the active work of a manufacturer in the grocery department of one of their large competitors.