In the AIDA process, getting the A for Action can be an expensive exercise.

PoS marketing, reaching out to the consumer

One way to get customers going in consumer markets is to reach out to them at the point of sale (PoS). This allows you to enter into instant dialogue with the target market, especially at a high-traffic site. In fact in principle it can achieve more than just A for Action.

During such A for Action, consumers sometimes notice your brand properly for the first time. So at the same time, you’re achieving A for Awareness. Add to this a good salesperson (who has hopefully been well trained and is motivated), and you can generate the I for Interest and D for Desire to boot. Then the A for Action should be child’s play. Especially if you’re handing out free samples.

But I am a huge sceptic of in-store trialling. Maybe the brands I’ve worked on were too established, maybe the brands I’ve worked on were not newsy enough to captivate consumers at the PoS, but when I looked back at the statistics and then added up the pennies I ploughed into the promotion, the payback was abysmal.

The point is that these things always sound good – and sales people love them – but in terms of “costs per thousand” (which is crucial to the marketeer) promotions like this do badly. They really only work for a totally innovative brand, with plenty of news, that scores highly on word-of-mouth recommendations. Then the couple of hundred people you hit in-store during that week will spread news to others and get the brand snowball rolling.

But ultimately, the supermarkets (and cut-throat buyers at supermarkets), use this mechanic as a type of bribe to get you to promote the product. Which, as I said, is why salespeople love in-store promotions. Salespeople can go to the buyer with something and spend list time grovelling for the “listing”.

But in terms of generating high sales, most invested marketing money goes down the drain.