By Dale Buss
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the monthly e-zine, CPGmatters.
Michael Kirban runs one of the highest-cost product sampling operations in beverage retailing. But the CEO and founder of Vita Coco isn't about to apologize for it. His Cadillac-level sampling strategy has helped build a dominant share of the fast-growing U.S. market for coconut water.
The coconut water brand conducts mainly high energy guerrilla marketing including dispatching a number of Vita Coco vans carrying crews of energetic "brand educators" who blitz supermarkets with intense sampling and dispense samples of the drinks at races, festivals and other events. About 200 health club trainers, out-of-work actors, college students and others part-time are employed to hand out samples, receiving $15 to $30 an hour. These twenty-somethings are a far cry from the low key older women who staff most grocery store demos -- and they get far better results.
"The national average is that 20 to 30 percent of those sampled in a store actually buy a product during the sampling period, but ours is closer to 60 percent," said Jeff Rubenstein, Vita Coco's vice president of consumer marketing.
Vita Coco's sampling strategy starts with recruiting and "auditioning" would be "brand educators" at extravagant Brazilian-themed barbecues held in yoga studios, sorority houses and other locations where the company is likely to find people who have what Mr. Rubenstein calls a "life-loving attitude" and who would enthusiastically "serve as the literal and figurative face of the brand."
This is a "super-expensive way of recruiting," he said. "What we're doing costs us more than $1,000 per [recruiting session], but it's worth it to find the right people. We build this immersive environment and hope the right people will come."
Eighty percent of the brand's eventual recruits are bilingual, speaking Spanish or maybe Portuguese as well as English, he said, and they're supposed to have a pre-existing Vita Coco consumption habit of "three to five" of the drinks per week, Mr. Rubenstein said. They're trained in the classroom, then in the field, then in role-playing exercises where they deal with simulated consumers.
Once on the scene at special events or in the aisles, these representatives press hard to amp up actual sales where and when they're deployed and to secure new long-term accounts from the retailers. They're supposed to focus on "spending a lot more time with a lot fewer people" at sampling locations, he said.
"What is fundamental to our program is the manner and their style and our personalities," Mr. Rubenstein said. "That's the proprietary part -- how to build an authentic relationship with someone and educate them" on Vita Coco.
"Sure, there are only so many ways you can skin a cat -- it's still sampling," he said. "But it's about giving someone a true, authentic brand experience."
Discussion Questions: What do you think of Vita Coco's "Cadillac level" sampling strategy? Is this level of investment in sampling only appropriate for certain brands?