This week the Wall Street Journal ran an article on a Tokyo marketing firm that has decided to combine the popularity of cafes as a hang out spot and product testing. Sample Lab Ltd. realized that Tokyo’s cafes are frequented by the exact demographic that some marketers are trying to reach. The obvious connection for the marketing company was to put clients’ products right in front of those cafe-goers. Although, their business model is more complicated than showing up somewhere, giving your opinion and walking away with free samples. You must register on their website and buy tokens to get products you might like to test. It has proven profitable for the company and their manufacturer clients. Sample Lab plans on opening more of these marketing cafes throughout Japan.
The concept, however, seems fairly obvious and vaguely familiar. Proctor and Gamble has been building a retail portfolio for some time now. Their product themed stores are a way to promote and test products as well as gather information about their product users in environments where the products are used. P&G recently acquired a men’s grooming store, a 14-location car wash chain, dry cleaning stores and Fekkai, the well known chain of hair salons. All of these retail locations are aligned with popular P&G product lines like Mr. Clean and Tide among others.
According to Ian Ritter at Bnet, these types of direct to consumer retail marketing programs are going to become increasingly important for manufacturers as retailers increasingly become manufacturers themselves by heavily investing into private label products. It’s a trend that could that could be detrimental to manufacturers who rely on those channels. John Wilkins, VP of Retail Strategy at Miller Zell, wrote a very interesting article for The HUB Magazine touching on the value of product testing for the shopper in the decision-making process. According to Wilkins, a key component missing from the manufacturer-shopper relationship is understanding, “that helping a shopper make a leap from the accustomed to the new with an environment that supports the decision to try something new [helps] her envision the possibilities.”
