2014.10.01 好市多的免费样品背后的心理学

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The Psychology Behind Costco's Free Samples
Mini pizza bagels? Now we're talking.

By Joe Pinsker

Paul Sakuma/AP
OCTOBER 1, 2014
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In 2010, a Minnesotan named Erwin Lingitz was arrested in a Supervalu grocery store after spending an excessive amount of time at the deli counter. In the words of a Supervalu spokesperson, Lingitz had violated “societal norms and common customer understanding regarding free-sample practices.” While the charges were later dropped, the evidence remains incriminating: After a search, Lingitz was found to have stored in his pockets about a dozen soy sauce packets and “1.46 pounds of summer sausage and beef stick samples.”

Lingitz may have gotten carried away, but his impulse is more or less universal. People love free, people love food, and thus, people love free food. Retailers, too, have their own reasons to love sampling, from the financial (samples have boosted sales in some cases by as much as 2,000 percent) to the behavioral (they can sway people to habitually buy things that they never used to purchase).

Samples have boosted sales in some cases by as much as 2,000 percent.
There’s no brand that’s as strongly associated with free samples as Costco. People have been known to tour the sample tables at Costco stores for a free lunch, acquired piecemeal. There are even personal-finance and food bloggers who’ve encouraged the practice. Costco knows that sampling, if done right, can convince people that its stores are fun places to be. (Penn Jillette, of the magic act Penn & Teller, has on more than one occasion taken a woman on a date at a Costco warehouse.)


“When we compare it to other in-store mediums … in-store product demonstration has the highest [sales] lift,” says Giovanni DeMeo of the product-demonstration company Interactions, a department of which handles Costco’s samples. That department is Club Demonstration Services, and it—not Costco—staffs the sample tables.

While DeMeo insists that the short-term spike in sales isn’t the only effect of product sampling that matters—it's great for making customers loyal to stores and brands over longer periods of time—the figures are impressive. In the past year, Interactions’ beer samples at many national retailers on average boosted sales by 71 percent, and its samples of frozen pizza increased sales by 600 percent. (These figures are in line with the few others that are publicly available.)

Average Percentage Increase in Sales After Product Samples in the Past Year, by Product Type

Data courtesy of Interactions
It’s true that free samples help consumers learn more about products, and that they make retail environments more appealing. But samples are operating on a more subconscious level as well. “Reciprocity is a very, very strong instinct,” says Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University. “If somebody does something for you”—such as giving you a quarter of a ravioli on a piece of wax paper—“you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.”


Ariely adds that free samples can make forgotten cravings become more salient. “What samples do is they give you a particular desire for something,” he says. “If I gave you a tiny bit of chocolate, all of a sudden it would remind you about the exact taste of chocolate and would increase your craving.”

Percentage of Shoppers Who Purchased Items Being Sampled, by Product

Heilman et al.
Plenty of marketing research has been done on the fruits of retail strategies like couponing and loyalty cards, but the literature on free samples is relatively sparse. One narrowly applicable study from 1978, for example, found that samples were more likely to cause obese customers to purchase something than customers of normal weight.

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A 2011 study in the British Food Journal sought to illuminate the lucrative but uncharted (at least in the academic literature) practice of putting out free samples. The researchers surveyed shoppers at a grocery store on six different weekends, and their findings color in a detailed picture of the mechanisms that underlie free samples.

For starters, about three-quarters of people surveyed took a free sample when offered one. And those who did take a sample were more likely to have taken other samples than those who didn’t—which suggests that people are driven to samples more by their dispositions than by their perceptions of a product’s relevance to them. Interestingly, people who took samples were less likely than non-samplers to have graduated from college.

This 2011 study also highlighted the importance of making sure a demo table doesn’t go unattended. “Samplers with a heightened awareness of the presence of others at the sampling station may feel a level of social ‘pressure’ to make a post-sample purchase,” the researchers wrote. Shoppers might feel they owe the demonstrator something—reinforcing Ariely’s point about reciprocity—but they also felt the need to right a perceived karmic imbalance when they were accompanied at the table only by other shoppers.

If it weren't considered a retailer, Costco would be number 11 on the list of the biggest pizzerias in the U.S., just ahead of Round Table.
All of this makes for a potent combination for Costco: People come to their stores to some extent because it’s fun, and then a variety of psychological mechanisms kick in, compelling them to buy more products over a longer period of time. (Costco declined multiple requests for comment.)


Costco’s prepared-food departments also appear, to some extent, to be designed with the purpose of making the stores destinations. In 1985, Costco opened its first in-store hot-dog cart, and the price of a hot-dog-and-soda combo has remained $1.50 since then. Even with prices like this, the food courts still manage to make a profit, and in 2009, Costco sold 90 million hot dogs.

Now, the stores serve pizza as well, and—given that there were 468 U.S. Costco locations at last count—if it weren’t considered a retailer, Costco would be number 11 on the list of the biggest pizzerias in the U.S., just ahead of Round Table. And calling it a pizzeria might not be too much of a stretch: Families often go to Costco warehouses for a cheap lunch, and sometimes don’t do any shopping. “The more positive experiences people have with Costco, the more likely they are, presumably, to shop at Costco, to bring up Costco in conversation,” says Art Carden, a professor of economics at Samford University.

Costco's samples and food courts get customers in the door, but it appears that their reliance on product-demonstration contractors allows them to help the bottom line in some less savory ways. The company is known for its generous benefits package—health care, vision, dental, and 401(k)s for just about everyone—but employees of Club Demonstration Services don't seem quite so lucky.

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The North Bay Bohemian, a San Francisco Bay Area alt-weekly, reported in 2008 that many CDS employees received a much more limited benefits package and were paid 20 percent less per hour compared with Costco employees. The Bohemian estimated that these employees represented 10 percent of Costco’s workforce. CDS, meanwhile, has no clients other than Costco—which makes the CDS-Costco salary disparity look pretty groundless. This stain, though, does little to taint people’s conception of Costco, and all of the fun that a trip there entails.

Joe Pinsker is a staff writer at The Atlantic.



好市多的免费样品背后的心理学
迷你披萨面包圈？现在我们正在谈论。

乔-平斯克报道

保罗-萨库马/美联社
2014年10月1日

2010年，一个名叫Erwin Lingitz的明尼苏达人在Supervalu杂货店内被捕，因为他在熟食柜台前花费了过多的时间。用Supervalu发言人的话说，Lingitz违反了 "社会规范和顾客对免费样品做法的普遍理解"。虽然指控后来被撤销，但证据仍然是有罪的。经过搜查，Lingitz被发现在他的口袋里存放了大约一打酱油包和 "1.46磅的夏日香肠和牛肉棒样品"。

林吉兹可能已经得意忘形，但他的冲动或多或少是普遍的。人们喜欢免费，人们喜欢食物，因此，人们也喜欢免费的食物。零售商也有他们自己的理由来喜爱样品，从财务方面（样品在某些情况下将销售额提高了2000%）到行为方面（它们可以动摇人们习惯性地购买他们过去从未购买的东西）。

在某些情况下，样品对销售的促进作用高达2000%。
没有哪个品牌能像好市多那样与免费样品有如此紧密的联系。人们已经知道在好市多商店里参观样品台，以获得免费的午餐，零散地获得。甚至有个人金融和食品博客鼓励这种做法。好市多知道，如果做得好的话，样品可以让人们相信其商店是一个有趣的地方。(魔术表演团体Penn & Teller的Penn Jillette曾不止一次在好市多的仓库里与一位女士约会。）


产品演示公司Interactions的Giovanni DeMeo说："当我们把它与其他店内媒介相比较时......店内产品演示具有最高的[销售]提升，"该公司的一个部门负责处理Costco的样品。该部门是俱乐部示范服务部，它--而不是好市多--负责样品台的工作人员。

虽然德梅奥坚持认为，短期的销售激增并不是产品抽样的唯一重要效果--它对于使顾客在较长时期内对商店和品牌的忠诚度很有帮助--但数字却令人印象深刻。在过去的一年里，互动公司在许多国家零售商的啤酒样品平均促进了71%的销售，其冷冻比萨饼的样品增加了600%的销售。(这些数字与其他几个公开的数字是一致的）。

过去一年产品样品后的平均销售增长百分比，按产品类型划分

数据来源：Interactions
诚然，免费样品可以帮助消费者了解更多的产品，而且它们使零售环境更有吸引力。但是，样品也是在一个更加潜意识的层面上运作。"杜克大学的行为经济学家Dan Ariely说："互惠是一种非常、非常强烈的本能。"如果有人为你做了什么"--比如在一张蜡纸上给你四分之一的馄饨--"你真的感到有一种令人惊讶的强烈义务为他们做一些回报。"


Ariely补充说，免费样品可以使被遗忘的渴望变得更加突出。"他说："样品的作用是让你对某样东西有一种特别的渴望。"如果我给你一丁点巧克力，一下子就会让你想起巧克力的确切味道，并会增加你的渴望。"

按产品分类，购买了被抽查物品的购物者的百分比

Heilman等人
大量的营销研究已经完成了关于零售策略的成果，如优惠券和忠诚卡，但关于免费样品的文献却相对稀少。例如，1978年的一项狭义的研究发现，样品比正常体重的顾客更有可能导致肥胖的顾客购买东西。

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2011年《英国食品杂志》上的一项研究试图阐明发放免费样品这一利润丰厚但尚未涉足的（至少是在学术文献中）做法。研究人员在六个不同的周末对一家杂货店的购物者进行了调查，他们的发现为免费样品背后的机制涂上了详细的色彩。

首先，大约四分之三的被调查者在得到免费样品时都会接受。那些接受了样品的人比那些没有接受样品的人更有可能接受其他的样品--这表明人们接受样品更多的是受他们的性情所驱使，而不是受他们对产品的相关性的看法所驱使。有趣的是，采取样本的人比不采取样本的人更不可能从大学毕业。

这项2011年的研究还强调了确保演示台不会无人看管的重要性。"研究人员写道："取样者对他人在取样站的存在有更高的认识，他们可能会感到一定程度的社会'压力'，在取样后进行购买。购物者可能觉得他们欠示威者一些东西--这加强了Ariely关于互惠的观点--但当他们在桌子上只有其他购物者陪伴时，他们也觉得有必要纠正所认为的因果不平衡。

如果它不被认为是一个零售商，好市多会在美国最大的披萨店名单上排在第11位，仅次于圆桌会议。
所有这些都使好市多成为一个强有力的组合。人们来到他们的商店在某种程度上是因为好玩，然后各种心理机制开始发挥作用，迫使他们在更长的时间里购买更多的产品。(好市多拒绝了多项置评请求）。


好市多的预制食品部门在某种程度上似乎也是为了使商店成为目的地而设计的。1985年，好市多开设了第一个店内热狗车，从那时起，热狗和苏打水的组合价格一直保持在1.5美元。即使是这样的价格，美食广场仍然能够赚取利润，2009年，好市多卖出了9000万只热狗。

现在，这些商店也提供比萨饼，鉴于最后统计的美国好市多分店有468家，如果它不被视为一个零售商，好市多将在美国最大的比萨饼店名单上排名第11位，仅次于圆桌会议。而且称其为比萨店可能也不为过。一家人经常去好市多仓库吃便宜的午餐，有时也不做任何购物。"桑福德大学经济学教授阿特-卡登说："人们对好市多的体验越积极，他们就越有可能在好市多购物，在谈话中提起好市多。

好市多的样品和美食广场让顾客进门，但似乎他们对产品展示承包商的依赖让他们以一些不太可口的方式帮助底线。该公司以其慷慨的福利待遇而闻名--几乎每个人都有医疗保健、视力、牙科和401（k），但俱乐部示范服务的员工似乎并不那么幸运。

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北湾波西米亚人是旧金山湾区的一份非官方周刊，它在2008年报道说，许多CDS员工得到的福利待遇更加有限，与好市多员工相比，每小时工资少了20%。波西米亚人》估计，这些员工占好市多员工总数的10%。同时，CDS除了Costco之外没有其他客户--这使得CDS和Costco的薪酬差距看起来毫无根据。不过，这个污点并没有玷污人们对好市多的印象，以及去那里旅行所带来的所有乐趣。

Joe Pinsker是《大西洋》杂志的一名工作人员。