Can social media and the age-old principles of borrowing and lending impact the future of product trial?
When I was a child (and my parents' personal messenger boy), my parents often ordered me, "God next door and borrow Mr. Olsen's drill." After using it, my dad would send me to return it. Oh, how grateful I was when my mom finally bought my dad his very own power drill for Christmas. But that wasn't the end of my courier-service and isn't the point of this story. Guess which power drill brand she bought? Of course, the exact brand Mr. Olsen had.
One of the first to hand out free samples was the advertising pioneer Benjamin T. Babbit, who, in the 1850s, solicited Americans to "get on the bandwagon" and persuaded them with a free trial of soap. Since then, thousands of brands have offered free trials of their products and millions of samples have been distributed. Studies have measured and validated the effectiveness of these efforts.
From test drives and trial downloads to a light job around the sports store in a new pair of sneakers, we almost never buy something without first trying it out. Entire big-box retailers have become electronic test-kitchens. So, I wasn't surprised when I saw this advertisement in the Las Vegas airport.
While conducting further research into gun trial, I came across this fascinating community forum.
