Amidst increased customer churn, how does a pet food category leader drive demand?

CESAR® knew that if pet owners could just see how much their dogs enjoy the CESAR® product, they’d make it a part of the routine. And with the wet dog food category losing over 1 million households in a 2-year period, it was time for this category leader to drive increased trial.

The brand needed a way to get samples to dog owners—no small feat in this digital age.

Putting a New Spin on Old School Sampling

We held idea-generation sessions with dog owners to understand how we might get them CESAR®samples in the digital age. The sessions garnered over 325 ideas—which we categorized into 7 distinct categories connected to best-in-class examples.

‍- In-Person: provide samples to consumers in-person. (ex: Costco)

- Direct Marketing: mail or email samples or coupons for free samples to consumers, unsolicited. (ex: AOL)

- Bundling: physically bundle samples with other products. (ex: P&G)

- Gift with Purchase: provide samples to consumers when they purchase another product. (ex: Sephora)

- Gift with Action: provide samples to consumers when they perform a designated action. (ex: Amazon)

- New Product Offerings: offer samples as anew consumer product. (ex: Behr)

- Social Sampling: free sample to someone who performs a social act like tweeting a specific action tag. (ex: Oreo)

‍Surveying Our Audience and A/B Testing Experiences

We then set out to test dog owners’ receptivity to the sampling tactics. Quantitative research was done to understand folks’ reactions to unrequested dog food samples, and to understand social behaviors and online habits. Those insights led us to simulated experiences of these unique sampling tactics. Each prototype housed one unique variable, making for a true A/B test.

Results

Based on our findings, CESAR® confidently moved forward with production of an e-comm sample 4-pack. The Mars media team employed strategies including retargeting, partner integration, and social sampling.

What’s more, the validated learnings were shared with all of the brands in the Mars portfolio for future sampling strategies. Other brands like PEDIGREE® launched goals to get +20MM pouch samples into the market across four categories—direct marketing, digital marketing, e-comm, and shopper marketing. Ideas ranged from instant redeemable coupons for a wet pouch on dry bags, social sampling surprise-and-delight around the Puppy Bowl, and AmazonPrime Now sampling with dog-related purchases.

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