We have been working in the industry ourselves. To generate usage/ trial we often developed promotional bottle-packs with a miniature included.

The main objective of these initiatives was that the consumer would actually taste the sample and thereby increase the chance that they would purchase a bottle of the sampled product in future.

DISADVANTAGE

1) The cost of this solution were extremely high:

• The cost of miniature are a lot higher (per liter) than a 70cl or 100cl bottle.
• Every brand/bottle has a different shape so every time we needed to develop it from scratch.
• Often we had to develop a new consumer-packaging as the miniature would not fit in the standard packaging (internationally developed giftpacks with a miniature were extremely expensive).
• Due to the new consumer-packaging we also had to develop new outercartons.
• Promo communication was different every time so also needed to be developed every time.
• A 5 ml sample is more liquid than needed to realise the objective (tasting) and therefore cost (liquid and excise) are higher than needed.

2) The effectiveness was not optimal :

• Consumers think miniature are cute and collectable. Often they are not tasted but put on a shelve (objective usage /trial not met)
• A lot of promo-packs were dismanteled by the retailer so they could sell the miniature seperate (and make more profit).
• Not all products that you would like to sample are available in miniatures.