What do you think about giving away a product?

Question 1 What do you think about giving away a product? Does it build sales, or does it suggest desperation?

I think giving a product away is a great idea.  Businesses whether they are successful or not practice this technique and it does a lot of good.  If no one were to try the jerky, how would they have known they like it.  To be honest, I attacked the free sample table when I go to Costco and at least half the time I go I end up buying something they I tried for the first time.  Honestly, it is a good tactic, and I feel that desperation is not in play when it comes to this technique.

Question 2 How would you budget for marketing expenses if you had hired sales representatives to give products away?

Personally, I would budget the expense the same as you would for any other.  I would factor in the cost and base it on a weekly/monthly expense and then would set a realistic goal of how long I wanted to do this for.  Another route I could look at is seeing if the location that was allowing the product give away do that job for me.  I would go train their employees on the product, and then they would benefit on having a way to give their customers something new to try/look at.  Sample clerks are becoming a lot more common in places such as Sam’s club, Walmart, and Costco and I believe it wouldn’t be a horrible route to try

Question 3 What are some of the ways you might compensate your “brand ambassadors”? Which method do you think would work best and why?

Some of the ways you can compensate ambassadors is through nonfinancial and financial compensation.  Nonfinancial would be rewards programs such as employee of the week or month, promotions, and better training and education.  Financial would be things such as a salary or a commission based on sales (Longnecker, 2012).  I think both ways could work and depending on the employee I believe to pick just one way would be difficult.  If someone needs a job and needs money now, financial compensation would be the best way to reward them.  On the other hand, let’s say a person with a business degree or goal is trying to build their way up with a new company, their focus is trying to stand out as a hard worker and secure longer employment.  Bottom line everyone will always have a different goal, but either of these techniques as useful as a generalized idea.