Trial-size product sampling-once confined to mailboxes, door knobs and shopping malls - has taken off and gone skyward.
Passengers on airlines are now being handed trial-size deodorants, shampoos, snacks, shaving systems, fragrances, mouthwash, breath mints and other products, reports SampleAir, Inc., which started the practice on regional feeder air carriers and now has gone international.More than a giveaway, the samples represent the latest effort by packaged goods manufacturers to capture the public's attention - and few audiences are as captive and demographically well-heeled as airline passengers, which number some 418 million each year.
Passengers like the idea, too. More than nine in 10 of passengers surveyed reported the distribution of the sample kit as a good idea, attractive and a nice "bonus."