Free Food

Free food, food freebies, food samples, call them what you want, almost everyone has enjoyed a free food sample in their lifetime. Whether it was at a grocery store, food fair, farmers market or restaurant, food freebies are more prevalent than any other type of free giveaway. So why is all this free food out there? Food is a consumer product just like clothing, electronics and household goods. It's expensive to plant, grow, cultivate and market. How then, can companies afford to give it away for free? Well, we've always wondered too, so we decided to do some research and dedicate an article on free food. Read on....

Free Food - Why give it away?

Free food samples are nothing new - companies have been giving them away for years. Anyone who has frequented a grocery store, food fair, farmers market or restaurant can attest to being offered a free food sample of some kind in their lifetime. The real question is, why are they so prevalent; and what is the real purpose for anyone to freely give them away. Food in itself isn't free. It costs money to plant, grow, cultivate and market, whether it's a local or corporate entity. How can anyone afford to just give away freebies of such an expensive item? The answer is relatively simple and can be explained in three factors: 1. Exposure, 2. Testing and 3. Consumer Feedback. All of these factors are an intrical part of doing business for any consumer goods company, whether they're marketing food or household goods.

Free Food Samples - A good deal for everyone!

New - Improved If you're a free sample junkie, you probably have noticed that most food freebies are for new, or improved products. You don't usually see samples for an established brand. That's because there is already a market for those items...and no need to create a buzz and/or consumer feedback for them. However, when a company comes out with a new or improved food product, Oh baby, let the sampling begin! This is especially true with large corporate entities like Kraft, General Mills, Heinz etc... These major players in the food service industry spend millions every year researching and developing new product lines to bolster their stable of offerings and subsequent revenue streams. Luckily for us, part of that R&D process includes testing the new products on consumers. Testing is imperative for these companies when rolling out a new product, because they are not only staking a lot of money on them, but also their overall reputation. They need to make sure they have a winner, and also if that winner will be accepted by their customer base. If it is an improved product, they need to ascertain if any additional changes need to be made to keep their existing customers, while still being able to gain new ones. The easiest and most cost effective way for a company to do this is by offering free food samples for consumers to test. Everyone wins when a food company decides to offer test samples. Companies win by being able to efficiently gather important information from consumers about their food products. Consumers win by...well, getting lots of free food!

Free Food Samples - In the new millennium.

Change Sign OK, so we now know that it's worthwhile for a company to offer free food samples to consumers. The next question would then be, what is the best way for the company to accomplish this? A company could do this by inviting a few potential customers into their offices and asking them to sample the new or improved food product. While the company would get a birds eye view of the customers reaction, this would not a very effective or cost efficient way to test. One; because the sampling base would be very small and two; because most people have a hard time giving a true opinion of something with someone standing over their shoulder. Another way would be for the company to offer food freebies in a brick and mortar shopping environment, like a grocery store etc.. This in fact, was how most food test sampling was done prior to 1995, and in some cases is still used today. While having some distinct advantages, like being able to see customer reactions first hand, store food sampling is not very cost efficient and still offers a very small comparative sample base. So what's a poor mega food corporation to do? How can they find a way to reach a broad spectrum of consumers, and still get the food product feedback they need? Enter the Internet. It offers the best of all worlds to a food company wanting to test on a continental or global scale. While an Internet food sample test campaign may seem outrageously expensive at first glance, it really is the most cost efficient, and effective way for them to accomplish what they want. Without going into all the gory details, the reason the Internet is so cost efficient is that a food company can farm out most, if not all, the grunt work that needs to be done in a free food sample test campaign. This includes everything from the website setup to the packaging and shipping of the food sample itself. They can even farm out the feedback portion of the test if they choose. In a nut shell, by farming out the grunt work, they have seriously cut their overhead and are really only responsible for supplying the food product to sample. In addition, Internet food sample test campaigns offer the broadest of comparative bases and can reach hundreds of thousands of potential consumers in a very short period of time. It is not unusual for a free food sample offer to get between 20 to 30k requests a day. To all of this, we say YIPPEE!, as due to this sampling format, more and more food companies are entering into these types of campaigns. That means a lot more free food for all us consumers!

Free Food - Finding a needle in a haystack.

Needle in Haystack While free food samples can be an exciting bounty for everyone, finding them yourself would be a daunting and time consuming task. Even with the advent of broadband connections, having to find each individual food freebie offer one by one would take most people days, if not weeks. By the time you found a free food sample offer, it would most likely be out of stock as they tend to go very quickly. Thankfully, for all of us, there are listing websites like CoolFreebieLinks.com that offer free food sample junkies a one stop resource for finding and applying to offers. This allows visitors to simply scroll through a list of pre-visited, reviewed free food offers and select only the ones they really want. For the true free sample addict, listing websites are a real time saver. The freebie listing websites are also very helpful to the companies and their free food giveaway campaigns. The websites get the word out on the free food offer in a hurry, subsequently sending hundreds of thousands of visitors to their free offer pages. In essence, the big food companies farm this out with absolutely no cost to them. It's sometimes an uneasy partnership however, in the long run, it's a win-win for both the food companies and the freebie sites.

Free Food - Summation

Finding and applying for free food offers online can be a fun activity the whole family can enjoy. In today's uncertain economy, food freebies are even more welcome. In addition to free food, many manufactures offer money saving coupons with the offers. Many times a free food sample and some relevant grocery coupons can stretch a family food budget for that month, allowing them to eat a little better. For hard core food sample junkies and part time freebie hunters alike, nothing beats coming home to a mailbox stuffed full of free food products. It's like Christmas every day of the year! Now if we could just get companies to offer free turkeys, we'd be in our own little bit of heaven.

Free Food
An article by CoolFreebieLinks
July 2, 2010
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