What's the Effectiveness of Product Sampling?

"The best way to sell somebody your product is to put it in their hands".
That been the adage of people selling products since the guy who invented the wheel and axle attached it to the dark behind basket.  That being said, an advertiser or publisher still needs to know how statistically effective is it to provide a product sample to consumers. 

From January 18 to February 15, 2008, Arbitron and Edison Media Research conducted a national telephone survey. 1,857 respondents, ages 12 and older, were selected at random from Arbitron’s 2007 fall diarykeepers. In geographic areas where Arbitron diarykeepers were not available (representing 8% of the population), a supplemental sample was interviewed through random selection.  

The final report was titled: "Product Sampling Study" and it found product sampling reaches 70 million consumers every quarter, and one-third of customers who try a sample will buy the sampled product. Samples play a very significant factor in brand loyalty and awareness. More than 58% of those surveyed reported that they would buy the product again.

Consumers were grouped into three categories: Acquisitions, or those who were new to the sampled product; Conversions, or those who had heard of the product but had never bought it; and Retentions, or those who had previously purchased the product.
Fully 85% of the Retentions and 60% of the Conversions said they would in the future purchase the sampled product; samples encouraged nearly half (47%) of the Acquisitions to purchase the product in the future.
"Will you plan to buy the product sampled in the future"
Answer: "Yes"

The study also found:

• 28% reported that they have been offered product samples within the past three months.
• 64% claimed that they had accepted product samples: 66% of Acquisitions accepted samples, as did 63% of Conversions and 63% of Retentions.
• 35% claimed they purchased the sampled product on the same day: 26% of Acquisitions bought the product right away, as did 19% of Conversions and 31% of Retentions.
• 24% of those surveyed claimed that a sampled product had specifically replaced an item that they had planned to buy: 20% of Acquisitions were planning to make the switch, as were 33% of Conversions and 18% of Retentions.

Below you can find the original report