Carrie M. Heilman

Who they are

The 2011 paper gives Heilman's affiliation as the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia. This page records only what the paper and its published record state. Biography beyond the cited work is not given here.

Key papers

An empirical investigation of in-store sampling promotions (2011), with Lakishyk and Radas. The authors used a real free-sample programme run by a US grocery chain, collecting data on six products sampled over six weekends. They recorded whether shoppers tried the samples, what they bought, and how they felt about sampling. Sampling proved very effective at inducing trial, especially among less-educated shoppers. For shoppers who already planned to buy in the promoted category, a sample could switch them to the promoted brand. For shoppers with no such plan, it could draw them into the category. Shoppers who interacted with the person giving out the sample, or with other samplers at the stand, also seemed more likely to buy afterwards.

Key ideas

The study shows that a free sample works through more than one route. It gives information, letting people discover a product, and it can change both which brand people choose and whether they buy in a category at all. The finding about interaction with the person handing out samples sits closely with the reciprocity account of free samples, in which a gift from a person creates a small pull to give something back.

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