What the heck is Brand Trial?

Our premise is straightforward; Creating Brand Trial is all about creating new customers by removing barriers to purchase. The challenge we see is a natural urge by marketers to jump right to tactics . . . promotions, coupons, discounts etc. without really understanding why the prospects aren't already purchasing or using the product (or service.)

Our short list of barriers is pretty simple:

• Physical barriers (poor distribution, limited access to distribution points etc)
• Psychological barriers (not understanding benefits, having no value proposition, misunderstanding the product or brand etc)
• Perceived (learned to live with a problem, unable to envision alternatives, feel the product is too expensive etc.)

There have to be others, and we'd like to build an open-access database of strategies and tactics other pracitioners have used. We'd love to hear about classes of barriers and/or specific barriers other practitioners have dealt with. And we'd also be interested in folks sharing their tactics and approaches for dealing with barriers, but let's talk about strategy too. Given a specific barrier to purchase, what is the strategy to overcome the barrier?

For example, we once used a national coupon drop to drive existing customers of a major automotive company to authorized dealers for a variety of services. But we spent some time talking with customers and determined that the dominant perception among their customers was that the dealers were tooooooo expensive beyond the warranty period, but the coupon offer overcame that perception while stimulating trial. The resulting experience exceeded their expectations for value and price. Over 65% came back again. The point is not to blow our horn, but to stimulate some thinking.

This is a simple example, anybody got something they'd like to share? Post it here, we'll give credit or keep you anonymous as you prefer.