Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Why a Free Gift Bag?

A question from Austin:

Why do you always get free gifts with perfume, cologne, and makeup?

The answer cannot just be: "because it encourages people to buy more." Why is giving free gifts with a purchase very common with those products, but not others? What is it about those goods or the consumers that they are targeting that makes the companies provide free gifts?

(Source: Austin L.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that producers do this in order to separate their product from the rest. The perfume and cologne market is one in which the products aren't very unique because many smell very similar. The biggest difference is the brand and bottle that they come in. If there are two colognes selling at around the same price and they have a similar smell to them, then I think that the person will buy the one with the better free gift. A nice new duffel bag sounds a lot more useful to me than an umbrella. Then again, i could be paying for the duffel bag more than the colgne though...
-Austin Lintault

Anonymous said...

i agree with austin, but another thing is the free gifts make me want to buy the product. The same happens with make up as well as perfume. I will always get advertisements in the mail for free gifts with make up, and i will decide to buy the make up so i get the free gift, because i'm like hey free gift why not? but in reality it is kind of silly because i end up paying more for something like mascara than i would at target, plus i buy more because there is usually a certain amount of money you have to spend. and i know you said not to say because it makes you buy more, but it's true. my mom and i were buying perfume and they gave us free samples of mascara telling us how great it was and my mom ended up buying mascara that she didn't really need. i think that companies say "free gift," because people will be tempted to buy it because who would turn down a free gift?
-carolyn.

Anonymous said...

I also agree with Austin and Carolyn, but I believe that free gifts allow the buyer to obtain a little more of the product that is a little differentiated. When you buy a certain line of cologne and you get a free gift, it may offer a little more of the cologne you bought, and then it will continue your use of the product and further your commitment to the product and the line of products. I believe that the free gift hooks the buyer into the product line, whether it be extra perfume, or extra make up. The extra product allows for extra enjoyment, and maybe even a committed customer to the line.

--Sara Diehl

Anonymous said...

Since the perfume and cologne market has very little differentiation among products, the free gifts might help this. Free gifts might increase the demand for a cologne or perfume, especially when there are so many worthy substitutes in the market. Providing gifts increases the consumers incentive to buy the perfume or cologne product. ALso, some consumers might only be attracted to the free gift that comes along with the cologne or perfume. For example, if there was a sweet video game that went along with a perfume, I might buy it as a package, then give the perfume to my mom and the video game to my brother, and there is Christmas, in one purchase.
-Tanner Rice

Anonymous said...

Recently bought a gift set from Clinique for this mother's day.