Student Sampling as a Gateway to Brand Loyalty

Student sampling builds brand loyalty because it reaches people at the point they start choosing brands for themselves. A first-year student who tries your product in their first week, likes it, then sees it on the shelf during their first weekly shop has a reason to buy it again. Loyalty grows from that repeat purchase, so the job of a sampling campaign is to make the second purchase easy.

Key points

• Students arriving at university are setting up their own shopping habits, so the first brand they try in a category has a real chance of becoming their default.

• A sample earns loyalty only when it comes with a reason and a route to buy: a stockist, a code, a reminder in the weeks that follow.

• Measure intent to buy again and willingness to recommend after trial, and compare the result with a benchmark rather than reading it in isolation.

• Across 196 brand surveys for 161 brands since 2018, the median brand in the Dig In Trial Benchmark scored 85% likely to buy again in 2025 (24 surveys) and 88% in 2026.

Why the first weeks at university matter for loyalty

Most students arriving at university are buying their own groceries, toiletries and household basics for the first time. At home a parent made those choices. In halls the student makes them, usually on a tight budget and in a new city. Whatever lands in the basket in the first few weeks tends to stay there, because repeating a known choice is easier than weighing up a new one.

That is the window sampling uses. A sample in a student’s room on arrival day puts your product into the decision before the habit forms. An advert asks a student to remember your brand at the shelf. A sample gives them a reason to recognise it there, because they have already used it and know whether they liked it.

How a free sample turns into a repeat purchase

Trial on its own is not loyalty. The campaigns that move students from one free sample to a regular purchase usually get three things right.

1. The product meets a need students already have

Samples that fit into something students do every week (breakfast, a late study session, a shower, a first food shop) get used and judged on merit. Novelty items get tried once and forgotten. Choose the product in your range that answers an everyday student need, even if it is not your newest launch.

2. There is a clear next step to buy

Tell students where to find you and give them a reason to act soon: a stockist message, a voucher with a short expiry or a link to your student offer. The aim is to close the gap between liking the product and buying it while the memory is fresh.

3. The brand turns up again

One touch in September fades by November. Brands that reappear when students restock (after the Christmas break, around exams, at the start of second term) turn a good first impression into a habit. January Refreshers sampling and follow-up through mydigin.com, the student site printed on every Dig In Welcome Bag, are there for the second and third touch.

What the survey results tell us

Dig In surveys students after they have tried the products in our Welcome Bag and Live Activations. The Dig In Trial Benchmark pools 196 brand surveys for 161 brands since 2018, which gives any single campaign a fair reference point. In 2025 the median brand scored 85% likely to buy again (24 surveys) and 96% would recommend (20 surveys). In 2026 the median for likely to buy again was 88%.

Some named results against that benchmark:

• Hershey’s and Reese’s, Freshers 2024: 89.7% of students surveyed were likely to buy again (n=3,381). Read the Hershey’s and Reese’s case study.

• Coca-Cola, 2026: 89.9% were likely to buy Original and Zero (n=3,019), from 8,225 survey responses across seven surveys.

• Nivea Soft, Freshers 2024: 87.6% were likely to buy again and 98% would recommend it (n=2,986).

These figures measure purchase intent after trial. They tell you whether the product won students over, which has to happen before any loyalty can follow. They are not sales figures. Use them as an early signal, then confirm the effect with your own sales or retailer data in the months that follow.

How to measure loyalty from a sampling campaign

Loyalty takes months to show up in sales data, so plan for early and late signals.

• After trial (weeks 1 to 4): survey students who received the sample. Ask whether they used it, what they thought of it, how likely they are to buy it and whether they would recommend it.

• Response to the next step (weeks 1 to 8): voucher redemptions, unique codes, sign-ups to a student offer or visits to a landing page.

• Repeat behaviour (second term onwards): retailer data for stores near campus, repeat code use, and a follow-up survey at Refreshers asking whether students have bought the product since.

Compare your trial result with the Dig In Trial Benchmark so you know whether 80% likely to buy again is strong or weak for a student trial.

Common mistakes that waste the sample

• Sampling the wrong product. A niche flavour or premium variant is a hard first purchase on a student budget.

• No route to buy. If students cannot find the product near campus, the trial goes nowhere.

• One touch and done. A single September sample with no follow-up leaves the habit to chance.

• Counting reach only. The number of samples handed out tells you about logistics, not about whether students will come back.

For the plan across the whole academic year, see our guide to building brand loyalty among students.

Questions brands ask

Does product sampling build brand loyalty with students?

Sampling builds the first step of loyalty: a positive trial at the moment students choose brands for themselves. Loyalty follows when that trial is backed by a route to buy and further touches across the year.

What is a good likely-to-buy-again score after a student sample?

In the Dig In Trial Benchmark, the median brand scored 85% likely to buy again in 2025 (24 surveys) and 88% in 2026. A result above that median is strong for a student trial.

How long after sampling should I measure repeat purchase?

Survey intent within the first month, track voucher or code use over the first two months, and look for repeat purchase from the second term, when students restock after the Christmas break.

Working with Dig In

Dig In puts brands into the Welcome Bag and Live Activations that reach 500,000 students each September, then asks students what they thought. If you want to test whether your product can earn a place in students’ first shop, talk to us about a campaign.