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Each coupon represents a cash sale at full profit. No average dealer will let those coupon customers go elsewhere.
Such a free-package offer often pays for itself in this way. It forms
the cheapest way of getting general distribution. Some of the most
successful advertisers have done this in a national way. They have
inserted coupon ads in magazines, each coupon good at any store for a full-size package. A proof of the ad is sent to dealers in advance, with a list of the magazines to be used, and their circulation.
In this way, in one week sometimes, makers attain a reasonable
national distribution. And the coupon ad, when it appears, completes it. Here again the free packages cost less than other ways of forcing distribution. And they start thousands of users besides. Palmolive Soap and Puffed Grains are among the products which attain their distribution in that way.
Half the circulation of a newspaper may go to outside towns.
That half may be wasted if you offer a sample at local stores. Say in your coupon that outside people should write you for a sample.
When they write, do not mail the sample. Send the samples to a local store, and refer inquiries to that store. Mailing a sample may make a convert who cannot be supplied. But the store which supplies the sample will usually supply demand. In these ways, many advertisers get national distribution without employing a single salesman.
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