Temporary brand ambassadors

Hostess activity is the art of communicating in person. We asked the leaders of two companies, In-store Team and Rafinanz about the opportunities and drawbacks. Both experts agreed that hostess activities are successful if attention-raising personal interaction and spectacular demonstration of product characteristics can make the product better known and increase sales. Companies classify hostess activities differently. In-store Team groups them as follows: tasting sessions, product demonstration, giving away samples, fliers, event marketing animation, helping guests and hosts of events. Rafinanz uses three categories: highlighted international activities (e.g. Duty Free promotional services at airports), highlighted domestic activities (hostess activities at festivals, conferences and balls) and other domestic activities (fliers, sampling at special places; in-store tasting sessions; in-store tasting sessions accompanied with other BTL events). Ágnes Csiby, In-Store Team’s managing director is of the opinion that hostesses represent the brand in the store, therefore they need to be credible persons in the eye of the consumer, they have to be devoted to the brand. Commissioners of hostess activities often expect them to be nice and pretty as well. Edit Szabó, Rafinanz Service Kft.’s head of BTL division thinks that hostesses are key actors as using bad promoters can ruin even the most well-planned campaign. They do not think that some hostesses are good for all types of campaigns: the right team has to be built for each job. Measurability of hostess activities: Ágnes Csiby opines that it is best to measure the most important characteristics, e.g. number of shoppers spoken to, volume sold during the campaign, etc.

The commissioner has to be informed rapidly and accurately about the individual activities. This is the reason why Rafinanz uses its own on-line web report system, to which promoters upload data via their PDA tools. Supervisors, mystery shoppers and store personnel all monitor hostesses’ work, and supervisors are also responsible for providing hostesses with all the necessary tools, solving occurring problems and correcting mistakes on the spot. Rafinanz Service Kft. is the only member of Airport Promotion Agencies in Eastern and Central Europeand they often participate in Europe-wide campaigns. In-Store Team has been doing the tasting sessions for SPAR’s private label products for 4 years and they can often top their earlier positive results.