Our agency caters to fashion brands and part of our commitment to brands is maintaining a showroom that also acts as our office. We open our showroom to editors, stylists and bloggers for pulls from brands that provide us with samples and we go above and beyond to ensure editors, stylists and influencers actively pull from our brands. We will make an appointment on the weekend for a stylist or editor pull. We have even run samples to a few editors on set. When we begin working with a new client, we meet with them in person or via phone to discuss the best strategy for samples and determine what should be kept in our showroom. We are fashion industry veterans and get the entire fashion process and costs involved, so we know a sample is much more expensive to produce than the garment will be in a production run. It is this deep understanding of the industry that allows us to help designers determine the best samples to keep in our showroom based on your costs and what we know editors and stylists will respond to from your collection. The key is to plan for at least samples to be kept in your publicists showroom. If your PR agency doesn't have a showroom, they may still send samples to stylists or editors. Not having samples limits the amount of exposure your brand gets with editors, stylists and bloggers. Remember, frequency of exposure is an important element to converting a pitch into a pull and eventually a placement, so every time a stylist or editor comes in for a pull they are getting exposure for a pull. The other benefit is that we can respond immediately to last minute requests from editors. Fashion editors often have last minute pull requests and when we can show them items we have available for "IMMEDIATE PULL" it helps to increase chances that they will use your brand's product.
Planning for PR samples is a key element to providing your PR team with the proper tools they need to succeed. If cost is an issue, discuss this with your PR professional and determine the right number of samples to leave in the showroom.