(Addressing only the quoted part as this topic has gone all kinds of directions...)
Pods? yes. Lightweight, lots produced cheaply, cheap to mail.
But sauce costs money - liquid and glass don't ship for free. It costs me $ to manufacture the sauce, and one doesn't really consider the cost of goods manufactured in a scenario like this. It's business - if I give away a bottle of sauce I am not losing what it cost me to make it, I am losing my % of the retail price $5, because that's what I would have otherwise sold that bottle of sauce for. And then it costs $3-4 to ship a bottle + packing materials + my time for the post office trip.
It's not a fortune - and it also isn't that much money, but it's certainly not "next to nothing". If a stranger approached me on the street and asked me for $9 I'd be really, really unlikely to hand it to them and I'm betting you wouldn't either.
And that's not counting the 5-figures I've spent over the 3 years of launching my company with trademarks, website, graphic design, testing, permits, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.
Now obviously there is a benefit to being reviewed - if the reviewer has an audience it can help to generate sales. How many sales? sadly not nearly as many as reviewers/bloggers like to think. When a review gets posted I see maybe 3-5 sales from it. yup. That's it. No windfall.
But there is a benefit of course - it's a goodwill gesture in the pepper community and it helps to socialize my product and get my company name out there....and of course I link to the reviews from my site - which probably helps those sites as much or more than it does me. But if someone's on the fence about a purchase and reads a positive review about my sauce then it certainly can help.
So for me it's about credibility. You have no idea how many people ask for free hot sauce saying "I have a youtube channel, give me sauce to review!" - then I look at the channel and there isn't a single hot sauce review and they have 2 followers, presumably their g/f and their dog. I posted one here at THP that was so laughably offensively idiotic....and when I said no they insulted me. Nice.
Then there's folks like the OP in this topic. Someone who's just starting out, which is great. Go forth and start reviewing, I applaud the effort and enthusiasm - go make videos and sample some peppers. Show the world that you are articulate and intelligent and charismatic and that you can provide valuable feedback and insight. Build an audience. Earn your stripes. And THEN ask me for some sauce.
Without doing that first, there's little credibility, and no audience. As a business I have to consider sending "free" sauce as a marketing expense. And as such I have to decide where to invest that marketing expense - do I send a bottle of "free" sauce to a hot sauce reviewer like JayT at THP who has loads of followers and an articulate and detailed delivery because he's established credibility in the industry? Or do I send it to someone just starting out where I have no idea what I'll get even in terms of constructive criticism?
It's a business decision - as much as I'd love to send free sauce to everyone who asks me for it, at $10 a pop that's a terrible business model. To date I've received over 200 requests for free sauce in just under 2 months in business - really. That's potentially $2000 out of pocket for me, and 95% of those requests have been totally janky. The one exception to the "people new at reviews" I made was with HeatAddicts - they had a cool logo, Jarret came across very respectfully in his email and he had a couple of vids up already for me to review and see if I liked his style. And I was glad I sent them sauce to review as I think they're really working hard at building a rep and doing quality reviews. I respect those who've shown me that they too will work at their craft.
I don't mean to post a novel - but there's really no such thing as "free sauce". There is judicious application of the allocation of marketing funds. Kinda saps the fun out of it when you put it that way, but it is what it is. Part of that budget is sending out "free" sauce. In business you have to view the big picture. An apt comparison is In backpacking - there's an expression about the weight you carry on a 5-6 day trip - "if you watch the ounces, the pounds take care of themselves" instead of a spoon & a fork, you carry a spork because it saves you an Oz. think of that like the 1 bottle of free sauce...they add up. And so it's not a lot different in business. If you don't watch the cents, the dollars fly out of the window pretty quickly. When you're Tobasco, sending a bottle of free sauce costs next to nothing. When you're someone like me, it's an expense that requires consideration.
Just trying to add some perspective as a small start-up business on the subject of sending sauce to reviewers and the associated cost/value. Don't get me wrong - I do send free sauce. Sometimes if I just want to get the feedback of someone I respect, I'll send them some sauce for free. But I pay for it, so "free" is a matter of perspective as well.
