For example, show potential customers sample menus for your now take-out dinner idea.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Instead of taking the temperature of a representative sample of customers, firms must identify the few special customers who innovate.

ECONOMIST: The future of innovation

The QCA1990 will sample to customers starting in the first quarter of 2013, with commercial designs with leading OEMs expected in the third quarter of 2013.

ENGADGET: Qualcomm announces cheap, battery efficient NFC chip, hopes to put it in phones next year

Many customers who try a sample are surprised, he said.

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Kay Kinton, a spokeswoman for AWS, says the company commissioned independent research from IDC that examined a small sample of AWS customers and found that four-fifths said their unplanned downtime dropped after they moved operations to the cloud.

WSJ: The Sun Shines on 'The Cloud'

But it's just fine for Wal-Mart (also a major seller of the Center's test sample), where customers can just slide over to another section of the store to find Christmas gifts.

FORBES: Toy Scare Could Help Wal-Mart

This literal transparency contributes to eliminate the barriers between the brand and its customers and an invitation to step in and sample.

FORBES: Krispy Kreme Gives New Meaning To Word-Of-Mouth Advertising

The company has announced that it's starting to sample or test its 32nm Medfield processor for mobile devices with its customers (obviously, it's not telling us which ones) and more importantly that it will ship in a phone.

ENGADGET: Intel talks Medfield: will ship in a phone and have the longest usage time