Valassis--King of Coupons

In 1997, Valassis developed its own trademarked products, Brand Bag and Brand Bag+, which are polyethylene newspaper bags imprinted with advertisers' messages that can include a tear-off, weather-resistant coupon.

Sampling has been a "huge" success for the company, according to Liddle, who points out that market analysts expect the sampling business to grow as much as 30 percent in the next year.