Visual design has been a way to tell stories since the dawn of civilization. Although drawing pictures on cave walls isn&#;t quite the same as designing an engaging custom retail display for your product, it&#;s the same idea. People are hard-wired to respond to visuals, and therefore the power of an effective in-store Point-of-Purchase (POP) display cannot be denied.
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Unfortunately, many brands aren&#;t using POP displays at all&#;and when they are, they aren&#;t used to their fullest potential. It's time to revisit the basics if you want to design custom point-of-purchase displays that drive more sales by capture consumers&#; attention.
Here&#;s what you need to know.
Point-of-Purchase Display Basics
A POP display is a brand marketing asset that is displayed in-store with or near the merchandise it&#;s promoting. POP displays come in many different forms, including basic signage, vendor &#;shops&#; (or sections within the larger retail store dedicated to a particular brand), countertop displays, floor displays, end cap displays, and more.
Additionally, point-of-purchase displays can be temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent, depending on the type of promotion. During the holiday season, you&#;re likely to see temporary POP displays, like the one we did for DSW featuring seasonal items in a floor display, whereas very well-established brands might choose to leave their POP display up year-round.
Think of a POP display as a standing salesperson for your product within the retail environment. Even if you have little control over the products that are featured near it and are competing for consumers&#; attention, a POP display presents an opportunity to catch the consumers&#; eyes, communicate your brand story, and ultimately increase sales.
What Does an Effective Point-of-Purchase Display Look Like?
Although the specific strategies for designing an effective POP display may vary by industry, the best POP displays are always unique, &#;insta-worthy,&#; and eye-catching. Regardless of industry, product, or brand, providing consumers with a memorable in-store experience is a differentiator for POP displays.
The characteristics of an effective POP display are:
On-brand
As with any marketing material you might create for your brand, consistency is key. Consistent colors, logos, messages, and values make consumers feel more comfortable with your brand, and the more that they encounter these consistent, positive brand experiences, the more likely they&#;ll be to purchase from you in the future.
POP displays are no exception. An effective POP display tells your brand story in a way that is unique, authentic, and consistent with other marketing channels you may use. If your brand typically pushes sustainability as a part of its core identity, values, and strategy, then you should definitely use sustainable materials to build your POP display.
Kushy Punch&#;s CBD countertop display is an excellent example of a POP display that&#;s perfectly on-brand. The colors, fonts, and messages on the display present the same brand personality you&#;d encounter if you ordered Kushy Punch&#;s products online, providing a seamless and engaging experience for consumers.
By using on-brand POP displays to differentiate your product from those surrounding it, you can improve brand recognition and ensure that every time a consumer walks past your display, they&#;re getting exactly the right message about your products.
Strategically Located
Typically, POP displays are located near or around the cash register or the entrance of the store&#;hence the name, &#;point of purchase.&#; Because these locations are usually where the final purchasing decision is made, an engaging point-of-purchase display can encourage consumers to make spur-of-the-moment purchasing decisions when they wouldn&#;t have otherwise. Bayer Animal Health's countertop spinner is an excellent example of a POP display that stands out and engages the customer near the register.
However, these high-traffic areas near the entrance and cash register aren&#;t the only options for your POP display. Depending on the product, the store environment, and the target audience, you may find that other areas are more effective for your display.
Choosing the right location for your display comes down to understanding human behavior and mapping out the path that your ideal consumers are likely to take while navigating the store. For example, at InStore Design Display, we often take the time to personally visit the stores where our clients&#; displays will be featured and audit the likely path of purchase leading consumers&#; to our client's products. By profiling the unique landscape of the store and taking a pulse on the look and feel of the overall store environment, we&#;re able to design more than just attractive, standalone displays&#;we&#;re able to design effective point-of-purchase displays that are as relevant as possible within the context of the overall store.
This strategy requires nuance, experience, and flexibility, particularly if you&#;re designing a POP display that will be featured in a wide variety of retailers. The bigger the retailer, the more restrictions and guidelines they have over what your display can look like and where it can be located, whereas smaller, independent retailers may allow for more wiggle room.
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Modular
Because different retailers may have varying guidelines on what you can and can&#;t do with your POP display&#;and because each physical brick-and-mortar location may have a different in-store environment, even across the same retail brand&#;modularity is a critical component of any POP display.
Most brands don&#;t have the luxury of profiling each individual store in which they&#;ll be displaying their products, so incorporating flexibility and modularity into your point-of-purchase display design can ensure that your display stands out regardless of the in-store layout. For example, by including elements that allow retailers to convert your POP display from a countertop display to a freestanding display, you provide retailers with all of the tools they need to present your products in the most attractive and engaging way possible.
This freestanding display for Bushnell Golf is a great example of a modular display. Because it comes with both the storage base and spinner display, it can stand alone on the shop floor or be featured as a smaller countertop display.
Functional
Many retail promotional items like POP displays never actually make it to the sales floor.
Why? Often, POP displays are left to gather dust in the back room because they&#;re too complicated for the retail employees to put together&#;and the only thing worse than not utilizing POP displays altogether is taking the time, money, and effort to design an outstanding POP display, only to have retailers toss it out when it arrives at their stores.
To avoid this challenge, POP displays need to be designed with not only the consumer in mind but also the end-user and the end-environment in mind as well. If your display is so complex that a high school retail employee can&#;t pull it out of the box and put it together on their own, then you need to simplify your design.
POP Displays can Make or Break a Sale
In the past, brands would sell their product to retailers looking for shelf space, period. At that point, any amount of shelf space was enough, because there were a limited number of places where consumers could shop for items of interest.
However, today&#;s consumers can browse and buy online, so brands continuously vie for attention. In this over-saturated, over-stimulated retail paradigm, POP displays present a unique opportunity to differentiate your brand and offer consumers an experience they won&#;t forget.
Looking for inspiration for your next POP display design? Request a consult to get started.
Maximizing Your Return Means Knowing Your Economics
Developing a thorough understanding of the economics of your POP display program will help to maximize the success of your program. To begin, it is important to consider the total delivered cost of a display rather than just the quoted manufacturing cost per unit. A lot of manufacturers quote FOB their location so it is important to factor in shipping cost when comparing quotes. Some of our customers have us ship their POP displays to their warehouse, and then they ship to their customers&#; stores or distribution centers. There may be some good reasons for doing this, but savings are often possible by having the display manufacturer drop ship to stores or ship directly to a retailer&#;s distribution center. Likewise, some of our retail customers only focus on the cost of the fixture without regard to transportation costs since in some cases freight falls into a different budget and is outside of their area of accountability. However, this approach generally does not yield the best results when measuring total delivered display cost.
Consider the Full Range of Costs
Just as it is important to understand shipping costs, other costs related to fixture storage, assembly, fulfillment and installation also make sense to consider in developing a complete picture of the economics of a display. It is important for the company providing the display to understand a particular retailer&#;s tolerance for assembling a display. If the retailer is equipped to handle in-store assembly, if the assembly is not too difficult, and if the retailer does not charge back for assembly services, then it almost always makes sense to ship the display fixture knock-down and have it assembled in the field, unless the fixture is very large. Some customers think they can save money by having us ship displays to them without signs so they can print and add signs themselves. These customers typically underestimate the true cost of labor in printing and adding signs to each box.
The Relationship Between Material Weight and Cost
Understanding material costs and economics is also important. In considering overseas material costs, it is helpful to know that for most materials like metal and plastic, there is a very strong economic relationship between the weight of the material and the cost of the display. So, for example, a metal display that weighs twice as much as another metal display will likely cost about twice as much. Likewise, an acrylic counter display made of 3MM acrylic is likely to cost about half as much the same display made of 6MM acrylic. While the relationship between overseas material weight and cost is not perfect, the correlation is high. That relationship is much stronger for overseas materials than materials in the U.S. because labor costs tend to play a bigger role in determining overall display costs in the U.S. than for displays manufactured overseas where labor costs are lower. Despite overseas wage inflation in recent years, the relationship between material weight and cost still largely holds.
Checking Material Weights
One way to hold an overseas manufacturer accountable is by weighing the display to ensure they are not lightening up some of the materials to save money. Several years ago we noticed a discrepancy in the weight of boxes of the same style hooks between two different POs. We discovered that our factory had used lighter gauge wire on one of the POs as a way to squeeze out a little more profit margin. Monitoring weight fluctuations for items that are ordered on a repeated basis is one important element of an enlightened quality assurance process. In the event that material thicknesses are not thoroughly specified, it is equally important for a customer who is comparing quotes from different POP display companies to check the weight of the display being quoted since companies utilizing lighter gauge materials may be able to offer a lower price.
Applying the Law of Supply and Demand
In specifying materials, it is important to keep in mind another key economic principle which relates to the law of supply and demand. We are referring to the difference between scarcity and utility. Water, for example, has extremely high utility. It is extremely valuable and essential for life. However, because it is plentiful it is cheap relative to its value. In contrast, beachfront property is lower in utility, but because of its relative scarcity, it commands higher prices. The same is true for materials used in POP displays. Whenever possible, try to specify common materials that are readily available in the market. Create uniqueness and value in your displays by combining readily available materials in new and interesting ways rather than trying to differentiate
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Custom POP Display Graphics. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.