Are there any areas of POP display design that might give you an advantage over your competitors?  If you’ve been to the retail stores lately, you’ll probably notice the packaging is rather passive. Sure it looks nice and presents the brand well.  Is the purpose of instore packaging to promote the brand? Or is it to make a sale? Today, with no name brands growing sales, the branding objective may not cut it.... Read More →

Brand and product managers have plenty of challenges these days. Retail competition is so intense and it’s difficult to get onto retail shelves and catch shopper’s attention. And when they get their products on store shelves, they feel horror when their products are clumped together with the competition in a way that seems to destroy their expensive branding efforts. Have you seen the state of many store... Read More →

Consumer shopping habits and preferences continue to evolve this year as personal budgets shrink, retail merchandising becomes more creative, and new shopping centers appear in Canadian cities. If you’re planning this year’s or next year’s POP campaign, you’ll be interested to know about new trends in consumer’s buying habits. Boutique stores, chain stores, and larger box stores are constantly battling for... Read More →

New retail research is revealing interesting trends in retail shopping that haven’t been well publicized. One study on instore shopping trends shows mothers, an important demographic, are affected by POP displays and that coupons could be influential for those who do or don’t use shopping lists when they shop. Smartphones are increasing in use as are QR codes. Smartphone using shoppers appear to buy more... Read More →

If you’re still using traditional flexographic printing or offset lithography for your packaging printing, you might want to take note of the advantages of digital printing.  The colour and print quality from the new digital presses for label printing is excellent and can save you money. Maybe in the past, the difference between digital and offset lithographic printing made choosing the latter an obvious choice.... Read More →

You have lots of options when you’re considering your next POP campaign.  There are displays for the shelf, floor, wall, and countertop, and advertising banners/displays on windows, shelves and hanging from the ceiling. Your tough decision: which to use and why? According to POPAI research, floor stands (51%) are the most common in-store display types, followed by end cap displays (35%), powerwing/sidekick... Read More →

The Ontario economy has fared better than most of the US states have yet it has lagged far behind Alberta and Saskatchewan.  2012 has brought some upward momentum yet retailers can’t rely on growing consumer spending to give their business a boost. Retailers need to avoid aggressive discounting that is so rampant today and use more creative, innovative, and appealing promotional methods. Discovering new... Read More →