Is your hard work and expense in advertising just building demand for your product category? That means you’re helping your competitor sell more. Why not make sure your promotion dollars work 100% to build your sales and take sales away from your competitors?  Using POP packaging strategies is something you can do right away and research shows it works.

You have to make some decisions for 2013’s budget and ask yourself whether the usual promotion channels are generating the ROI you need. Are you satisfied with stagnant growth? Is the status quo good enough this time around? Are you being bold, innovative and disruptive in your promotion to make sure you continue hitting your sales marks?

POP or More Mass Media Advertising?

Investigating POP display packaging options and strategies is time well spent. We’re making a case here that it is time to increase your use of POP display as an important alternative to television, internet ads, radio, and newspaper flyers.

Mass media is far from where people actually buy things. Do people shopping in-store remember your TV ad? Is your competitor’s more recent advertisement wiping out the effect of your ad? Or, will consumers remember your instore displays and packaging? If you’re going to be remembered, you want to be remembered in the store while they’re shopping. Proximity is everything now in the battle for the consumer.

Do you see opportunity at store level? How about this store below? Is anything popping out to grab shoppers? There is plenty of opportunity in supermarkets.

Large Supermarket offers Plenty of Opportunity for POP Display

Instore promotion and packaging is close to the consumer – at the point of purchase. Research is showing an increase in the number of people who are making their purchase decision in the retail store. And the research shows that in-store advertising does affect the shopper’s choice among products which are otherwise similar. POP display packaging may help to boost brand awareness, encourage multi-pack purchases, and sweeten the offer to shoppers to try the product. When POP displays are present more shoppers buy that particular product.  POP display does work and it could be the breakthrough insight you need to power up sales in an economy which isn’t improving fast.

Floor Display Using Contest Promotion

The large pallet display at left achieved its sales purpose by making the product more noticeable and making the bonus of a contest available to shoppers. The display is positioned in high traffic aisles adding additional visibility for the Advil product aside from shelf display. It’s busy, bold, obtrusive, and it’s successful. Nothing’s more powerful than a proven performer.

The Problem with Mass Advertising

Lets face it, fragmented advertising media including television is not as effective as it used to be in targeting and reaching consumers. Contrast that with POP in-store displays, and you’ve got perfectly targeted coverage. And with packaged goods, the consumer is physically picking up the product in-store.  That tactile visual engagement with your product packaging creates better contact with your brand messaging than mass advertising.  Anything that gets them to pick the product up is a powerful promotional tool. Chances are, they’re going to put it in their basket and buy it.

The design of cardboard floor displays, blister packs, shelf talkers, and counter display units should create a shout out to consumers, make it easier for them to access, learn about, view and purchase the product. The graphic and physical nature of the displays helps create an emotional experience in prospective buyer’s minds – the response that ultimately gets the shopper to purchase.

Packaging is physical and can appeal to consumer’s senses helping to create more of a physical and emotional experience. Many display themes leverage this by shaping displays as a schoolbus or a viking ship for example, to help shoppers relate more closely to the product’s purpose. Too few manufacturers and distributors are getting creative with POP.  That doesn’t mean going overboard, just that there is a certain level of creativity required to be disruptive and engaging.

Packaging adds value, post purchase in the consumer’s home.  A cereal box for instance is viewed every morning by a family further reinforcing the brand’s presence in their lives. Packaging helps to justify price increases or branding changes too.

Most importantly, packaging differentiates from competitors products/brands, promotes the brand’s values, communicates product uvps, and encourages trial usage. And specific types of packaging actually raise the perceived value of a consumer product.  It might be difficult for the average entrepreneur or CEO to comprehend how just the packaging alone can allow them to charge more for their products. Clamshell packaging is one such type. It showcases the product making key features easily viewed.

If you’re planning your marketing budget or have found that your tv or radio advertising just isn’t hitting the mark, you might want to consider focusing on POP. It’s putting your money right in the battleground where brands get seen and product purchases are decided.

Find out more about the latest consumer research and what makes good display design.