Why POP Displays Are an Effective Retail Marketing Strategy for Your Startup

1. They instantly draw shoppers’ attention

2. They ensure a unique and personalized experience

In this highly competitive environment, the audience desires a unique and personalized experience. In fact, stellar customer experience (CX) is imperative if you want your startup to grow at a rapid pace.

POP displays help shoppers enjoy a personalized experience in retail stores. These displays also offer unique and attention-grabbing features so that shoppers can understand new products. When the interactive features are combined with the visual beauty of POP displays, they ensure maximum unique retail experience and customer engagement. Moreover, you can offer special deals, QR codes, and touch-screen displays to increase brand awareness and encourage shoppers to buy your products.

3. They maximize brand image

Generally, brand image is the public impression of a product or business. A strong brand image is needed to attract prospects and retain existing customers. Startups and small businesses with zero brand image usually don’t stand a chance in the long-run. You should know that startup branding is imperative to ensure future success.

POP displays are a valuable retail marketing approach to present new products to the general public. Moreover, POP displays that come in a large canvas are a great way to optimize your brand message and position your products in the minds of your target audience. Nowadays, many startups aim to engage visitors and build brand image through POP displays at trade shows, exhibitions, and retail stores.

4. They encourage impulse buying

POP displays are an ideal solution if you are looking to ramp up sales volume. These displays can work quite well to target impulse buyers for your startup, and continuously entice potential customers that are already in your store.

Well-placed POP displays are a smart way of advertising and are likely to leave a long-term impression on the audience. When buyers make routine purchases, they may be prompted to add something new to their carts. Hence, POP displays often work to encourage impulse and unplanned buying behavior, particularly in the food and beverage industry. We can say that point-of-purchase displays are a profound marketing tactic to increase sales volume and improve business profitability.

What are “dumps” and how can they help my POP displays?

Floor displays, commonly referred to as dumps, are perhaps the most powerful point-of-purchase marketing tool that you can develop. They are most effective when placed at the front of the store. This location guarantees viewing by the maximum number of visiting consumers.

This type of display is often fabricated out of cardstock, but it can be very expensive to manufacture, especially if you make them in small quantities because of the upfront tooling costs. So unless your product is hot, retailers aren’t going to order enough to justify dumps.

Typically, merchants reserve the display of dumps for their top brands and fastest selling promotions. It is typically very difficult for a newcomer to get stores to set up their floor displays.

Counter Displays

Counter displays are sometimes called “prepacks,” when the display also serves double duty as a counter item. Merchants generally use counter displays for low-priced items that consumers might decide to purchase on impulse while they are waiting for sales assistance or standing at the cash register. Small novelty items are ideal for counter displays.

Counter displays need to be attractive, cute, and even whimsical. They also need to be conservative in space requirements and height so as not to obstruct the line of vision between the salesclerk and the customer.

Posters

Posters are the least inspiring point-of-purchase display vehicle when used to attract consumers to products they were not previously aware of. But they can be very effective in pulling in customers to purchase a product they have some knowledge of—perhaps through an extensive advertising or publicity campaign. That said, many retailers report throwing out almost all of the posters sent to them by their suppliers.

Shelf Talkers

Shelf talkers are signs that appear alongside a given item on the shelf. They can be very effective and, best of all, cost relatively little to produce. They require short, brief copy that can really grab a consumer’s attention.

Plan-o-gram

In many industries, larger retailers create what is called a plan-o-gram, carefully deciding which displays are authorized to go into every last inch of the store. Then they typically charge manufacturers a large fee to set up any kind of point-of-purchase display. As the manufacturer, you need to pay this placement fee, in addition to paying for and shipping the displays. If that’s not enough, the store might insist on a special deep discount as well!

Some store managers of national retail chains make their own decisions as to what displays they will accommodate on their floors, even if you have an agreement with the national office that is backed by cash incentives and guarantees a full chain display program. When you do manage to get display exposure, merchants prefer to keep displays up for short periods of time to keep their merchandise mix fresh and appealing to consumers.

All this might sound ridiculous, but it could be totally worthwhile if your product will sell through really well, and especially if the store will be so impressed that they will consider stocking your product in larger than usual quantities once the point-of-purchase displays come down. However, it is typically a challenge for a new vendor to get prominent displays included in a retailer’s national plan-o-gram.

Point-of-Purchase Displays: Summary

One of the best investments of your marketing dollars that you can make is in point-of-purchase displays. These displays allow you to dramatically increase the impact of your product at the moment it counts most—at purchase time. Of course, such displays are most effective for impulse items or items for which consumers do not have brand loyalty.

Takeaways You Can Use

• Floor displays are the most powerful point-of-purchase item you can develop.    
• Small novelty items are ideal for counter displays—think cute and whimsical.
• Posters generally only work for products that customers already know about.
• Shelf talkers can be effective and relatively inexpensive.