You are planning a Point Of Sale display rollout, perhaps for the first time or deploying some new branding or marketing concepts. It’s important that there are no major foul-ups, at worst, and hopefully a highly successful campaign. So what potential pitfalls should you watch out for?

1. Choosing The Wrong Size Of Display Unit

Free Standing Display Units are everybody’s favourite because they are big and eye-catching, you can’t help but notice them, which is at least half the battle with POS displays. The customer must see them and be instantly attracted to them - otherwise they are a waste of space. The size must work in the intended retail outlets. What may work very well in a relatively spacious supermarket could well flop in a petrol service station because of sheer lack of space. The units would be binned and never see the light of day. Research and know your target retail spaces before committing to a design.

2. Choosing The Wrong Printer

3D display units require a very different skillset from standard print jobs. Even if your regular printer does fantastic work for you in all other areas of general print requirements, you should not use them for printing your 3D units. Also, delivering in time is a critical element of retail display campaigns. A late delivery can throw the entire campaign out the window in a worst case scenario because every element is tied into a tight marketing schedule. Engage a specialist POS display printer who understands this all too well and will not let you down.

3. Failing To Understand The Retailer’s Requirements

Your team has designed a marvellous display that has drawn gasps of admiration from everybody from the directors to visitors who pass through reception where a demo model is set up. The units are delivered to the stores and then the bad news filters through. Store managers are binning your displays instead of setting them up because they are too complicated, or for some other reason that breaches the chain’s POS display unit guidelines. Falling foul of guidelines is a common occurrences which is not surprising as some retailer’s notes are 90 pages long! Similar issues arise when communication with the retailer simply has not been good enough. Mitigate the risk of this category of failures by engaging a specialist company that provides a full service, from helping with design to communicating with the retailer and even delivering the units and setting them up if required.

4. Designing Units To The Wrong Specification

Sometimes failure occurs because the unit designers are not familiar with how POS display works on the ground. It is only when stands collapse under the unexpected weight of the merchandise that it dawns on them that they did not factor load bearing strength into the specification. Or they are not durable enough to withstand a customer who roughly grabs two or three products, or the normal wear and tear exerted on them by staff performing cleaning jobs around them or simply pushing a fully merchandised unit a few feet to a different location. Experience of the industry counts when approaching a new campaign.

5. Customers Ignore Them

Having managed and delivered a successful project and succeeded in getting your display units sited, assembled and merchandised in every store, reports from the retailer indicate extremely disappointing sales results. Customers are not responding to the displays. One common cause of this failure is where the powers that be have insisted that the brand message is paramount at the expense of increasing sales. For example, too much text instead of eye-catching big graphics is usually ignored by shoppers and they walk past without even seeing the merchandise. Your display should catch the peripheral vision of shoppers. Whatever the primary objective is, and brand messaging may be a valid decision, the design must grab attention, first and foremost. POS displays with personality and pizazz always fare best.

The Takeaway Is...

While good POS display is not rocket science, it does demand more than just a smidgen of psychology. Also, why settle for a “good” campaign when “outstanding” need not necessarily cost any more to deliver. Wily campaign managers understand that engaging experienced specialists to review and oversee key phases and deliverables of the project not only guards against common failings but greatly increases the chances of a very successful campaign. Find out more by downloading our free Guide To Point Of Sale Marketing by clicking here.