Point of purchase - hi-tech advantage is only for the brave

The term point of purchase (PoP) used to mean cardboard stands near tills, but the latest innovations in retail marketing mean the channel is now as technologically advanced as anything that might be encountered on TV or online.

One PoP unit for the Lego brand reveals in 3D, via augmented reality (AR) software, what a box’s contents will look like when assembled. The technology from Metaio means that when a customer holds up an AR-enabled Lego product to the PoP unit, software is able to recognise the item and reveal its contents in fully assembled form as a 3D animated image on-screen.

Tony Best, managing director of retail marketing agency The Attic Room, says this type of installation is becoming more common. “Five years ago, PoP was limited to not much more than a mixture of permanent shelving and card versions with graphic headers but the medium has come a long way recently,” he says.

“This has been driven by progressions in print processes, the competitive cost of technology and the need for development designers to produce more innovative ideas to win pitches.”

To promote pop star and designer Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Lovers fragrance, brand owner Coty created a marketing campaign that included a touring karaoke booth designed to cut through the highly saturated and celebrity-driven fragrance market.

Rather than focus on Stefani’s recognisable image and celebrity for the in-store campaign, a Harajuku Lovers roadshow took the karaoke booth around ten stores during 2009, allowing customers to record themselves singing a song and then view it on the Harajuku Lovers website.

Customers could also send a photo and their karaoke recording to their mobile phone via Bluetooth in the booth. Importantly, the PoP unit, which was designed by The Attic Room, allowed consumers to experience the perfume’s brand personality without making a purchase. This helped Coty and Stefani develop wider brand awareness than simply offering the fragrance for trial on perfume counters.

Using methods that allow materials generated by PoP units to be passed around, such as the karaoke songs sent to mobiles, is a growing trend in retail innovation. Consumers are used to this type of technology in other areas, and social media helps them pass on messages to friends.

Mandy Saven, editor of the Global Innovation Reports at research business GDR Creative Intelligence, says: “Technology that helps to bring the product to life - and reveal hidden features and useful details - will enable shoppers to better navigate the retail environment and make smart product choices.”

But she warns: “The technology employed needs to add genuine value to the consumer’s shopping experience.”
A good example of bringing digital media into the physical retail environment is Sunglasses Hut’s interactive photo kiosk, installed in some of its US stores, which enables customers to share and compare images of themselves wearing different sunglasses.

“Customers can use a touchscreen display to take photos of themselves modelling a variety of styles, which can be emailed to friends, shared on Facebook or posted on flatscreen monitors in-store for feedback from other customers,” explains Saven. “The initiative makes the purchasing of sunglasses a more fun, engaging and interactive experience.”

Retaining the values of an innovative above-the-line campaign in-store can be a challenge for many brand owners. In the beauty sector, Aramis and Designer Fragrances’ PoP solution for the launch of its Very Hollywood fragrance this year was to source LED lighting, used in freestanding units and shelf glorifiers, to flash and uplight the bottle creating a “paparazzi” effect.

Premium positioning
Suzanne Cockerham, marketing manager at Aramis, explains: “Glorifying the beautiful bottle was important as leaving it to stand on shelves did reflect its premium positioning.”

Some brands are not necessarily innovating with technology but bringing tricks from another sector into their own. Seeing the innovations in the way that the beauty industry communicates at the point of purchase, Samsung has asked The Attic Room to work on the display of its technology products in a major roll-out across Currys and Dixons stores.

“We have come up with a similar kit for Samsung as for some of our beauty clients,” explains The Attic Room’s Best. “This might be simple stuff for one sector but it is innovative for Samsung’s approach to in-store marketing, and makes the product look more exciting.”

Charlotte Reedtz Grierson, marketing director of beauty brand Clinique, says the most recent innovations in the PoP market have involved communication methods rather than technology. “For my brand, I don’t think innovation at the PoP is so much in the physical displays as in the messages,” she says. “Working round the restrictions we have operating in a department store format, we have to use small snippets of on-counter communication to demystify our brand.”

When an in-store consultant is not available, PoP can provide an interactive opportunity to aid selection relevant to a consumer’s mood, tastes, function or personal choice. A simple “need state” wheel for GlaxoSmithKline’s Lucozade brand identifies the benefits of each Lucozade product and offers guidance about when to consume it during exercise regimes.

“The trends in PoP underline the pivotal importance of visual impact in terms of time-poor consumers and greater choice that is facilitated by larger store formats,” explains Paul Clarke, sales manager at PoP designer Line Packaging and Display.

Clothing store H&M, which has recently started stocking homewares, decided that its form of innovation would be to move away from digital means in store and make a virtue of analogue methods of communication.

When H&M Home moved from web-based sales to a bricks-and-mortar store, the brand commissioned Amsterdam-based UXUS Design to help produce a piece of PoP titled “Interaction”. The piece, described as “an analogue search engine that customers can explore in a physical space”, sits in the brand’s Stockholm store.

Interaction looks like a massive wooden loom, with products from the store suspended on ropes. Pulleys are linked together and moving one item causes another to change its position. The very physical interactions customers have with the installation are intended to be a comment on the dominance of digital systems in the world today.

Michael Sheridan, managing director of retail design specialist Michael Sheridan & Company, which is rolling out a new concept for airport outlet World of Whiskies, sees the potential for a range of interesting executions in PoP but says that brands must never forget the need for proper analysis of the success of any campaign.

“A brand needs to think of the idea as being the most important part of PoP design,” he claims. “There are lots of great ideas but not so many people willing to commit to them - the future of innovative PoP is about people being brave enough to execute them.

Brand stories
Agency view
Charles Kessler
Chairman of PoP specialist Kesslers International

Point of purchase innovations strongly reflect the developments in internet consumer activity. The consumer is better informed and looking for more information and support than ever before. Merchandising reflects this trend, with brand messaging and communication having a much greater role.

At the top end of the market, we are witnessing a large number of thin film transistor screens in-store, which is the kind of hi-tech communication that consumers feel comfortable with. But at lower price points, brands are focused on creating presence and awareness.

Media fragmentation is a key driver behind the growth of merchandising. Budgets are being made to work ever harder, with funds being released from above-the-line campaigns and spent elsewhere in the marketing budget. Procter & Gamble, Shell and other major multinationals have led the way in this.

Our report into consumer shopping behaviour studied a series of purchasing activities nationally. It backed up the well-established fact that over two-thirds of all brand purchase decisions are taken in store.

Making an impact at the point of purchase is a key movement in the consumer journey and is classically referred to as “the first moment of truth”. It has led to a growth in PoP as an important category for brands.

Multinational brands recognise the power of merchandising and display in creating a global image. In doing so, display has moved from being a store or sales-based activity to a key marketing tool.

Brands with global ambitions are investing in display. They invest even when times are hard, recognising where their marketing budget is most delivering value.

Ian Taylor
Trade marketing manager at William Grant & Sons, who oversees duty free retailer World Of Whiskies

Point of purchase is at the forefront of our brands and is very much focused on experience, interaction and tasting. We have to be innovating constantly. You can’t stand still because the way consumers interact with your brand changes with the times.

One way to do this for us has been to work with World Duty Free to demystify the malt whisky category and allow consumers to experience it in a way they would enjoy. World of Whiskies is part of this.

The World of Whiskies concept, recently updated by Sheridan & Co with a store launched in Heathrow Terminal 4 in November 2009 and one in Edinburgh Airport due to open this month, aims to bring together and educate the less familiar drinker and the specialist.

Instead of a geographical experience of whisky, it aims to generate a fireside indulgence feel. The Discover your Taste “bar” uses radio frequency identification technology at the point of sale to trigger videos and graphics that explain each product when it is placed on the bar top.

I see this as innovative because it is an example of breaking down a closed category and giving people the chance to interact with the brand in their own time. This is how you build trust.

Another example of this type of brand exposure was on Hendricks Gin, where we used a Victorian bathtub full of roses and bottles of the product to draw people in. This type of theatre is the new base level. Four or five years ago, you would have got away with a good wall unit but now you can’t.

PoP should be pleasurable for the consumer and allow them to interact with the brand. In the future, there will be more of a need for really personal and involved designs.