The retail point of purchase (POP) represents the time and place where all elements of the sale (product, client and money) find each other.
Using multiple advertising supports, including packaging and POP advertising, the seller seek to influence the purchasing decision of the consumer.
Nowadays, and due to the big diversity of communication media that we can access, we can create effective campaigns in the POP that allow us to stand out amongst the competition, translating the product value and keeping a coherence in every advertising platform instead of confusion and contradiction.
Investment in POP advertising campaigns is expanding from marketing professionals because of three reasons:
1) First of all, they are mostly a result of more profitable cases than the rest of traditional massive impact advertising campaigns.
2) Secondly, the need of reducing the commercial attention fee at shop is stimulating the interest of manufacturers and retailers in the POP campaigns.
3) Finally, the change detected in the purchasing patterns of the consumers with an impulse buying rise means that the POP plays a more important role than ever in the decision making process of the costumers.
Because of these reasons, retailers are becoming increasingly receptive to manufacturers’ offers of POP merchandising programs.
The improvement of the productivity in advertising
The sellers carefully examine the various options of advertising in traditional media, considering that the costs have been triplicated since 1968. The marketing in the POP campaigns can’t replace the media advertising, and they aren’t so easy to control from the manufacturer because they are applied in the seller’s home. Instead, they can strengthen and remind the consumers the publicity messages they see before entering the shop.
The advertising campaigns in the POP help to improve the productivity in these different ways:
1) Less cost
While reaching 1.000 people with a 30 seconds ad in television costs between $4.05 and $7.75 per impact, the cost of a poster or a display with a one year life is only from $3 cents. to $37 cents. per impact. These numbers reflect the low cost of the installation and the materials production for POP advertising and the fact that the POP messages constantly impact on costumers.
2) Focus on the consumer
The POP advertising campaigns are focused on the consumer, but they too offer a service to the seller contributing to increase the volume of expenditure for ticket in every sale benefiting the impulse buying.
3) Marketing campaigns for a really accurate target
The POP advertising campaigns are easily adjustable to the needs of the local markets allowing modifications in each region according to the costumers behaviour.
One example is the Revlon’s Polished Ambers Dermanesse Skin that used non-electronic didactic material in the POP to suggest combinations of the proper cosmetics for black women. That is an example of an specific focus that wasn’t able to get under way in an efficient manner through massive media communication advertising.
4) Variation in the costumers behaviour
The costumers are increasingly inclined to wait for the discount days and sales for the big buys and they end up spending more money in small things. As a result, the costumer asks for more products that means less cost more than ever, like cosmetics or decoration complements.
The retailers are interested in POP merchandising campaigns that can be a great help for the consumers that are waiting to be attended by a commercial via demonstrations and testers.
Source:
Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/1983/11/better-marketing-at-the-point-of-purchase
