POS Displays – easy, no fuss, they just happen?

Effective Communication: The Key to a Successful POS Display Project

Step into any store, mall or retail store, and you’ll be overwhelmed with the hundreds, if not thousands of products and brands that continuously fight for dominance in the minds of consumers. It isn’t always easy to make your product stand out among this eclectic variety of products, and as such, you undertake a range of in-store awareness and promotion campaigns to ensure that your brand stays in in the limelight.

To ensure the success of such campaigns, it is important to present your promotional message in an amazing and creative way that instantly captures the attention of your target customers. The strategic placement and creative presentation of the message will entrench your brand into the hearts and minds of the target audience ensuring that they don’t leave the store without purchasing your product.

The most efficient way of ensuring this outcome is by undertaking a POS/POP display project. The persuasive power of POS/POP display solutions have been proven time and again and if executed properly, the unique combination of interactive visuals, graphics, and descriptive text makes it virtually irresistible to your target audience.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

The first step in the creation of a truly unique and captivating POS/POP display solution is the development of the design brief. A truly comprehensive design brief captures the purpose and objectives of the POS/POP display project and establishes what it hopes to achieve. It also details the relevant information and demography of your target market, the location where the display solution will be deployed, and other attendant factors that will affect the effectiveness of the brand promotion/awareness campaign.

The brief is very instrumental since POS design professionals use it to come up with unique designs that will dazzle your target audience while encapsulating your expectations and requirements and passing across your message. However, the effectiveness of the POS design can only be measured when the final POS/POP display solution has been manufactured, strategically deployed at its destination and is seen to function flawlessly in the retail environment.

Like Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” This maxim is very relevant when it comes to the POS/POP display project since the success of a POS design is tied to its functionality and effectiveness in the retail space. The work of the POS design is not done until the deployed display solution is seen to be successful.

Seamless Communication with the Account Manager is Essential to the Development of an Effective Design Brief

For the POS design professional to deliver, the design brief should be professionally prepared and must contain all the required information and relevant data. However, you may not be familiar with the steps required in the development of such a brief and as such, may require expert assistance and guidance.

Such expert assistance and guidance is provided by the account manager that has been assigned to you by the POS display supplier. Account managers have garnered a lot of experience in the POS display industry and as such, can provide you with valuable insight on how to go about preparing the design brief.

Account managers understand that a properly designed brief is instrumental in the development of a truly unique and captivating display solution by the POS design professionals. Aside from this, they know that for the POS design to work in a real environment, a lot of factors must be taken into account. Such factors include the actual weight of the products to be placed on the display, the durability of the POS material, power supply, bracing and other logistics (such as colour, footprint, finishing, shape, size, etc.) that contribute to the effectiveness of the display solution.

Industry-specific safety and health standards (such as food grade materials, softened edges, rounded corners, tripping hazards, etc.) must also be factored into the design brief. The design of the POS solution should be tailored to the specific disposition of the retail environment where it is to be deployed. By and large, there is always a bespoke POS/POP display solution that can fit into any retail space.

As such, account managers work closely with clients in an atmosphere of trust and cooperation to come up with a workable and actionable design brief. Trust is paramount in such a working relationship since you must rely on their technical know-how and expertise when it comes to making certain decisions.

An Example of Communication – How Offshoring Could Impact Your POS Project

In a bid to cut costs, some brands may prefer to outsource their POS display projects to Chinese or offshore supplier firms. However, such a venture comes with some risks especially in the area of collaboration and knowledge of the local retail environment. Aside from the differences in time zone, it is very difficult to establish seamless communication and close collaboration with their account managers when you use offshore entities for your POS display project.

Such off-shore firms may not be familiar with the in-store behaviour of local consumers and the overall retail environment in the UK, and as such, this places them at a disadvantage when developing POS display solutions for UK-based brands. To ensure that the POS display solutions are in tandem with your goals and objectives, it is best that you engage the services of UK POS manufacturers since they are more conversant with the peculiar nature of the local retail environment.

Using local POS manufacturers enables closer collaboration and continuous discussion between you and the manufacturer and ensures that the particulars of your design brief, as well as your overall marketing/promotional objectives, are fully understood. This helps the POS supplier to come up with an effective POS design solution that captures the minds and hearts of your target audience.

There are undeniable benefits to manufacturing your project offshore. However, with POS displays the real costs may not become evident until much later in the process or if the communications have been less than ideal.

Clear and good communication underpin the delivery of successful POS Display projects. Since the design brief is instrumental to the success of the POS display project, you should allow the account managers to guide you when preparing it. Account managers are conversant with the UK retail environment and can help you understand the factors that affect how the POS display solution will work in a real environment. These factors must be considered when preparing the design brief to ensure that the final POS display solution functions brilliantly in the retail space while meeting all your expectations.

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