Assessing the Importance of Prototyping and Testing POS Displays
Prototyping and testing retail displays represent a critical step in ensuring the effectiveness of the display solutions a retailer or brand is about to select. According to Brian Tracy—a leading coach on topics of leadership, selling, strategy and success psychology—“every dollar [spent] in (…) testing will save you many dollars of losses later on in the marketing process”.
Coming down to POS displays, prototyping gives you a chance to assess the viability of your designs along with how they integrate into your retail space. Testing, on the other hand, can help you identify potential flaws that must be taken care of prior to full production.
At DisplayMode, we know how easy it is to get caught up in the excitement of planning a new marketing initiative. For this reason, we advise all of our customers to determine exactly what they want to achieve and how they can get there before opting for particular POS display solutions.
As Leon Edwards explains, that’s the only way a company can decide whether it should “make an investment in higher quality displays, which are more permanent, or (…) in temporary and less expensive displays”.
Leon Edwards also provides a valuable solution; namely, to “produce a bunch of prototypes and try three of one type, three of another type, for example, so you can see which one works better.”
As an example, our industrial clients focus more on putting product information in front of their customers than the clients from other industry sectors. Although some of the POS display prototypes we create for these clients are very basic—often consisting of a display board with a light source and an on-off switch—they fit the purpose intended, getting messages across to customers, promoting products, increasing sales, and creating brand awareness.
As it can be seen, spending enough time crafting the right display solutions along with the most relevant marketing messages prior to committing to a particular alternative can help business professionals identify the most “productive” POP and POS displays and make the most of their retail marketing initiatives. When it comes to marketing decisions, therefore, return on time invested can give a brand or retailer exponential positive results.
Key takeaway:
Prototyping can be seen as an insurance policy against failure. Producing and testing prototypes will reduce costly errors, rework, and inefficiencies so that you can come up with viable and feasible solutions, on time and on budget.
All in all, prototyping and testing POS displays deliver a relatively inexpensive and rapid way to evaluate the impact of different marketing initiatives for the benefit of all those involved, including customers, brands, and retailers.
Focusing on improving in-store communication between retailers, brands, and consumers, DisplayMode is here to help you create the most effective, eye-catching, and innovative POS display solutions for your retail space. If you’re ready to discover how designing, prototyping, and testing different display solutions can work for your business, please contact us today to discuss your project in more detail.
FURTHER READING:
There are six articles in this Leon Edwards interview series: