In our last blog, we shared the first 3 of 13 key aspects of an effective POP design brief from the point of view of what is most helpful to us as POP designers. We covered Overview and Objectives, POP Display Description, and Materials/Colors/Inspirational References. If you missed our first blog, you can check it out here. In today’s post, we’ll focus on the next 3 elements which are highlighted in red below in our list of the 13 key design brief components for POP displays:
● Overview and Objectives
● POP Display Description
● Materials/Colors/Inspirational References
● Product Description/Specifications
● Merchandising Ideas
● Retail Placement
● Brand Identity
● Target Consumer Profile
● Competitor References
● Art Work
● Budget and Timeline
● Shipping and Delivery Requirements
● Assembly/Installation Considerations
1. Product Description/Specifications- Helping your POP display firm understand as much as possible about your product is really important. It helps to communicate what your product does, what’s unique about it relative to competitive products, what’s your key selling proposition, what is your target retail price point, etc. In addition, it is critical for the designer to understand which SKUs you wish to include on the display, how many colors or flavors or variations of products you have, how many facings you want to show on the display, and how many units of each you want to fit on the display.
Including package dimensions and weight is extremely helpful to the design team. If your product ships in case packs of 12, for example, that is also good to know since it could have an impact on the design, size or capacity of the display. Sharing pictures of your packaging is a good idea, and sending your POP display company product samples is an even better idea once you have sent them the design brief.
2. Merchandising Ideas- Sharing your merchandising ideas with your POP display firm can help ensure the design you get is what you want. You know your product better than your POP design firm so don’t be shy about sharing your ideas. If you think your product shows better hanging than sitting on a shelf, say so. Do your bottles look better standing up or on their side? Is it important to you that each flavor of your product gets its own shelf? Do you think it makes sense to incorporate pushers to automatically push your product forward or can you depend on store personnel to keep your product well merchandised?
In formulating your merchandising ideas, don’t forget to consider what your display will look like when it is half full or how it might look after a shopper doesn’t bother to put your product back on the display with the same care that you might.
Chances are you have had the opportunity to talk to more potential retailers about their ideas for merchandising your product than your design firm has so summarizing that feedback for your POP design firm and communicating it in the design brief is very worthwhile.
3. Retail Placement- Where your display gets place in a store is often one of the most important determinants of the success of your POP display program. Many times at the stage during which you are pulling together your design brief, you may not know exactly where you will be placed in the stores you are targeting. If you do know, be sure to communicate it in this section of the design brief.
If you don’t know, it’s helpful to outline some of the options such as indicating that it will either be an end cap or a freestanding display that might be placed adjacent to an end cap. If there is a risk of getting jammed in a corner of a small specialty store, then you might want to be safe and ask your POP design firm to create a spinning floor unit for you. If the display you envision has LED lighting, it is important to confirm access to power and communicate that in your design brief.
If you’ve been told by a retailer that your product will be merchandised inline and incorporated into the plan-o-gram then share the plan-o-gram details with your display designers and try to find out who will be placed to either side of your product, above, and below you. Sharing things like shelf depth, vertical clearance, and retailer rules for how far you can stick out in the aisle is also helpful.
Similarly, before you decide to invest in side signs for your floor display, it’s good to find out if the signs will be visible or if your display will be placed up against another display that will obstruct the view of the beautifully branded signs in which you just invested.
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In our next blog, we’ll review the next 3 key elements of an effective POP display design brief.
Jim Hollen is the owner and President of RICH LTD. (www.richltd.com), a 35+ year-old California-based point-of-purchase display, retail store fixture, and merchandising solutions firm which has been named among the Top 50 U.S. POP display companies for 9 consecutive years. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and graduate of Stanford Business School, Jim Hollen has served more than 3000 brands and retailers over more than 20 years and has authored nearly 500 blogs and e-Books on a wide range of topics related to POP displays, store fixtures, and retail merchandising.
Jim has been to China more than 50 times and has worked directly with more than 30 factories in Asia across a broad range of material categories, including metal, wood, acrylic, injection molded and vacuum formed plastic, corrugated, glass, LED lighting, digital media player, and more. Jim Hollen also oversees RICH LTD.’s domestic manufacturing operation and has experience manufacturing, sourcing, and importing from numerous Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Mexico.
His experience working with brands and retailers spans more than 25 industries such as food and beverage, apparel, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, sporting goods, automotive, pet, gifts and souvenirs, toys, wine and spirits, home improvement, jewelry, eyewear, footwear, consumer products, mass market retail, specialty retail, convenience stores, and numerous other product/retailer categories.