We all know the importance of branding and how essential point-of-purchase signs are in communicating a brand message, drawing attention to a display or product, and getting busy shoppers to stop to further investigate a product. Even the kids in the picture below understand the importance of effective signage.
Despite our intuitive understanding of the importance of effective signs, most of us rarely get an opportunity to see first-hand what impact signs can have. In today’s blog we will look at one simple example of what a difference effective signage made for one of our customers.
Sunfood is a California-based company focused on healing, energy, and longevity through education and by providing the most calorie-sparse, nutrient-dense organic, non-GMO, raw, vegan, and gluten-free superfoods on the market. Sunfood distributes to over 1900 locations in the U.S. and hundreds more internationally.
Several examples of Sunfood’s retail merchandising set are shown below. Sunfood has been successful in getting end cap locations in most of its retail locations, which is generally great for sales. But, what is missing from the merchandising presentations below? That’s right, effective point-of-purchase signs. Despite the quality of their product and the attractiveness of their packaging, Sunfood has been missing out on an opportunity to build their brand and increase sales by adding effective signs.
With merchandising sets like the ones pictured above, Sunfood was averaging 6.4 turns annually per store nationwide. In mid-2012 they ran a 5-store test in which they added prominent header and side signs to the most basic of wire racks shown below.
What they found was that by adding the signs they were able to more effectively promote the Sunfood brand. Average turns for the 5-store test increased 30% to 8.3 compared to the national average of 6.4. In the top selling test store Sunfood products turned 14.8 times, nearly reaching $10,000 in monthly sales. What that means in terms of sales lift is that a store carrying 12 Sunfood products which would typically have average annual sales volume of about $124,800 would likely see sales increase to $163,200, an increase in sales of $38,400. Larger stores that carry 48 Sunfood products could see annual sales increase from $499,200 to an estimated $652,800, an increase of $153,600.
Effective POP signs do make a difference. RICH LTD. produces the side and header signs pictured above on our wide format printing equipment in our graphics department. They are very simple to install in the field, and they do a great job of dressing up a very basic rack. With the kind of incremental sales these signs can generate, the return on investment is a no brainer.
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.