When choosing the type of point of purchase display that best showcases what you are selling and aligns with your sales and marketing purposes, several factors need to be taken into account. Not all retail display systems are created equally, and something that would work well for candy bars may not be ideal for sunglasses. What’s more, a display unit that stylistically fits in a grocery store may look completely out of place in an upscale cosmetics retailer. Here are a few key points to keep in mind when selecting the display that best fits the design of your store, as well as the product itself.
- Know your basic display types. Though point of purchase displays can be made in virtually any style that can be dreamed up by a designer, just about all displays fall into one of three main categories: temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent. Temporary displays are generally made from corrugated cardboard and are only designed to last for a couple of months at most. These displays are the least expensive and are mainly used for short promotions, new product introductions or for seasonal items being promoted. Semi-permanent displays are ideal for in-store promotional items that are being marketed anywhere from a couple of months to just under a year. They are made of slightly more durable materials than the temporary displays, including acrylic, glass, styrene and co-polyester. The most long-lasting displays are referred to as “permanent” displays, though they generally last from 1-3 years on average. Permanent displays have a higher-quality look and feel and tend to have more a appealing design than the less-permanent display types. They are often are made to look like a kiosk or mini-store within the main store. By assessing the nature and duration of the product or promotion being marketed, you can determine which type of display best suits your needs.
- Know your demographics. Who are you trying to reach with your display? Is this item geared more towards the under-10 crowd, necessitating a shorter display that is at their eye-level? Is your target demographic busy moms with kids in tow, businessmen with no time to browse, or ladies enjoying a leisurely afternoon of shopping? It is vital to think about exactly who the display is meant to attract in order to choose the right one.
- Know your store. Is your store colorful and vibrant, or elegant and understated? Just as an ultra-fancy glass kiosk would look out of place in a busy supermarket, a corrugated cardboard display in primary colors would stick out like a sore thumb at a high-end electronics store. While the end goal of any display is to promote items and attract shoppers, the type of attraction has to be appropriate to the store setting, the shoppers and the product itself in order to maintain the allure of the display and the products within.
If you are still unsure which type of display best meets your needs, RICH LTD. can point you in the right direction. With an impressive variety of stock retail displays as well as endless custom capabilities to design exactly what you’re looking for, we are your source for point of purchase displays designed to perfectly showcase any type of product. Contact us for more information about the possibilities we can offer.
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.