In our last two blogs, we shared the first 6 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. In Part I, 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 Part II of the series, we covered Product Description/Specifications, Merchandising Ideas, and Retail Placement. If you didn’t catch that blog, you can read it here. In today’s blog, 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. Brand Identity- Your brand is your baby, and this is your chance to communicate the soul and essence of your brand to your POP design firm. What does your brand stand for? If you have a branding statement, here’s the place to share it.
By way of example, consider the headwear company Melin. They make really expensive, super nice hats using fine Italian leather and other premium materials. Their hats are worn by athletes and celebrities. To help communicate their brand identity, Melin defines their brand as a “Southern California lifestyle headwear brand that is focused on raising the status quo through new materials, unique design and relentless innovation. Melin hats are intended for young minded, modern day individuals from diverse influential backgrounds who appreciate refined, quality product.”
When we designed a hanging POP glorifier display for Melin to go into Lids stores, we tried to incorporate their brand identity into the display. We used a high-end laminate, acrylic edges, dimensional acrylic side logos, and branding story graphics. We incorporated space to showcase their hats and included an area for the premium leather box that comes with each hat.
One of the biggest challenges for a POP design firm is really capturing the true identity of the brand so doing a good job of articulating what your brand is about will go a long way in helping your POP design firm nail the display for you.
2. Target Customer Profile- Defining your target customer is another essential component of a good POP design brief. Who buys your product? Who do you want to buy your product? What does your target customer value? What motivates them? What is their lifestyle and how might your product help to enhance that lifestyle? Understanding as much as possible about your target customer will enable your POP design firm to incorporate those demographic and behavioral insights into your POP design.
For example, one of our customers, 9Five Eyewear, is a luxury brand of eyewear founded on the aesthetics of street culture, skateboarding, and fashion. In attempting to build a top-tier eyewear brand and capture its target customer of 18-24 year-old males, 9Five tapped into some of the world’s most sought-after trend setters in music and pop culture.
Equipped with a solid understanding of the target customer, we were able to create the sunglass display case shown below which looked like a video game console, fully equipped with push buttons, a real joy stick, and coin slots. The display was designed to tap into the passion that 18-24-year-olds have for video games while also creating a fun and youthful merchandising approach.
3. Competitor References- If possible, it is always helpful to include pictures of what your competitors are doing to display their products. Try to include references indicating which retail stores they are in, and let your POP design firm know what you like and don’t like about their displays and how you want your display to be different. Do you want a more upscale look? Are you hoping for a less cluttered look? By incorporating interchangeable signs, will you be better positioned to beat your competitor with promotional or seasonal messaging?
Doing good competitive research will not only help you understand what you can do more effectively than you competitors, but it will help your POP design firm have the background necessary to raise the bar and design something that stands out in your category. In this section of the design brief you should not only be thinking about your competitors’ POP displays, but it is also important to think about how your product is different and better than your competitors’ products. Share your insights with your POP design firm.
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Look for our next blog which will cover the last 4 key components of how to write an effective POP 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.