More or less?

There are plenty of retailers who seem to subscribe to the view that the more cardboard and printed material you put into a shop, the more likely it is that shoppers will reach for their wallets and purses.

And all of this is before digital communication in-store is taken into account. Depending on your perspective, in-store communication can be seen as a hindrance rather than a commercial call to action if treated the wrong way. But if it were entirely removed from a store, the lack of ‘noise’ would seem curious and it’s probable that shoppers would overlook great swatches of merchandise.

There is a happy balance to be struck therefore and, if handled in the right way, point of purchase should be an aid for the retailer. The bulk of point of purchase is concerned with informing shoppers about a product, its qualities and giving them a reason to put an item into a basket. And it matters little whether it’s high street or private label brands that are involved; the same rules apply.

Charles Kessler, chairman of London-based point of purchase company Kesslers, says this represents something of a change: “It used to be brands that used point of purchase, but now it’s retailers as well. There’s an awareness of the need for differentiation.” All well and good perhaps, but on the other hand, given that the majority of retailers will sell products that

are similar to those offered by their competitors, this awareness has probably been in place for some time.

Kessler, however, makes the point that point of purchase should be seen as “a continuation of a wider marketing mix” and that it works best when taken in the context of a campaign that might incorporate web, TV and out-of-store print advertising, as well as shelf-level promotions.

With the possible exception of the run-up to Christmas, the majority of in-store branded campaigns tend to remain just that - in-store campaigns. And from a purely practical point of view, the bulk of this remains cardboard with digital still to make any real impact.

Danielle Pinnington, managing director at shopper behaviour consultancy Shoppercentric, says cardboard point of purchase is in the ascendancy, or at least there’s more of it: “There’s actually been a huge increase in the use of cardboard during the recession.” She says for retailers, it keeps costs down, but adds that more cardboard “can be very confusing for shoppers”.

Walk into a branch of POPtastic retailer WHSmith and it’s hard to know which way to turn. Take the greetings card gondolas. These may have shelf “wobblers” (the card that projects from a gondola to inform the shopper about what they are looking at), shelf-edge information and large amounts of overhead promotional material. It’s the visual equivalent of white noise - there’s so much of it that nobody notices what’s going on.

And such is the profusion of messaging that is crowded into a relatively small space that some shoppers may find the whole exercise too complex and turn tail to exit the store.

Also, more may not be more in terms of accuracy. Pinnington says: “There are an increasing number of errors appearing on shelves.” She cites multi-buys, where the price of buying two may actually be the same or more expensive than buying a single item. “The fact that we’re encountering more shopper cynicism and that shoppers are more inclined to check on the details of advertised in-store promotions, makes you feel that shoppers are not as confident as they might be,” says Pinnington.

The question for retailers therefore is at what point is it appropriate to say enough is enough and call a halt to the in-store cardboard deluge? And the answer will probably be that it depends on which sector a retailer happens to work in, although even in more point of purchase-friendly environments such as supermarkets, a line has to be drawn somewhere.

And then there is the digital world. Kessler notes that there was a time when it looked as if digital point of purchase (TV monitors and shelf-edge messages that can be changed at the push of a button) might actually be the coming thing and that cardboard was set to disappear. The demise of Tesco TV and the cost of installation at a time when costs have come under increasing scrutiny has meant that this has not become a reality. “The noise about digital point of purchase sounds like people trying to make a market for themselves,” says Kessler. He continues: “If you put digital point of purchase in as part of the overall mix, it works fine. There is an opportunity for those working using small quantities of this kind of thing.”

He does make the point though, that even allowing for the comparatively substantial cost of installing a system that will let digital point of purchase messaging be a reality, it is still cheap when set against any above the line activity.

Pinnington says digital point of purchase is one of those things that retailers have “dipped in and out of”. She says even though the technology has been in place for a while, the initial enthusiasm for using it was boosted by the sense that if kit was put in place the shoppers will shop. There was relatively little thought given about what might be put on

the screens once they were there. And as in every other form of communication, content remains king.

There is a temptation to think that effective point of purchase that will make shoppers buy is about keeping things to a minimum. This may well be correct. But execution is all, and knowing how shoppers perceive in-store messages, rather than just hoping for the best, is more likely to yield success.