Feature: In-store marketing: Point of impact

In-store marketing in the UK is among the most advanced in the world but, according to a report from Mintel last month, it still has a way to go. Trends predicted by the Mintel Global New Products Database include increasing use of “multi-sensory experiences” for shoppers. “With consumers, especially young adults, seeking entertainment and stimulation in every aspect of life, retailers will begin to create engaging environments to keep shoppers interested, happy and, most importantly, in the store longer,” the report suggests.

Mintel director David Jago says this will include in-store marketing that appeals to sense of smell by releasing aromas, such as cinnamon, into the air as well as more exciting visual displays, such as TV screens. “It creates theatre and it creates fun,” he says.

This is reflected in the use of point-of-purchase materials (POP) which, when stores allow, are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their support of promotions. “POP is now multi-sensory, using sound, movement and touch to create an interactive experience and to engage with customers, communicating the sales promotion messages more effectively,” says Martin Fawcett, creative director of in-store marketing agency Bezier.

Evidence of this can be seen in Bezier’s work for Asda for Halloween this year [see panel] and its support of the release of Twentieth Century Fox’s DVD of Night at the Museum, which included 6ft roaring three-dimensional dinosaurs and sound-emitting Whispering Windows. “By adding innovative POP such as floor graphics, Whispering Windows and 3D standees, we are ensuring that the store ‘comes to life’, reinforcing the excitement in the film and reflecting the wider campaign message,” Fawcett explains.

He notes that innovation and technology are starting to blur the line between POP and experiential marketing despite the absence of brand ambassadors. “There’s definitely a link developing with experiential, sampling and getting people engaged in a brand,” he says. “We have noticed it in the last few months with our work for Asda, such as Halloween, where the aisle becomes much more of an experience, with floor graphics and more experiential point-of-sale pieces.”

The Mintel report also predicts that sound will be increasingly used as part of in-store marketing, although Jago does not believe British stores will ever get to the same stage as those in Japan where shelves are literally talking to shoppers on a regular basis. Nick Gray, managing director of creative marketing retail agency Live & Breathe, says audio can work but it has to be used with care. It is one of the tools being considered for a major point-of-sale campaign to promote Sport Relief in Sainsbury’s stores next year. “We are looking at employing sound on shelves, which has never been done before in Sainsbury’s,” he says. “There’s potential that sound devices could become annoying if they were shouting ‘buy me’, but because this is for a charity, you can get away with it.”

Whether audio is used or not, Gray promises the Sport Relief activity will be “radical”, use “disruption” and involve “alternative techniques” because “securing cut-through via in-store communications is problematic in most retail sectors”.

Including POP in an integrated campaign helps to achieve cut-through for promotions. “In an environment of marketing messages all vying for attention, innovative POP has become a vital element of sales promotion campaigns,” says Fawcett at Bezier. “POP can add scale and real gravitas to the message, something that on-pack messaging alone struggles to achieve. You can take a sales promotion to extremes and make it feel really eventful. You wouldn’t get the same leverage if it was just on-pack.”

Victoria White, head of sales activation at integrated agency Tullo Marshall Warren, goes as far as to say that, without in-store support, marketing spend on a promotional campaign could be wasted. “If a brand is investing in a lot of other media to support a campaign, much of the value of this investment can be lost if a consumer either cannot find the product in-store or is not reminded to purchase when in-store,” she says. “The in-store investment does not need to be spent creating high-impact materials – the reminder alone can be enough.”

A promotional campaign could also fail if the logistics of the POS support are not properly thought through from an early stage, from materials dispatched by handling houses at the right time through to the assembly and positioning in-store. “Potential problems arise with promotional fixtures that often have to work in very different retail environments, ranging from garage forecourts and CTNs to multiples,” says Mike Garnham, chief executive of MSF Field Marketing. “Even within individual supermarket groups, there are often big differences in the space available for POS. What works in the creative studio is not necessarily practical or adaptable enough to work on the shop floor.”

His solution is for agencies and promoters to involve field marketers in the early stages of planning. Other practical concerns, he says, include making POS easy to assemble and understanding where to site it. “Displays at store entrances may seem a good idea but, by the time consumers reach the relevant aisle, they have been distracted.”

The effectiveness of POP and the different approaches is now being proven through a scientific approach by retail marketing body POPAI UK & Ireland. In partnership with Asda and Morrisons and research specialists RMS In-store, its MARI Proof of Concept research is creating for the first time a way of measuring impact and engagement of POP. The initial data published this month showed that a shopper is exposed to 1.6 pieces of in-store marketing material every second, and then looks at and engages with an individual display every three seconds.

According to POPAI UK & Ireland director general Martin Kingdon, this provides the industry with “the tools they need to make a strong and irrefutable case for POP to take its rightful place at the heart of the marketing mix”.

CASE STUDY: Asda Halloween

Asda brought to life its Halloween merchandise and promotions this year by creating “Asda Family” haunted houses, using sound and motion, in stores (pictured).

Bezier transformed a designated aisle into rooms relating to different Asda Family characters, accessed through black curtains. They featured “creepy” chandeliers, hanging beams and broken floorboard graphics, watched over by shuddering monsters and ghoulish glowing eyes.

Steph Hughes, events POS manager at Asda, said it added “a sense of fun and occasion to the stores”.

Nina Butt, business unit director at Bezier, added: “By adding sound and movement into this year’s campaign, it gives the merchandise an extra point of interest and is fun for both adults and children browsing the aisle.

“Interactivity and adding something extra is more important than ever to grab shoppers’ attention in an environment full of marketing messages all vying for attention.”