Tapping into the Point of Purchase Market

Point of Purchase (POP) printing, a valuable and popular source of retail advertising, offers opportunities for printers to gain some of this business,  with some limitations, according to Bill Schober, editorial director for In-Store Marketing Institute of Skokie, IL, which offers tools that keep POP print suppliers on top of the market.

 “There are probably 300-500 serious POP producers out there who are pretty locked in with the big boys,” Schober says. ”If you think you are going to crack the Procter and Gambles of the world right away, you won’t. But, there are a lot of smaller businesses who have a need for signs and displays in which you can gain business.”

 A printer trying to break into the POP market should approach regional retail chains located near their operation. “Since this purchasing is accomplished centrally, running to headquarters is easier if you are close to the home office,” Schober says. “It is a high maintenance business because marketing campaigns change up until the last minute.”

 Printers need to find out when potential customers plan their POP marketing, and where design is accomplished. “POP purchasers plan months and months ahead,” Schober says. “Right now they are already planning for Christmas 2011, not 2010…that planning is already done.”

 Go green

Robert Mormile, Jr. is president of VT Graphics, Inc., a Yeadon, PA firm specializing in the design and manufacture of flexographic printing plates for the POP display and corrugated container industries. “Making sure that the product and the processes to produce are ‘green’ is important,” Mormile says. “More and more companies demand that you produce a green-friendly display.”

Since POP involves multiple material displays, this means that a buyer will want to know where you are getting all your materials from and if these are green. “They want sustainability to the materials, such as foam board, but finding green alternatives to that is a real challenge,” Schober says. Buyers may ask for a plant tour, inquire where you are putting your waste and want information about your other green-friendly initiatives.

 Another growing trend is producing POP displays that meet just-in-time retail inventory requirements. "You have to be able to offer a quick turnaround because inventories change quickly,” Mormile says. “This is frequently coupled with variable printing needs, so printers strong into the digital market can find POP ideal for them.”

 While the flexo printing process is still important and widely used, digital printing capabilities make the print supplier more attractive.

 “The end user more and more is looking to one phone call to handle everything, with that partner being able to deliver on time and offer strong customer service,” Mormile says. VT Graphics even has a wood shop for creating displays, a real selling point as the engineering of a retail display can play a critical role in the design process.

 Blending technology into the POP display is driving a lot of marketing because retail continues to look at better ways to attract people, such as with kiosk interactive units.

 New ideas

 POP print suppliers can stay on top of trends by going into stores and taking note of displays. Schober advises leaving the wallet at home, and paying strict attention to the POP displays, even the apparatuses used for hanging or mounting—the client expects that to be a reliable part of the work, too.

 Buyers are looking for the coolest, lightest weight display available. “A display has to get from a production plant to a distribution warehouse to the loading dock of scores of stores and finally get set up the display floor,” Schober says. “Your ideas have to be more and more sophisticated in order to accomplish this.”