How often do you drop by a supermarket to fetch a few basic items and end up at the checkout stand with your cart full? In all probability, you haven’t ever paid attention why so many impulsive purchases take place when you’re at a store, a brick-and-mortar one, not online. To a great extent, your unplanned expenditures can be owed to POSM.
You might have never heard this term before, but you’ve seen what it represents thousands of times. POSM stands for Point of Sale Materials (also known as Point of Sale Display) – advertising carriers placed in points of sale of a specific product. They are extremely versatile – from specialized stands and desks to posters, danglers, shelf branding, leaflets and dispensers, standees etc.
POSM are often defined as Below the Line branding activities. However, they are in fact very effective in getting the message across to the audience when it is pressed for time at the point of purchase. Actually, POSM does a whole bunch of activities beneficial for marketing and helping drive sales:
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Attracting customers’ attention to a product
Customers often subconsciously “stumble upon” bright stands that showcase a product which they otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. The same work is done by various shelf edge materials, danglers (signs hanging from the ceiling) etc.
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Providing useful information about the product
Focusing your POS materials on the right facts about a product can make a huge difference to the potential customers, who might be simply unaware of how awesome it is.
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Stimulating impulsive purchase
POS displays are often found at the checkout, accompanied by professional images that make it hard to resist the urge to buy and where there is not much time to think everything over.
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Increasing visibility
In many cases, customers may be lost among the diversity of the products within a category, and make their choice based on the familiarity of a brand/product/design.
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Boosting brand awareness
While not directly connected to the sales volume at a specific POS, brand recognition definitely works for the advertiser’s benefit in the long run.
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Making the brand/product stand out among the competitors
In the battle for customers’ attention and favour, nothing is trifle. So, if you can remind of your brand once again via placing your POS materials in a store – don’t hesitate to do so!
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Navigating customers
About 10% of failed purchases happen because customers simply can’t find the items they need. Effective POS display items can point out the location of your product in the specific store and make it really noticeable. You take care of your audience – and get your product off the store shelves in exchange.
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Accentuate hot new products
Point of Sale Materials should be an obligatory part of your advertising campaign aimed at presenting the new product. It lets reach those customers who aren’t reached through other media channels, create awareness and win more purchases.
Wrapping up
Around 70% of purchase decisions are made in-store, therefore effective POS displays can drastically influence sales volume for a specific product or brand. They are a means of creating a positive image, and do a great job of driving sales of your product without involving any human resources.
Sure, creating the point of sale materials will incur additional expenses, but if you wouldn’t like to miss another chance to point out your great product/brand to the customers when they are in the “buying mode”, consider them an effective investment.
