One of the best investments you can make if you have in-store products to sell is in point-of-sale displays. These displays allow you to dramatically increase the impact of your product at the moment it counts most - at purchase time. Of course, such displays are most effective for impulse items or items for which consumers do not have brand loyalty.

Sales increases

Large displays set up in prominent locations in high-traffic stores have been shown to increase the rate of sales by as much as 64 percent over the same items sold from their regular shelf locations.

Set-up

The biggest difficulty in point-of-sale displays is getting retailers to actually use them. Most national retail chains are very selective in deciding which products they will accept for display. They often expect the manufacturer to offer cash incentives for the privilege of allowing you to set up a display in their stores.

Some store managers of national retail chains will make their own decisions as to what displays they will accommodate on their floors, even if you have an agreement with the national office that is backed by cash incentives and guarantees a full chain display program. And even if you do manage to get display exposure, merchants prefer to keep displays up for short periods of time in order to keep the impression of their merchandise mix fresh and appealing to their consumers.

Therefore, I suggest that you stay local or regional and work with those stores locally that are willing to work with you. And there are always programs you can offer to these stores in return for displays. You may not have to offer cash incentives if you have advertising opportunities to barter.

Dumps

Floor displays, commonly referred to as dumps, are most effective if placed at the front of the store. This location guarantees viewing by the maximum number of visiting consumers. This arrangement is the most powerful of all point-of-sale display options.

This type of display is often fabricated out of card stock. But it can be very expensive to manufacture. Typically merchants reserve the display of dumps for their top brands and fastest selling promotions.

Counter displays

Counter displays are sometimes called prepacks when the display also serves double duty as a counter item. Merchants generally use counter displays for low-priced items that a consumer might decide to purchase on impulse while they are waiting for sales assistance or standing at the cash register. Small novelty items are ideal for counter displays.

Counter displays need to be attractive, cute, and even whimsical. They also need to be conservative in space requirements and height so as not to obstruct the line of vision between the sales clerk and the customer.

Posters

Posters are the least inspiring point-of-sale display vehicle when used to attract consumers to products. But they can be very effective in pulling in customers to purchase a product they have heard of before - and, of course, from a cost standpoint, this may be the least expensive.

Shelf talkers

Shelf talkers are signs that appear alongside a given item on the shelf. They can be very effective and, best of all, cost relatively little to produce. They require short, brief copy that can really grab a consumer’s attention.

* Maria L. Novak Dugan is president of Marketing Solutions & Business Development, a firm in West Chester, PA, offering creative marketing services and goal implementation for small & medium sized businesses. For more information, contact Maria at 610-405-0633 or MariaNovak001@yahoo.com or visit www.Maria-L-Novak.com