Advertising has become exceedingly important as people have easier access to information about the products they are interested at. Products need to stand out in ways that their competitors can’t and make their existence heard. As activities and competition online increases, innovative ways for distinguishing one’s own products are needed.
What is POP?
Point of Purchase i.e. POP-advertising means advertising for products and services at the places where they are bought. It can be done in macro level (cities, markets and malls) or micro level, where retailers consider a point of purchase to be the area surrounding the counter where customers pay, also known as "point of sale". Usually when speaking of POP people are referring to the micro level of advertising.
POP advertising is built around impulse purchasing. It can for example utilize displays designed to catch a shopper’s eye at the place where payment is made, such as a checkout counter. There are various types of ways to execute point-of-purchase advertising, including different kind of displays, stands, banners, pop-up, posters, wobblers and all types of open and closed display cases. Usually the manufacturer creates and prepare the advertising materials for distribution to the wholesalers or retailers who sell the product.
In the past few years point of purchase for products and services has become an important focus for marketers, because consumers tend to make purchasing decisions on very high-margin products or services at these strategic locations. POP-advertisements also have the power to leave potential customers with a positive image of the product even if it isn’t relevant to them at that moment.
Getting the attention
POP displays and marketing techniques draw attention to particular brands or special offers that create additional value or showcase the advantages of the product. Marketing messages by competitors may be marginalized by an effective POP marketing campaign. Point-of-purchase marketing displays must be attention catching and constantly evolving - after seeing the same display for a few weeks the customer gets tired of it and the ad becomes inefficient.
A good way to keep your offering interesting is to change the content of the ads regularly, switch the offers every now and then and rearrange the display to give it a new interesting look. Constant discounts that always stay the same aren’t as interesting to customers and they don’t give them the feel of urgency to buy the additional product. Because POP-marketing requires a lot of changing and constant development, using easy-to-install and remove materials is recommended.
Want to learn more?
Read more about POP marketing and how one of the biggest Finnish telecommunication groups DNA Plc uses it for their products.
