It’s been a bumpy year, and you’ve set out your stall to win on the Christmas retail battleground. With fewer than 8 weeks to go, if your plans aren’t on track – it’s time to harness your in-store POP little helpers.
Pre-Christmas, there’s lots to do and seemingly fewer people to do it. So, fully exploiting your existing external support systems can lighten your load and often reduce cost or complexity within your organisation. We’ve outlined a few suggestions for how you could better utilise your marketing agencies to help you achieve your Christmas targets.
Streamline agency briefings
As participators in several inter-agency meetings, we’re used to combining our 50 years of Point of Purchase experience with other Above-The-Line (ATL) and Below-The-Line (BTL) agency contributors – and we’ve seen this approach increasingly adopted by brands who need to deliver an integrated marketing campaign, particularly at pace. So, what are the benefits?
For one thing, inter-agency sessions save valuable diary time, with virtual conference meetings further cranking down travel hours and avoiding the need to schedule separate ‘check-ins’ with each stakeholder on your project. They also eradicate those ‘lost-in-translation’ complications when objectives, roles and responsibilities, budgets and timelines are discussed as a group. Important co-dependencies can then be shared, milestones agreed and possible roadblocks addressed – giving a time-critical project plan more cohesion and the best chance of success.
Create seasonal displays that are easy to set-up
Be realistic about what really happens in-store at this time. Anticipating that regular staff will be over-stretched, you’ll be relying on additional store colleagues hired for the season to help you cope with the increased footfall – and these recruits will generally have little experience dressing windows or setting up an FSDU. So, even the most eye-catching shop display, if overly complex to set up, will end up discarded.
We know it’s competitive out there, and retailers need to lure shoppers through the doors, so our design team can advise you of imaginative ways to add some Christmas sparkle. Or, try these simple ideas:
Christmas lights always work well, and because they’re a colourful and flexible, plug-and-play device even newbie staff can liven up a shop window or hotspot area. They are a favourite with Visual Merchandisers – ideal for adding movement, depth, shadow or silhouette.
Security sensor sleeve graphics at the shop front are easy to install and a great way to add flashes of colour whilst flagging offers or sales, at the same time camouflaging an otherwise functional piece of store furniture.
Crisp snow scenes also quickly transform a plinth giving it a festive feel, while the brilliant white provides maximum contrast with your brightly packaged seasonal merchandise.
This year, we predict that those retailers and shopping centres creating thoughtfully designed, interactive shopping environments that engage the senses and lift our mood, will be rewarded with the highest footfall – leaning into the general public’s continued desire for value-added, immersive brand experiences.
Incorporate processes maximising product or store performance
Regardless of anything else, the focus must be on always having adequate stock on the shop floor. Impulse POP can offer display installation services and also manage replenishment programmes for brands and retailers, ensuring that product loaders like Counter Top Display units (CTUs) or Free Standing Display units (FSDUs), brimming with stock destined for our Christmas stockings are safely despatched – avoiding the perils of poor in-store compliance.
Alternatively, suppose a product line is not performing well. In that case, Impulse POP has an agile display team that can retrieve, reskin or remerchandise semi-permanent display units in-store, swapping in better-performing lines or packsizes. This exercise works best as part of a coordinated Store Activation Plan in-step with your advertising or promo campaign – so that stock is in place to capitalise on demand uplift in targeted distribution channels.
Impulse POP can also conduct retail store surveys on your behalf. Timely and accurate store data could give your stores the edge when mapped against local competitor activity. So, if you haven’t factored in the impact of Wilko’s stores closing within the next few weeks – don’t wait. Who wins at Christmas might be the retailer that’s quickest off the mark to pick up the slack.
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