The times evolve in a dizzying way and our society is increasingly competitive. New advertising formulas emerge to reach a consumer increasingly saturated with information. Statistics in hand reveal that the final purchase decision is made at 70% within the place of sale, so it becomes a determining point at the advertising level.
Defining Advertising at the Place of Sale (POS) is a somewhat complicated task, since everything used in order to attract the consumer may be susceptible to this definition. This type of advertising, and especially that carried out on a cardboard support, has progressed a lot in recent years and there is an increasing presence of these elements on the market.
The POS sector offers a wide range of possibilities since the raw materials used every day are better and its range of applications and transformations is enormous.
DESIGN AND PRICE The influence of design on the effectiveness of Advertising in the Place of Sale (POS) is such that it must be carefully considered whether it is really convenient to buy an integrated «pack» or whether it is more profitable to contract the different services separately…
The POS sector offers a wide range of possibilities
There are many factors that make it competitive:
- Firstly, its great facility to be personalized, and therefore, it makes it possible to highlight an element against its competition. Secondly, the increasing quality of presentation coupled with a quick production response and highly reasonable costs..
From a critical point of view, it is worth noting the great saturation of elements that accumulate in exhibition. On many occasions, authentic “forests” of these are observed in the struggle to highlight each other.
Going deeper into the analysis, it can be seen that the different elements are, in many cases, very similar aesthetically - with a tendency towards standardization - with only slight modifications as a customization.
This is mainly due to the fact that, in most cases, designers in the sector are linked to production companies, which conditions a more creative vision. In these cases, production times and costs prevail. For practical reasons, the designer is forced to take the easier path, often becomes one more link in the production chain and "serial designs" are made.
This environment is based almost exclusively on speed of response. Thus, it is common that when a client needs to carry out a promotion, several producers are summoned to develop the idea. After a “few” days, each of them will have presented several versions of their proposals to cover more possibilities, turning the client's office into a true “flea market” for designs, compared to which various problems may arise:
- Quantity takes precedence over quality; many designs with poor presentation quality. Often they have not been properly studied and do not meet all the requirements demanded by the client. Given such a variety of designs, the client may like the proposal of a producer, but the costs and way of working on the other, commercially uncomfortable situations occur. On other occasions very spectacular elements are made, in order to differentiate themselves from the competition, which are not related to the product they promote, even going so far as to harm their image.
The design price is often hidden in the cost of production
Surprisingly, and unlike other advertising modalities, the designs presented by a producer are, apparently, free for the final client; totally wrong feeling since in practice they are camouflaged in the price of production. This situation sometimes turns against the producer himself, since it is complex to maintain the balance between the number of designs presented and the productions finally made. They are therefore in a difficult and uncomfortable position since, if they were charged they would cease to be competitive, but if they do not, they nullify the value of one of the main sales arguments: “design”.
As a logical evolution, design studios and consultancies specialized in Advertising at the Place of Sale (POS) begin to appear throughout Europe. Many of them are made up of professionals from the sector who want to present new options and new designs. This offer complements the existing one - companies related to advertising and traditional graphic design - which had already been offering some POS elements in cardboard, but mainly limited to packaging. The world of POS is much more: desktop displays, floorstands, infodisplays, box-pallets, etc.
In this new offer, designers and consultants do not have productive pressure on them, which results in superior quality in the solutions presented. Their ideas do not have to be limited by the type of machinery of a specific company, and they present the “ready to produce” works. Do the designs charge ?, obviously yes. Are they competitive with respect to the “integral” offers of the producers.
Definitely yes, let's see why:
- Firstly, it should be noted that these do not appear as direct competition of the producers, but as a complement within a POS project.They treat the design of the solution as such, without influences from the production phase, but with the reliability that their proposals are perfectly achievable by the tools and methods of the sector. Once the client has the developed design in his hands, he is free to decide which producer interests him the most, be it for costs or work methodology.
Combine the best of both worlds: design and price, with complete freedom.
Conclusion: an element designed by an independent study allows choosing the most suitable producer, obtaining a more effective and economically balanced commercial result. Therefore a question remains in the air, is there a price for freedom?
