The Hindu Business Line : Top of the POPs

A MARKETING message is much like a feather's journey. It drifts from the company's nest, floats with the wind and hovers on a communications agency. The next whiff of breeze, and it lands on the retailer's floor.

For a marketer the retailer's aisle is the last mile. A place where the message can end up unnoticed or can be picked up and treasured by a customer. Brand custodians call it the moment of truth.

"The moment of truth, when the consumer finally makes up his mind to add a product to his shopping cart, is emerging as an area to focus a lot of our attention," says Deepak Jayraman, popularly known as Deejay. He is the director of D-Mart, retail specialist unit at the media buying and planning major Group M.

The story of the great Indian retail scenario has been told often, but too little attention has been paid to how brands fight each other to be noticed at the retail end. The primary vehicles available to gain attention in-store are posters, cut-outs, backlights and danglers, which announce or remind customers of various offerings.

However, the effectiveness of point-of-purchase (POP) materials is questionable for many reasons. They rarely connect with consumers. Retailers detest crowding their space with posters and danglers, especially when they leave glue marks and gather dust.

"The challenge is really interesting in India where traditional retail contributes to over 90 per cent of retail sales. The average outlet sizes of these are around 80 - 120 sq. ft. and they stock at least 50-odd brands from various product categories," says Deejay.

There is also an industry perception that retail advertising today is largely managed by the sales force whose primary focus is sales and not visibility.

The POP industry claims to have become the visual arm, encompassing store design, visual merchandising, point-of-purchase, store construction and exhibit design. But it still needs to address the highly cluttered environment of over 25-30 brands at any point of time trying to catch the consumers' attention.

"I guess POP is the medium. Maybe it has to move up the value chain in an attempt to involve the consumer," said Mukesh Manik, Regional Managing Director, 3D Media Solutions India (3DMSI), before unfolding a host of radical product offerings in retail advertising.

Unlike most POP manufacturers, Manik claims to be the only one to offer the 3D volumetric projection system (VPS). This enables projecting 3D images mid-air. So once the imaging is done, you could have a Coke can revolving in mid-air (spooky, what?). Yes, you can also put your hand through it. Compare this with posters of unfamiliar models brandishing various brands. Cut the clutter is the mantra.

Research studies have shown that 70 per cent of buying decisions are arrived at within the store, Deejay from D-Mart claims. He adds, "These solutions are just the right medium to break the clutter. Such technology helps in providing the right tools to interest the consumer and engage him within the retail environment."

The VPS has completed its beta phase and bagged a patent for the technology. It was launched at POP Asia 2005 held in Mumbai last month. It is currently scouting for interested parties. The system costs around Rs 1.5 lakh and can be leased out to retail outlets.

"The VPS is not for sale, as clients would not like to make a capital investment in such units and would prefer using it for a short campaign, usually 3-6 months. The entire rental paid also has a tax write-off making it even more viable for clients," Manik pointed out.

Flooring of the retail outlets is another area, which quite a few POP manufacturers have attempted to exploit. But getting a 3D image adds spice to the whole visual effect. 3DMSI has a host of products which actually gives the impression of the image rising up from the floor.

"Media are generally tailored to deliver on stated brand objectives. I guess it all boils down to how best one uses the available space at any outlet. And what better place to engage a consumer to build your brand than the place where he can actually touch, feel, interact with it?" says Deejay.

Incidentally, the Group M division and 3DMSI have an alliance. D-Mart works on the strategic inputs for use of 3D graphics at consumer touchpoints while the latter brings in its creative and design strengths and also manages production.

They have worked on two brand campaigns till now: Domex, the disinfectant cleaner from Hindustan Lever Ltd and Manhattan cards from Standard Chartered Bank. In the Domex campaign, floor graphics were used as an advertising tool and not in-store POP. For Manhattan cards, the campaign focused on Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. It was rolled out across Barista outlets and most malls in these cities. The primary criterion used to arrive at the malls was the catchment from which consumers frequent these malls. Other parameters considered were consumer profile and its fit with the target group of Manhattan.

"Our research found that 25-30-year-olds usually spend time in malls and multiplexes. Using the innovativeness at the point of sale (POS), we initiated unconventional dialogue with our target audience during the Manhattan Card launch," said Sugato Banerjee, Marketing Head, Standard Chartered Bank.

While the Manhattan campaign was carried out for two months, the Domex 3D stickers were placed for three months.

Interestingly, even retail major Shoppers' Stop employed these 3D floor graphics as part of its brand-building exercise last Diwali. The campaign involved visually captivating graphics for its in-house promotion on free diamond offers to First Citizen club members.

"In their brief, they wanted to show a diamond mine on the floor with their diamonds on offer. It was quite challenging as it is very difficult to translate the brilliance of the diamond on to graphic material," Manik said.

3DMSI completed the installation across all the 16 outlets spanning eight cities in just 48 hours before the Diwali rush. The graphic was again visually deceiving, showing an open wooden door with coal inside, on which was shown the diamond jewellery on offer. The campaign ran for two months from November 15 to January 15 of this year.

"We used the floor dispensing for the first time. No doubt it was an attention-grabbing campaign. However, the customer feedback was mixed. Lot of people did stand to see, but there were others who did not react to it," said EVR Chakravarthy, General Manager (Loyalty), Shoppers' Stop Ltd.

"It has a lot of intangible benefits as against other visual merchandising. However, design and art will play a key role in such campaigns," he added.

According to deductions of a comparative study conducted by Leeds University in 2001, 3D images have 72.5 per cent more impact than 2D. They have an overall 44 per cent increased recollection as against 20 per cent increased recollection through 2D images.

The recommended size for maximum visibility is 4 ft x 3 ft, and prices range from Rs 850 per graphic to Rs 2,800 per graphic of the standard size (3 ft x 2 ft). The graphics are cost-effective as they have a very long life at the point of sale, usually 3-6 months for short duration campaigns and up to 18 months for longer campaigns.

Though such graphics have an upper hand over posters and danglers, this business still needs to come to terms with measurement of the medium and return on investment offered. For instance, the Domex campaign was a branding exercise (installed at malls and multiplexes) as opposed to a POP exercise (used in supermarkets and POS) so it was virtually impossible to measure the efficiency. In the case of malls and multiplexes, the area is too wide so one cannot place stickers everywhere. But in case of POS, a distinct eye-catching creative would be placed near a shelf containing a brand. Any purchase decision can be recorded, and hence the whole exercise can be measured.

"Yes, we are exploring different ways to measure the ROI of these spends. It would largely involve going with a set of control outlets as compared to other similar outlets. Given the dynamic nature of the environment it could be time-consuming and relatively tedious," says Deejay.

In the case of Manhattan, though, the graphics installed at Barista and other retail outlets had an SMS number for viewers to respond. As a result, it was much easier to measure.

Assuming that the measurement aspects of the medium would be tackled in course of time, the first-mover advantage in this aspect of brand building could help most brands managers chart a new road map.

The message is loud and clear: the third dimension is definitely clutter-breaking, and a virgin market by itself. As for the feather, it can rest, and stay treasured.

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