How do you know which display is better?

How do you know if one point of sale material (POSM) is better than another? It is a difficult question but with a consistent methodology you can get to a solid answer.

I find myself often critiquing marketing activations whether they are TV, social media, point of sale material, billboards and so on.  I cannot seem to go through a store without taking a picture of a display because something caught my eye.  That is what happened in these two occasions when I saw some displays for wine. 

I recently was at a Drugstore in the US and I found it odd to run into the display of Josh wine where I was not expecting to see a wine display which was on the way to the cash register.  It was interesting to me to see where they put that display. A sales or a merchandiser individual looks for space in the store in a priority order and gets permission to place that display where there is room. It made me realize that they were quite clever to put that display in a key location as most people would walk by it and especially people in a hurry that are going to someone’s house and need to bring something they can stop at a Drugstore that also acts like a Convenience Store to pick up something quick.  They had chocolates, cards, flowers, wine and beer all in the same area.  That is a shopper solution – knowing that shoppers will be in need of some of these things for a special occasion such as visiting a friend. A problem would be that the product was not cold so it could not be for a quick purchase to take to someone’s home immediately. It would have to be more planned so there is time to chill if it is white or prosseco specifically.

In another instance, I was in Porto, Portugal visiting a discounter store and I pleasantly ran into the display for Altano wine.  Most of the displays in that discount store were just stacks of product that primarily only showed boxes with logos or the actual product on cardboard trays.  The Altano display caught my eye because I felt it was talking to me.  I saw the cozy fun experience the group was having enjoying the wine and how the bottle of Altano wine is what gave them that experience.  That emotionally connected with me. 

Seeing these two very different executions of wine displays led me to ask that question in my Linked in post where I got all of the great comments I will place at the end of this blog.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7056800262249668608/

Let me walk you through how I think of evaluating these displays.  In a simple way I go through a quick 5 Cs checklist:  Is it Cut Through, is it Consistent with the Brand, is it Clear, does it Connect emotionally and is there an opportunity to connect digitally in an exciting way and finally, does it have a Call to Action.  That is a simple way to evaluate.  However to do it properly you really need to consider a lot more things such as:

Mission: What is the shopper mission (what they need and within what constraints)

Channel: What channel/retailer can solve their needs

Category: What categories are they considering

Think, see, do? What is the shopper seeing, thinking, doing?

Triggers & Barriers: What would make them buy and what is stopping them from buying

Brand priorities: What was the brand trying to accomplish, what should the brand be saying to the shopper with this marketing material

Placement: Where should the ideal place be to place this element

Retailer: How does this fit the retailer brand positioning and are there limitations the retailer is imposing

Measures: How do you ensure the display is effective and efficient. Does it maximize the amount of product in the footprint of the display, does it hold up to time (white is one you must be careful with as it can get very dirty especially at the base if people mop the floors), are the materials strong enough to hold the weight of wine, what sales uplift metrics will you use, are you measuring the ability to build brand equity? How will you measure success?

Because I was not running a workshop but I was just walking through the store I only evaluated the displays quickly in my head using the 5Cs:

Cut Through:  I thought the white Josh display cut through well because it has good contrast vs the rest of the environment. However, Altano catches your eye because of the positive disruption and faces that are known to catch your eye.  The displays cut through in a different way.

Consistent: I thought Altano was more consistent with the brand as I could better understand the brand vs the very simple Josh display that did not tell me much about the brand.

Clear:  I thought the Josh display was more clear and very simple to understand than the Altano.  The Josh display helped people naviage the category faster, understand what each wine offered with simple descriptions.

Connect: The Altano display was much stronger in establishing an emotional connection with the shopper.  Showing people lifestyle images that they can relate to helps the connection with a setting of an occasion that is relevant to wine was well done.  The QR code was too low and not compelling for anyone to scan.

Call to Action:  Neither displays had a call to action nor a claim to help a shopper choose. Altano visual at least showed people consuming which could indirectly encourage a call to action but still short of it. Some ideas for example could be touting the points rating of the wine as both of the wines houses have wines that score 90+ which would help a shopper choose them as they are high quality wines. Putting a neck hanger with an offer to entice purchase or helping them choose would be helpful.  This is where a QR code could be useful. Even simple words like taste, enjoy, experience would help.

In my opinion after doing a quick 5Cs checklist I feel Altano is stronger (but not by much) as noted in my comments above.  In addition, in my opinion Connect is the most important C as it builds brand equity and doesn’t just strive to sell and the Altano display delivered on Connect much better than the Josh display.

To use the methodology more precisely than just in my head, for this blog, I decided to do the actual analysis and I ran the images through 3M VAS and the Josh display cut through better than Altano as you can see in this picture.  The Josh display showed an 85% probability that the shopper will see somewhere within the marked area in the first 3-5 seconds vs Altano at a 61% probability thus confirming that Josh seems to cut through well due to the contrast vs the environment. They both cut through but one was stronger than the other.

Then I answered 13 questions I have in a methodology, which I continue to evolve, to assess the 5Cs and the scores were:  9 out of 13 possible points for Altano which could improve in Cut Through, Clear and Call to Action.  7 out of 13 possible points for Josh which I would recommend to re-design specifically improving the Emotional Connection.  Both should consider leveraging connecting to digital – to get point ratings, reviews, pairing recommendations, etc. plus when you connect with digital you have data to then use for further improvements and lead to performance marketing.

Based on all of this Altano is the display that to me wins this 5Cs exercise but without knowing all of the other questions I stated above it is difficult to assess which display is better than the other.  I would normally work with a team and make sure to understand all the other considerations and then apply the 5Cs for a true evaluation.

Hope this helps in the quest to improve brand activations that build brand equity and sell.

Any questions reach out to me directly alex@xprtsuite.com.

Here I post all the awesome comments from the Linkedin post:

•Dobromir Cias: I think that Altano POSM will perform better.  It has a slightly better chance of attracting attention from afar (cut-through), it relates to the category in a more consistent way through symbols, it has a clearly visible dominant visual element so it is (counterintuitively) clearer despite the white design having a better visible product (contrast). Above all, Altano's design incorporates elements that have a chance to build a connection with buyers through lifestyle elements, the presence of people and a better promise associated with wine consumption. The white POSM is definitely more oriented towards the exposure of the SKUs. Different strategy, different product positioning :-)

•Thanks for your reply Alex, I was hoping to provoke you a bit because of course what I wrote is derived from our work together and to a large extent "your school" - the approach which I had the pleasure to learn from you. You are right, as in any field - technical analysis must be accompanied by a good knowledge of categories and semiotics of the local market. Interesting are the discrepancies in the comments that show this well - for some white POSM means premium, for others a richer color palette referring to wine is more premium. What is difficult is the technical analysis without a good knowledge of the brand and campaign key visuals. After all, if we understand POSM as simply some element of brand execution, it's hard to draw conclusions at all without knowing the brands and their communication strategies. Thanks for our cooperation and discussions; always very inspiring :-)

•Kathy Finnerty Thomas: The white label seems like a better quality wine. I don't usually find great wine with vivid primary color labels.

•Chiara Mrugalla: Wine is generally a more premium category where people might tend to use more time to read through descriptions if they plan to buy wine. But a display like this is supposed to trigger impulse, so easy decoding is most important. Research shows we humans connect and react on seeing other humans doing what we would like to do/see us self doing in the near future. Therefore I’ll think the Altano display checks more points for an effective execution, it also looks more premium.

•Fran Herrera: definetly the white shows transparency and clients like to see what they are buying also check the type they prefer like merlot ,Cabernet S.but I think for the red you can make a mixture with red and white and name the wine like Syrah or etc y ajudar a los clientes si le gusta un vino suave fuerte encorpado como es el Cabernet Sauvignon etc y poner en el futuro una monitora saludos y salud 🍷🇨🇱wine is a choice in the paladar

•Steve Laino:  I think an objective SellCheck report combined with the opinions of these awesome marketers would give us the best answer, thoughts? :-)

•Duamar Armira: I prefer the white one. A more elegant and traffic disruptive solution. The other one seems a little off it looses major impact due to the color scheme

•Abilash Kaleeka: Based on the visibility, stock capacity and branding I prefer Altano display. In my opinion, based on demand we categorized the products in each shelves.

•Rupert Anderton: I think the white better helps guide consumers in the category. The Altano display whilst showing an occasion seems more confusing for those trying to navigate the category

•Rabih Assy: Altano for sure

•Ana Gabriela Estrella: I rather prefer the Altano exhibition because with the image they show a call to action and also invite to a consume occasion so I think it’s a better option than just show the different categories of the product, maybe this one could work in an especialized store more than in a supermarket.

•Miguel Bautista: Without the benefit of know each brand strategy, one exhibition is trying to create a emotional connection with the consumer and build brand awareness (the picture of lady’s gathering, the big product shot, clear branding on the top of the display, social media channels, and QR code to get more info of the product), the other exhibition is just trying to sell wine (lack of emotion, lack of color, cheapy material on the display) but maybe that’s the strategy, communicate affordability, hard sell.
If those are the strategies, then each brand is executing correctly.

•Doreen DiSalvo: It really depends on the consumer decision tree. Mentally I go to Josh since it is a brand I trust, after that it is color/varietal.

•David Forsyth: Agree, Altano checks many emotional categories, however having to make a buy decision I would purchase the Josh wine