John Ryan
RETAIL ENVIRONMENT
Signs of the
times
Getting your point of sale signage right can make a massive difference to how you market your goods to the consumer, says John Ryan
“Less really is more when it comes to getting people to look at what you have lovingly visually merchandised, as the product will do a lot of the talking’’
48 www.greetingstoday.media
I
walked into a supermarket recently - it was one of the big four. It would be churlish to name names as all are as guilty as each other, but the party in question had a long aisle devoted to ‘Greeting Cards’. And how, you may be inclined to ask, did your correspondent come to the conclusion that this was what was on display? Well, probably because there were a lot of cards grouped together on a tiered display. But in case there was any doubt, for most of the length of this aisle there were bus stop-style shelf-edge signs stating, ahem, ‘Greeting Cards’. Now, perhaps there are a few unlucky people who have never received a greeting card before, but for the most part it seems safe to assume that shoppers walking this aisle might actually have worked out what they were looking at. Welcome to the world of superfluous point-of-sale signage. At the far end of this aisle there was a sector reserved for ‘Adult’ cards. There is more ambiguity here for the simple reason that Adult means different things to different people. For some, it will mean smut-laden missives of the kind that are meant to be funny. This was a family supermarket however, so it turned out to mean cards that were aimed at those who were, say 18, 30, 40, 50, and suchlike.
So here’s the other point. Inaccurate signage can lead the reader to jump to a whole series of pretty inappropriate conclusions: precision is all if this is to be avoided. Yet, perhaps by being less than focused in this respect, shoppers might cast an eye over an offer that might otherwise be ignored. Whether this is the case or not, consider what might happen if there were no signage. Would the cards speak for themselves? To a considerable degree the answer to this will be yes, but even allowing for savvy shoppers, guidance of some kind is required. The finer point that has to be wrestled with is; how much? Stating the obvious is broadly unhelpful, expensive and a waste of the retailer’s time and the supermarket customer’s limited attention span. Like everywhere else, in an environment of this kind, a simple overhead sign informing shoppers where the cards are to be found is all that’s needed, and endless repetition of the same message will do little to persuade a reluctant shopper to scrutinise what’s on the piece of equipment involved. The same supermarket, by the way, had a perimeter module filled
with different sorts of potatoes and above this a sign that announced, predictably, ‘Potatoes’. Does nobody think that products are in themselves self-advertising and that visual pollution is the curse of many retail environments of varying types? Less really is more when it comes to getting people to look at what you have lovingly visually merchandised, as the product will do a lot of the talking. And card retailers are high among the culpable when it comes to behaving like this – there frequently seems to be no end to the subcategories that have been dreamt up, from ‘Art’ to ‘It’s a boy/girl’. Yes, your shoppers do need a gentle prod, but it is in the nature of greeting cards that they are like books - with a general pointer, a lot of browsing will be done, even if this takes place at speed. As an exercise therefore, it is worth taking a good look at your shop’s greeting card selling space and seeing what might be done to reduce the visual burden that you have imposed on those giving your offer the once-over. Your customers will thank you and they might even buy.
John Ryan is Stores Editor of Retail Week, a position he has held for more than two decades, and managing director of Newstores, a daily information service on what’s new in retail across the world. @newstores | www.newstores.co.uk | 07710 429926
