No TV Commercials? - DVRs Increase the Value of POS Marketing

Today, many adults and children alike are virtually living without TV commercials, thanks to DVR’s. Sure an occasional commercial snippet can be recognized as it whizzes past on the screen at 10 times normal speed, but unless you actually seek out a commercial, it is often possible to watch an entire evening of “commercial” TV fare without seeing even one product commercial.

For most adults there still remains at least the memory of TV commercials; but for a growing number of children (our future shoppers), there is virtually no exposure to overt TV advertising — even though they are exposed “product placements” within the TV programs they watch.

This suggests, for the upcoming generation, point-of-sale marketing may be either the only — or at least the dominant form — of brand and product promotion they will see with any frequency.

Marketing at-Retail

For years shopper marketing mavens have been blowing their own horns, so to speak, on the efficiency and effectiveness of at-Retail Marketing, but many advertising pros have quietly ignored their claims — until recently.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the habits of tech-savvy of children (and some of their Gen X or Gen Y parents) it is this:

Retail marketing is undergoing seismic change, driven by technology, consumer attitudes toward conventional media, the lingering Great Recession, and the very nature of what shoppers classify as retail shopping - bricks and mortar vs. on-line.

TV Commercials vs. Point-of-Sale (POS) Marketing

To build brands and increase sales, investments in at-Retail Marketing, or POS initiatives, must not only increase, they must be tracked, measured and managed for optimum impact. Master this and you will have competitive advantage.

Think of it this way:

Traditional TV commercials are expensive to produce and air, and their overall sales effect is in steep decline.

POS Marketing, on the other hand, remains a relative bargain. It works and its effectiveness is growing. POS, when deployed and managed appropriately has always had the capability of influencing shopper behavior; and now, due to an abundance of recent studies, we know POS has an even greater ROI than we ever imagined.

POS is getting bigger and better all the time!