Using POS Marketing to Turn Consumer Disloyalty into an Opportunity

According to research from POPAI (The Global Association for Marketing at-Retail), GMA (Grocery Manufacturers Association) and IRI Research (SymphonyIRIGroup):

• Only 5% of consumers are loyal to a brand, and only 26% are loyal to a retailer

Over $20 billion is spent annually on at-retail promotions (in the US alone) to create loyalty to brands, products and retailers. So these loyalty figures are cause for great concern. But they may also be cause for optimism for the many manufacturers who bring over 32,000 new consumer goods products to market every year.

If consumers were steadfastly loyal to one brand, it would be much, much more difficult to successfully launch a new competing brand. Knowing that only 5% remain loyal to one brand keeps the doors open 95% of the time for the latest and greatest products to have their day in the sun. Of course, only 5% of the consumers who have switched (to your new product) will build any loyalty to your brand. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, right?

Correct - And the ways to keep on winning are to create and deploy compelling Point-of-Sale (POS) marketing campaigns.

What is POS Marketing?

At this point we probably should step back and define what “POS Marketing” actually means. There may be many definitions in the market, but here’s our perspective:

POS Marketing includes advertising and promotional campaigns such as:

• Signage and banners
• Shelf-clips, strips and talkers
• Semi-permanent and permanent displays
• Product packaging 
• Product sampling
• Table tents, brochures and menus
• Instant coupons
• Product placement

POS can be a very effective marketing tool especially since it is being seen at the “the moment of truth”. When POS marketing materials are well thought out, properly executed, and are tracked and measured, they are bound to attracts the shopper’s attention and promote brand equity.

• Fact: POS Marketing is the most efficient and cost-effective tool for improving sales, profitability and brand loyalty

How to Make POS Marketing Pay Off

Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers who have invested in POS Marketing have seen its benefits. Those who consider POS Marketing a Core Business Practice have seen increased sales, stronger brand equity and improved loyalty. In fact, some companies go so far as to change their structure to recognize and support POS Marketing by allocating resources within their sales and marketing functions to focus on the creation of POS Marketing materials and POS Marketing campaign execution - Internally or externally.

To these companies, successful POS Marketing is a comprehensive process that includes:

• Identifying POS Campaign objectives - Increase sales and improve brand recognition
• Concept and content development
• Graphics and design
• Production — approval, design, printing, and placement  
• Execution at the point-of-sale
• Compliance monitoring
• Tracking, measuring and analyzing the ROI, achievement of campaign objectives
• Reporting and interpreting results for the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers
• Recovering POS Marketing costs from manufacturers or suppliers
• Planning the next campaign

Although this list may seem like a series of daunting tasks, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers often have resources to assist each other with their POS Marketing campaigns.

Other industry players — including OnTrak Software — have created tools to help these companies track, measure and manage the POS Marketing process.

Summary

POS Marketing has been around since the beginning of retail. Right now, it is leading significant change in the consumer goods market. Rather than being just signs that display the prices of products, POS Marketing continues to grow in its capability to drive sales and create and increase brand loyalty and equity.

Now is the time to build, implement and manage POS Marketing capabilities within your organization. But you can’t manage something that you don’t measure. However, through the use of POS Marketing Technology, you can turn that 95% lack of brand loyalty into a golden opportunity.