In the business world sales have to be made in order to cover the cost of production. The market though has many factors that control it; one of them is demand versus supply. This is the main driving factor in the production industry, but when it comes to production one has to try and gain the largest portion of the customers this leads to the use of sales promotion techniques, these techniques include; point of purchase displays, marketing rebates, customer contests and free travel promotions.
Point of purchase displays are a form of communication that is directed mostly to the consumer market, the display can be done in many forms and media but all are aimed at one common goal, to ensure that a specific product is more popular that the other equivalents. This is one of the most used methods of promotion though the customer hardly notices it as a promotion aspect of business. Malls, wholesale and retail shops are some of the businesses that use this technique to popularize a certain product, though in most cases the manufacturer is involved.
The first point that point of purchase displays aim to achieve is attracting customers. The methods used to achieve this may vary but the common factor in all is the increment in appeal. It has been observed that customers are attracted to beautifully packaged or decorated products, this is the reason that most companies opt to have colorful packaging that are associated with colors that will be catching to the eye. More than color the other aspect that is being explored is the packaging shape; this is usually used on products that are packaged in containers. Sachets cannot be covered in this aspect since they cannot be formed in lone standing shapes, the plastics are the most covered when it comes to creating attraction by shape. Point of purchase displays are not limited to products alone, stores and shops too use this method of promotion to attract customers. It is common to see stores that have been decorated on their exterior and interior so as to create a huge impression on customers, this is a gimmick that is mostly used in the hospitality and tourism industry but it has spread its uses to the retail sector of business.
Introducing new products in an already covered market sector needs more customer and trade promotions. The main goal of the new product manufacturers is to inform the customer of the qualities of the new product. Point of purchase displays is used in collaboration with other advertising methods, it has proven to work since it is an easy way to interact with the customers at a level they can pay attention to the goods. Informing customers of goods that are absent in the market won’t work so instead of trying to create anticipation as the fashion industry one should try out point of purchase displays in promoting the sales of newly manufactured products.
With introduction of a variety of products covering the same line, one will need to persuade customers to choose ones product. The main goal of using point of purchase displays is to influence the customers to make purchases on the products, these can be done in two ways; one is that the point of purchase displays will be used to influence the customers decision to the point of them making an impulse purchase.
The other factor that is made by using point of purchase displays is the establishment of popularity in a specific brand of products. This is useful to the retailer, wholesaler and the product manufacturer, it associates a certain point of purchase display to a brand and thus any resemblance to it will remind the customer of a specific product.
