Point of Purchase (POP)
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Point of Purchase (POP) refers to any complimentary marketing materials that you (the wholesaler) provide your retailers with to help them sell your product to their customers. In this respect, POP is different from your brand book and sell sheet, which are sales materials that help you sell your product to buyers.
POP materials are especially nice to offer to new accounts, as a little bonus something to nudge them into pulling the trigger on that first purchase. Your existing accounts will appreciate them too, and hopefully you’ll see the payoff in the form of more frequent reorders.
What follows are some POP ideas, but really, your imagination is the limit. As always, whatever you choose to create, keep it on brand. Make it beautiful and enticing too, so that buyers will want it in their stores. If you have little or no marketing budget, there is no sense in creating cheap materials that will cheapen your brand and be a turnoff for your buyers. Just focus on whatever you can do well within your budget.
Since your packaging is already functioning as a little billboard for your brand, POP materials should supplement and/or build upon what you’ve already achieved with your packaging, rather than simply repeating it. According to the Rule of Seven in marketing, a prospective end consumer needs to hear or see your marketing message at least seven times before they’ll buy it. A well-done POP piece might just be that seventh impression that tips them into making the purchase.
Branded Displays
Displays are a great solution to a problem that retailers often face — namely, how best to merchandize your products, from the standpoint of a) keeping them neat and organized, and b) drawing their customer’s eyes to them.
The beauty of displays is that, while solving this problem for retailers, they do several other things for you:
- They secure shelf space for your product.
- They act as a nice little billboard for your brand, even if the retailer chooses to stock a different brand in your display (heaven forbid).
- They make it immediately apparent to buyers when they’re getting low on your products, thus encouraging them to place reorders before they’re completely out. (Pro tip: consider printing on the inside bottom of your displays something to the effect of, “Time to reorder!” along with ordering info.)
The sorts of displays that you provide depends on the kinds of products you make. There are as many different styles as there are display needs: counter top displays, shelf displays, floor displays, hanging displays, etc.
You can invest in custom fabricated counter displays that are made of wood or metal, which can be nice if you’re targeting boutiquey shops and want to get you products close to the cash register. Floor displays have a higher price tag, but can carve out more of a permanent spot for your products within that store.
It’s not unheard of to charge your retailers for the cost of your pricier displays, to enforce the idea that these are not throwaways. Or, you can include them with qualified orders, or only offer them to stores that you think will benefit most from having them.
Sometimes you can get clever and repurpose an industrially manufactured style of display that is designed for an entirely different category of product, but which also happens to suit yours. For instance, maybe you make gift cards, and instead of providing a countertop display, you provide branded hanging display strips that are meant for displaying bags of chips. This then becomes part of your brand identity, while simultaneously securing unused vertical space in shops.
Alternatively, you might be able to repurpose something that wasn’t even designed as a display to begin with:
If you’re selling into higher volume grocery or department stores, where a reusable display will likely vanish the moment it’s empty, it probably makes sense to use cardboard. You can design your cardboard case packs to convert into sturdy cardboard displays (aka “pop-up displays”). This combines your budget for displays with your budget for case boxes. Here is one such display, inspired by a similar display that I saw from a soap bar company (it’s always inspiring to look at parallel industries to see how they’re displaying their products):
Not only are these babies ready to roll out onto the shelf, but if you wanted to take it one step further, you could design a hanging rack that gives you an extra edge with retailers that are hesitant to bring you in for lack of shelf space.
If you make your products and displays a unique enough shape, retailers will be less tempted to stock other brands in them. A brilliant example of this tactic is Taza Chocolate, who make puck-shaped chocolate bars, and offer branded peg-boards for their displays.
One final consideration: collapsible displays make for much easier/cheaper shipping:
Signage
Shelf Talkers
Shelf talkers are a way to call out your brand on the shelf, while going into a bit more detail about your company or your product descriptions than you have the space/desire to put on your packaging.
Shelf talkers aren’t a one-size fits all solution. If you can, offer a few different size options, so that the store can choose the best fit. Another strategy is to design a shelf talker that spans your ideal number of facings. If you offer 5 different skus and a store is only giving you four facings, a wider shelf talker might leverage an extra facing for you:
It’s wise to either laminate your signage or print it on glossy card stock. Matte paper will quickly become haggard in a highly tactile retail environment.
Not every store wants third party signage cluttering their shelves. Some will have a house style or template that they use for their signage, in which case you’ll just want to be able to provide them with the digital files so that they can lay it out and print it themselves. This is nice content to include in the wholesale section of your website.
Posters and Large Signs
If a retailer is thrilled with how your product is selling, it’s very likely that they would be open to increasing your brand visibility within their shop. A nicely designed “(Your Brand) Proudly Sold Here” sign might be exactly what a few of your VIP retailers are looking for to decorate an empty wall. I’ve seen these made of metal and wood, but a classy, screen-printed poster can do the trick as well.
An extreme example of this category of POP is the neon signs that you see in the windows of bars and convenience stores. Naturally these are spendy, and frankly a bit garish for most industries, but what can be gleaned from their example? Get creative, look around your VIP shops, and think of something appropriate that you could offer them that would win you some extra visibility.
Cards
Printing a little something on card stock provides a potential customer with something they can take with them if they’re on the fence about making a purchase then and there. Even if they just toss it when they get home, having it in their pocket or purse for the day will help plant that seed in their memory for the next time they have money to spend.
These can be sized however you like. Postcard size is common. Business card size is another option. Alternatively, a little 2"x2" square card is nifty and budget friendly.
If it’s not in your budget to give these to all of your accounts, save them for the accounts that either specifically request them, or that seem like they could benefit the most from them.
Here are two online printers (one and two) with budget friendly, high quality card and poster options.
Swag
Smaller, cheaper items such as buttons, stickers, and pens are nice to offer to your wholesale partners to give away to their customers. If you’re targeting your swag to the buyers themselves, try to make things that they could actually use. For example, if you sell your products to restaurants, get some branded Sharpie Markers made. What chef doesn’t need Sharpies?
Bigger ticket items such as clothing are not something to be given away lightly. But a nice t-shirt will always get staff excited about your brand, and whether they wear it at work or outside of work, they’re making impressions on your potential customers everywhere they go.
Years ago, when I was working for a beef jerky brand, my boss had the idea to make branded beanies for workers in the meat department at Whole Foods, which was the department that carried us. Those guys are in and out of coolers all day every day, so it would have been a very fitting piece of swag. In the end, we learned that Whole Foods doesn’t really allow its employees to wear third party-branded clothing, so we didn’t have them made, but the idea was solid.
Hang Tags
In the fashion industry, a hang tag is the canvas that a brand uses to express their story and key selling points to potential customers.
Kathleen Fasanella of the Fashion Incubator blog writes, “Not only do most consumers read hang-tags, they read them avidly. Your hang tags should educate the consumer and retailer regarding the benefits of your product.”
This method of affixing additional information to a product can be labor intensive, but it may be something to consider for brands that can’t affix labels directly to their products for whatever reason.
In her book Good Food, Great Business, Susie Wyshak gives a great example of the kinds of product features and benefits that can set a product apart from the competition. Her example is of an olive snack pack with the following attributes listed on the packaging, but you can just as easily imagine them being listed on a hang tag or a shelf talker:
- Convenient resealable foil pouches of delicious marinated olives.
- Naturally healthful with no preservatives and only 50 calories per pack.
- Vegetarian, vegan, kosher, and lower in salt than other olives.
- Perfect for lunches and picnics.
- Easy to eat as they’re pit-free; great for kids.
Key Takeaways
Get creative, and whatever you choose to create, keep it on brand. Make everything beautiful and enticing so that buyers will want it in their stores. Focus on whatever you can do well within your budget. The Rule of Seven states that a prospective end consumer needs at least seven “touches” before they’ll buy your product — use POP to gain a couple more.
