What's in store?

The opportunities for entrepreneurial printers can be found down every supermarket aisle and on every shop window, floor, counter-top and façade. From roll-up displays to edge hangers, window films to standalone promotional cut-outs, wallpaper to floor graphics, there is something traditional and established or new and innovative for just about every available space in any retail environment.
 
Many of these solutions will be on show at the forthcoming In-Store Show in Olympia, London on 27th and 28th June. Supported by Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI), retail marketers and brand managers attending this shown will be able to experience thousands of new, inspirational and cost effective solutions to improve in store performance. There will be over 100 exhibitors at the show, offering a variety of ways to increase dwell time, create product stand out, convert browsers to buyers and increase in-store sales.

Influenced by advertisements on radio, television, print and internet, customers enter a store ready to buy, only to be overwhelmed by the countless array of products. For this reason, in-store advertising is becoming increasingly critical to the marketing mix because of its ability to generate purchasing decisions and increase sales.

According to research, 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at the store level. And with 80 percent of those decisions being made in four seconds or less, it is vital to attract the customer immediately and satisfy their needs.

“Window poster displays from Floorwindo provides a complete in-store advertising solution to increase sales by communicating your message on unused floor and counter surfaces,” says  product marketing manager from Colourgen, Floorwindo’s UK distributor, Melanie Enser, who adds: “This unique and inescapable medium stands out to increase brand awareness and reactivate the impact of an advertising campaign.”

These products provide a highly practical solution for displaying high quality images that can be changed quickly and easily. One company that has been a long time user of Floorwindo products is Diageo, the international market leader of A-brand alcoholic drinks including Guinness, Smirnoff and Baileys. Diagio uses the A1 sized Floorwindo to increase brand awareness for Guiness in more than 2,000 pubs around Ireland.

“The displays are placed right at the door for the customer to step on as they enter the pub, at the point they call the ‘decision corridor’,” adds Enser, who concludes, “The counter-top version, called DeskWindo has also proven hugely popular for many retailers, particularly those where decisions have to be made at the point of purchase. These include McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell and Shell.”

Open options

When targeting the retail industry, you need to have a printer that is as flexible enough to deliver a broad range of application.

“At 64" wide, the Roland LEJ-640 lets printers and their customers explore a wide range of retail applications with just one device, from point of purchase (POP) to wide-format signage and window displays,” comments business manager for sign and graphics and Roland DG (UK), Rob Goleniowski, adding: “Based on the award-winning VersaUV technology, the VersaUV hybrid LEJ-640 prints CMYK plus white and clear inks on both roll media and rigid substrates up to 13mm thick. The LEJ-640 lets you print white on a variety of clear media for text and graphics that stand out. In additional, layers of clear ink create custom patterns and embossing effects, which are perfect for premium brands.”

According to Roland, the fact that LEJ-640 can print roll-fed and rigid materials, makes it perfect for tackling applications as diverse as display panels, backlit films and digital wallpapers for customised interiors (see main picture).

“Roland DG’s development of metallic inks suitable for inkjet printing heralded another quick and easy way for sign-makers to diversify, add value and differentiate themselves, using skills they already have. And metallic highlights and effects have inspired retailers and brand owners in particular who appreciate the added value of these products as they strive to entice shoppers to purchase,” adds Goleniowski.

He goes on to say: “Applied with the same workflow and design packages as traditional CMYK inks, the Roland colour library makes 512 metallic colours instantly achievable and there are many more that users can prepare themselves. Roland DG’s VersaCAMM VS printer/cutter series is the market-leading range of metallic printers. Its unique ink circulation system limits wastage and keeps costs as low as possible.”

Colour is key

It is widely known that our product choices are mainly made at the point of display, despite our exposure to all the advertising media before we’ve entered the store. Shelf stand-out and product differentiation will continue to grow in importance despite the high level of colour noise already created in our supermarket aisles, as products compete for the attention of consumers. As advertisers look to exploit this potential, colour matching becomes increasingly important.

Results of a recent survey by the Pantone Colour Institute bears out how important colour is to consumer decision making. The study showed that colour and packaging are not just important; they effect perceptions about product quality. The majority of adults agree packaging is an important part of any product.

More than two-thirds of adults agree that they take colour into consideration when making product purchases and the majority agree packaging is an important part of any product. More than one-quarter agreed that colours help inform them about product quality, and half agreed that higher quality products have higher quality packaging and displays.  This all points to one indisputable fact for brand owners—it is critical to get your brand’s colour right.

“Sun Chemical’s SunInspire range is a comprehensive range of printable spectacular graphic design effects for brand owners, designers and printer converters,” says chief marketing officer of Sun Chemicals, Felipe Mellado, who adds “It presents a world of colour, touch, aroma and interactive effects to lift any packaging design from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The range covers effects from phosphorescent to thermochromic inks, from holograms to printed optics, from tactile effects to new metallic solutions. The choice for designers is endless and the ability to create stunning enhanced graphics and the reality of moving from sensory to experiential interactive printed products is here.”

To further support customers and offer solutions that will help them remain competitive, Sun Chemical offers a laser marking solution for print-on-demand of variable data, called SunLase.
 
“This advanced colour-change ink technology is designed for in-line patch printing and then subsequent marking with lasers inline. It opens up a myriad of opportunities to add value to customer printing requirements for displaying variable data on printed products such as poster displays and packaging for language changes, bar codes, competitions and safety information,” Mellado adds.

Brand colour standards will also remain a key focus in the future, as Mellado explains: “Sun Chemical aims to ensure that brand colour consistency is maintained across all possible packaging and advertising substrates and presses across the world. Sun Chemical’s patented SmartColour technology and colour databases are a key foundation of the new PantoneLIVE solution, for which we continue to be a major contributor.”

PantoneLIVE is a dynamic ecosystem that leverages Sun Chemical SmartColour technology and colour data foundation, allowing brand owners to manage and maintain their colour assets via a cloud-based repository. The PantoneLIVE portal lets brand owners store and share key colour assets so they can manage and communicate colours accurately—to any supplier around the world. It enables a fully integrated packaging workflow capable of communicating real colours on real substrates everywhere—at the click of a mouse.

“While users of any ink will be able to capitalise on the system, the implementation of PantoneLIVE in the pressroom will be easier and faster with Sun Chemical inks because of Sun’s initial contribution. The ink formulations behind PantoneLIVE are already known, and these digital targets are shared efficiently within the Sun Chemical global network. Every PantoneLIVE colour request to Sun Chemical will be created using this global platform,” concludes Mellado.

Checkout

While specialists in the retail space will continue to be strong, there is plenty of scope for more general signage companies to gain a share of this market. There are certainly enough new products and applications to generate business for an imaginative, flexible and entrepreneurial sign-maker.