Point-of-sale material, known also as POSM for short, exist mainly in stores. They can be found anywhere from the cash registers to inside of the store itself.
Due to their effectiveness in increasing sales and brand awareness, stores have become saturated with them. But that’s no reason to give up on them.
Especially if you’re running a small business, it remains an often overlooked marketing channel to capture shoppers’ attention. If you’re willing to push creative boundaries, you can go far.
The one place to look is guerilla marketing, which is a set of techniques that focus on using low-cost, non-conventional approaches to reach the target audience and persuade them into purchasing products.
Ready to take your retail marketing to the next level? Here are 4 lessons from amazing guerilla marketing campaigns to improve your POSM displays.
1. Create memorable experiences by making it interactive
The aim of using guerilla marketing isn’t simply to attract attention or to save costs, but to make sure that your efforts stick in the minds of your audiences.
Businesses using guerilla marketing usually try to be memorable by creating live events such as concerts, comedy shows, or even something as simple as handing out free goodies when people least expect it.
But it could work for POSM tactics as well. You’ll find that customers will remember your business long even when they are not experiencing your service/product firsthand.
Take for instance the work of Volkswagen, which aimed to associate its brand with being fun.
Some ingenuity by the big automotive brand led to a guerilla marketing tactic that encouraged people to use the staircase rather than the escalator:
The Fun Theory experiment by VW shows that you can get people to do what you want by making it interactive and fun. Watch the video here (Source: Design of the World)
Alternatively, for businesses that don’t have the money to come up with something like the piano staircase, Volkswagen showed that you can create something fun on the cheap as well, such as a slide as an alternative to a staircase.
2. Get creative with low-cost mediums of communications
When we think about POSM displays, we often think about hangsells, standees, acrylic trays, block displays, buntings, tabletop displays and so on.
There are so many opportunities to get creative with the world around us, especially with things people interact with on a daily basis. With some imagination, you wouldn’t need to break the bank.
Take a look at how IKEA makes use of a simple flight of stairs to showcase its drawers. The Swedish brand then drove the message home with well-placed copywriting.
“Create space. Organise” (Source: Delnext)
Or consider these other clever examples by beer brands:
Doesn’t cost much to print stickers for doors (Source: Pinterest)
3. Take a leap into new mediums of communications
Got a higher budget for your POSM displays? Why not try out more high tech ways of getting your message across?
However, there are also many shoppers who are trying to do their shopping online in the midst of lockdown, wherever they may be.
While that means that fewer people would be exposed to in-store point-of-sale displays, it shouldn’t stop marketers from making an impact on shoppers in their homes.
Take a cue from IKEA, which launched IKEA Place that allows shoppers to visualize how the brand’s furniture would fit into their home spaces using augmented reality (AR) technology:
Using IKEA Place, just point your phone to your space and voila! (Source: Architect Magazine)
This new form of guerilla marketing brings the influence of marketers’ out of the stores and streets into shoppers’ safe spaces.
Imagine this applied to online shopping. Think of how you can apply this to other try-on products such as glasses, clothes and shoes.
Virtual POSM in Malaysia. Virtual try-on glasses service by Pott Glasses (Source: Pott Glasses)
4. Find unique ways to leverage recognizable product packaging
This might not apply for newer small businesses. For big brands, there are aspects to them that are recognizable outside of their logos.
Marketers can often take advantage of this for guerilla marketing purposes.
Let’s have a look at how McDonald’s and Guinness have made use of their recognizable packaging:
McDonald’s fries or Zebra crossing? (Source: Pinterest)
A pint of Guinness looks unmistakeable (Source: Delnext)
How would this translate to POSM displays? KitKat and Oreo provide good examples:
Making use of the iconic KitKat bars for POSM displays (Source: Pinterest)
An instantly recognizable Oreo dump bin (Source: Pinterest)
Conclusion
Guerilla marketing is the art of making your brand stand out in an unconventional way.
Sometimes all you need is the persistence to try new and creative ways to get your products and brand noticed, and the courage to stand out from your competitors.
The guerilla marketing examples shown in this article have been successful enough to make waves, some even before the existence of social media.
The challenge for your business is how you can take cues from these amazing examples to improve your POSM display.
