[SERIES] POS #3 of 6 - how to plan your POS

April 27, 2014

In this 6-part series covering everything an Account Manager should know about Point of Sale/POS material (also known as Point of Purchase/POP material) we will be exploring the many facets of creating and incorporating dynamic POS into your client's campaign.

1. What is the purpose of POS?
   Different types of POS
2. Substrates for POS production
3. How to plan your POS
4. Six shopper insights
5. What makes for good POS design?
6. AIDA: what is it?
   
   

How to plan your POS

Once you know the types of POS that you require, and understand the production requirements, it's time to plan the messaging and design of the campaign itself. 

The most effective POS will be created in an informed manner, based on research and understanding of not only your client's customer, but also your client's competitors and their marketing activity.

Know your client's customer

Have a strong handle on the demographics of your client's customer. This is the “who” information:

• Age, sex, ethnicity, locality, occupation, annual income, educational attainment, number of individuals 
in the household, status of home ownership, value of the average home, urban or rural, etc.
• This is information that can be observed from the outside.
• The information can be gleaned from Census records, geomapping, surveys, consumer research, etc.

Know the psychographics of your client's customer

This is the “why” information:

• Focus is on the target customer’s psychology, lifestyles and behaviours. Where they like to travel for their holiday, kinds of hobbies and interests they have, values or opinions they hold and how they behave.
• This information is not as easy to numerically represent. It is information about internal attributes or attitudes.

Know your client's competitors

This will help to understand the landscape in which your POS will be competing. Look to competitor activity as inspiration for good design and marketing techniques, and motivation to be different and better than the competitors.

• What campaigns have they produced in the past?
• What current competitor campaigns are running?
• How will your POS stand out against the other marketing activity?
• How will you ensure that your POS is sufficiently different from the competitors?

Know the scope of your campaign

• Which stores will carry the promotion?
• Note the milestone dates for the campaign. Allow time for sign-offs from all stakeholders (which could include the supermarket chains, prize suppliers and a network of internal sign-offs).
• getting the information to your design team
• date of first concepts
• date of final proof
• date of sign off
• date of delivery to the distribution centre or stores
• start date of campaign
• end date of campaign
• Budget
• Quantities
• Parameters dictated by the stores (e.g. size, shape, positioning of elements, number of items allowed, standard layout templates, etc.)
• Talk to field reps or store managers to get their input.
• Arrange and source prizes

Know what you want to say

• What is your offer? (e.g. new product launch, competition, giveaway, gift with purchase, recipe cards, etc.)
• What is your theme?
• Who will be doing the copywriting (internal/external copywriter or your client)?
• If your POS campaign includes prizes, ensure you write water-tight terms and conditions.

Know what you need to supply to your design team

• imagery (e.g. product / insitu / lifestyle / other shots)
• illustrations
• copy
• logos
• templates (e.g. mandatory templates as supplied by supermarket chains)
• text (headline/body copy)
• pricing
• legals
• timeline
• prize information

Enjoy this article? You'll love these...

[SERIES] POS #1 of 6: purpose and types
[SERIES] POS #2 of 6: production materials
[SERIES] POS #4 of 6: six shopper insights
[SERIES] POS #5 of 6: what makes for good POS design?
[SERIES] POS #6 of 6: AIDA: what is it?

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