Retail Report: Pegging POP Success
Azar's four-sided stock POP display can be customized with many features. For brands that need POP displays produced quickly and cost-efficiently, stock designs could be the answer.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorDesigning an effective point-of-purchase (POP) display is often part of a company's later steps in getting a product on the road to retail. When the time comes to design a display, many brands want it done quickly and cost-efficiently. While companies with larger production budgets may opt for custom designs, stock POP displays could be a good option for niche brands.
"In today's market, companies are really cost-conscious," says Stephanie Lee, custom marketing manager for Neutrogena Corp. "Many brands prefer to have a POP display that is made quickly and inexpensively."
Supplier Azar International Inc. (Nanuet, NY) is one company that specializes in designing stock POP displays. "Basically what sets us apart is that we have an in-stock line of displays that can be tailored for the beauty or other industries," says Benjamin Cohen, sales manager for Azar. "Many POP companies will offer only custom designs, which require companies to develop a whole new design with a team of designers. The companies will get charged for tooling, molding, and other hidden costs. At the end of the day, they have to purchase a very high volume of displays at a very high cost per unit, to make up the difference."
By offering displays in stock, Azar can save companies money. The firm doesn't require minimums to order, so a company could choose to order a single display unit. "This helps smaller, independent chain stores that don't need a lot of displays, or brand marketers who don't want to start off by ordering a large quantity of custom fixtures or displays," says Cohen.
Based on talks with various manufacturers about which companies would likely utilize stock POP displays, it seems that smaller, niche companies might be the primary market. "In general, Neutrogena prefers custom designs because it allows us to communicate our equity to the consumer, and a stock display might look too generic," says Lee. However, she adds, "I think stock displays could work well for some smaller companies that can't yet afford the lead time and costs associated with custom designs."
Cosmetics brand Body & Soul (Honolulu) was once a smaller, start-up company. Today, the brand is sold in prominent venues, including Sephora. Though the company prefers custom POP designs, Body & Soul's marketing manager, Angela Lim, speaks from the brand's experience about the limitations that smaller companies like Body & Soul face when starting out, and how stock displays could be a boon. "Stock displays could most definitely benefit start-up companies," says Lim. "If those companies don't have to pay for the per-hour costs of design, they can save a lot of money. Also, it enables them to more easily control the timeline of getting products to market. When you do a POP design from scratch, like we do, you need to build in a lot of lead time to anticipate design glitches, revisions, and additional related costs."
Companies exploring the stock POP display concept need not fear that their displays will look standard. Azar's displays may start off as stock items, but the finished product can end up looking like a custom display. The firm offers a range of injection-molded plastic product trays, pegboard hooks, and base styles that can be attached to the displays.
Companies, whether large or small, may want to take a look at stock options first before turning to custom designs. "Sometimes companies will come to us looking for custom displays, but at the end of the day, they go with something stock, or a slightly modified stock item," says Azar's Cohen.