7 Important Questions to Ask Your POP Display Designer/Manufacturer

McIntyre Retail Displays

A customized point-of-purchase display represents a lot of time and investment. Because it’s the face of your brand, you’ll want retail shoppers to have a positive experience with your brand.

Our expert designers receive a lot of questions about what goes into designing retail displays. Whether you are rolling out your 50th campaign or bringing a new product to market, here are their answers that will save you time and effort.

The Four Most Important Questions To Ask BEFORE Designing a Custom Retail Display

1. How much do custom-designed retail displays and fixtures cost?

Custom point-of-purchase displays typically have a higher return on investment and when done right, can save you money. An estimated 76 percent of all purchase decisions are made in-store, which means a quality display can improve the revenue you generate.

The actual outlay when manufacturing a retail display depends on many factors including quantity, materials used, purpose, graphics, and personalized customization. Our complimentary design service can help your brands or retail store achieve the look you desire and generate maximum revenue per square foot.

Production costs vary depending on the complexity of the design and materials used. Our designers use knockdown techniques to find more economical ways to produce your units to save you money.

We can work towards a budget if provided, but when analyzing your investment there are a lot of variables to calculate.

2. How long does it take to create a custom POP display vs a pre-fabricated display?

The average lead time, how long it takes to complete a display and deliver it to a retailer from start to finish, is about four to eight weeks. That includes:

Design and prototype – takes approximately 1-2 weeks
Manufacturing and powder coating
Kitting, pre-packing, and wrapping for shipment
Time in transit to the retailer

Of course, this depends upon the complexity of the project, materials used, quantity needed, and transit distance. Once the design of the project is approved, it typically takes between four to eight weeks to finish the process. Note: We stock a variety of common materials and have extensive robotic and CNC machinery to shorten lead times.

3. What additional elements can be added to the POP display?

At McIntyre, we specialize in metal displays. Accent materials can be added to almost any POP display. If you’re comparing display manufacturers, you’ll want to ask if they work with a specialty material. Aligning your display design with a manufacturer who knows their specialty material can save you money as well as potential quality issues when the units are received at retail.

Accent Materials Used in Metal Retail Displays

Printed graphics and information
Products for demonstration
Video & LCD Displays
Lights and LED Lighting
Wood and other natural elements
Plastic
Electrical components
Wire hangers

When these items work together, your brand’s message can be effectively and powerfully delivered. We’ve covered many of these topics in earlier blogs:

The Psychology of Color and How You Can Benefit From It

How LED Lighting Can Enhance Your Display… and Your Bottom Line

How to Choose the Best Finish for Your Display

4. When Do You Start Planning for Seasonal Retail Displays?

If you’re waiting until October to plan for Christmas displays—you’ve waited too long. We understand that a large part of our purpose is to ensure clients get what they need when they need it. And we’ve discovered that a lot of that hinges upon gearing up for seasonal displays far in advance.

If you want to streamline the design, creation, and shipping process—and save money and headaches in the long run—just contact us today to see why we’re an industry leader.

It’s Never Too Early to Plan for a Summer POP Display

The kids are back in school and the summer pictures of beach vacations and mountain hikes are recorded on your phone. Remember that it’s never too early to start planning the design for next summer’s POP display. With your June, July, and August adventures fresh on your mind, it’s the perfect point to plan now that you have some summer inspiration under your belt.

We’ve compiled some of the best ideas you should consider when planning your next summer-themed POP display.

Examples of Great Summer POP Display Elements

Speaking of seasonal displays, let’s take a quick look at some effective techniques that would work for summer displays.

Take advantage of bright, bold, colors

Summer is a time of bright, vivid color, from the hues of beach umbrellas to the Caribbean blue of the ocean to the lush green forests that lure hikers and nature enthusiasts. Bright colors not only reflect the best of the season but also strongly affect consumer behavior.

There’s a lot of science to back this up. When our brains process color, they are more responsive to yellows, reds, and greens and less responsive to colors like black and purple. They’re also more heavily influenced by the pure color as opposed to a shade or a tint of that color.

Use a dash of the outdoors in your summer-themed display

Imagine a sunscreen display with carefully sculpted waves framing the product. Perhaps you’d prefer a display that is more reminiscent of a tiki hut. Either way, bright colors invite your consumer to action, and during summer, that action usually means enjoying the beach, camping or other outdoor activities. Connecting to the outdoors helps create a sense of summer and allows the shopper to project his or her emotions onto the display, inviting shoppers to take a closer look.

Use unusual shapes or curves to give a sense of motion

When the temperatures increase, activity does as well. Whether your children are home for the summer and gearing up for camp, or you’re planning that long-awaited vacation in Key West, summer is the time when families and couples are on the move. Let your display reflect that. You might want to implement fans or other moving parts to grab –and hold—shoppers’ attention.

Use a nautical theme

Whether your customers are planning a cruise to the Bahamas or they want to simply take the sailboat out on the water, a nautical theme will resonate with these customers. Navy stripes and solids can be tastefully complemented by bold splashes of red or other summer colors. The nautical theme also lends itself to a variety of display shapes—such as an anchor or a ship’s steering wheel— that will make your POP display something out of the ordinary.

Quality point-of-purchase displays are a year-long venture

While summer is a perfect time to grab shoppers’ attention with innovative design, a good marketing strategy is an important element for sales throughout the year. Creating successful custom POP displays is a delicate balance of creativity, functionality, efficiency, and effective advertising. We have a team with the diversity and expertise to make your vision a reality no matter what time of year. Contact us — we’d love to discuss ideas with you!

5. How Do You Protect and Secure Inventory on a Retail Display?

It’s a sad fact of life: retailers lose millions of dollars each year due to shoplifting.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention has compiled a list of disturbing statistics:

An estimated 1 in 11 people shoplift.
Shoplifters are only caught once for every 48 times they steal.
On average, habitual shoplifters steal 1.6 times a week.
Shoplifters are turned over to the police only half of the time.
Ten million people have been caught shoplifting in the last five years.

This can have a huge impact on your display — particularly if you’re showcasing expensive items that can be tucked away or hidden under garments by clever thieves. Each year, shoplifting costs American retailers $10 billion.

Whether your display is featuring the latest set of high-end screwdrivers or the newest generation iPad, security is a vital part of a quality display.

When Security Counts, Trust Your Products to Our Design Experts

At McIntyre Displays, our creative engineers have crafted displays for power tools, electronics, phones, jewelry, and other high-end items. Not only can you rest assured that you’ll have a secure display, but we’ll take care of the shipping, production, and design—all under one roof.

That eliminates the potential points of failure that can occur when you’re working with multiple vendors.

6. How Do You Get People to Share Your Display & Products on Social Media?

Is your pop worth a tweet? When you hear the term social media, your mind may turn to Facebook friends who share photos of vacations, celebrities who post about their latest projects, or Pinterest users who showcase their latest creative craft ideas. However, more and more businesses are realizing the incredible power that social media brings to their bottom line. For example, 67 percent of X (formerly Twitter) users who follow a brand are more likely to purchase the brand’s products1.

How Social Media Sharing Can Help Your Product

An active presence in social media allows businesses to explore cultural trends and market the product directly to the consumer in a streamlined and economical way—which is why 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies are active in social media. By sharing photos of your latest POP display, you can promote your most current sales or retail products. Social media also allows corporations to put a more “human” face on their brand and interact directly with customers.

Creating a POP Display That Is Both Profitable and “Shareable”

When it comes to artistry vs. functionality, we don’t think you have to sacrifice one for the other. Whether you have a complete vision in mind or you’ve just scribbled some ideas on a napkin, we can take your idea to the next level.

Why work with McIntyre Displays?

We serve as a “one-stop shop” for all your design and production needs.
We take the headache out of distribution.
We have extensive warehousing services.
We take the headache out of working with multiple vendors.

It’s simple to start, just contact us to get a quote and we’ll get rolling to create a customized POP display that increases customer engagement, resulting in higher profits.

Social Media: Engaging Your Audience With Information, not Spam

The key is to engage your audience with education, valuable information, and creative POP displays that are worth sharing. Before you hit that tweet button, how can you be sure your POP display is worth a tweet? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Is my POP display creative and engaging?

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with tweeting a picture of a standard pop display, remember that images with a more artistic flair will be shared more often. For example, suppose your latest project involves a life-size cutout of a celebrity or corrugated cardboard creatively sculpted into the shape of trees, snowflakes, and other detailed objects.

Not only are these creative concepts more “shareable,” but they can also encourage shoppers to take selfies with the POP displays, which in turn means they are more likely to share it with their friends. You should even use a hashtag to encourage X members to follow.

Does my POP display reinforce an ongoing retail or sales promotion?

Your POP display, social media strategy, and retail promotions should all work together to create a unified message. Rarely will one method alone reap stellar results.

Use your social media presence to announce your recent sales offers, to provide coupons or to give an inside scoop of the next product rollout. In addition, include a photo of your POP display so customers will know exactly what they’re looking for when they enter a store.

Does my POP display present a clear message?

This should be self-explanatory, but it bears repeating. If your POP display is difficult to read, poorly lit, or fails to express brand unity, promoting it could do more harm than good.

Promoting (and getting others to promote) your POP display on social media starts with a brilliant design

We work with clients from all industries to create a display unit that not only captivates the advantages of their product but also their values as business leaders.

Whether you have a few designs sketched on a sheet of paper or a detailed vision of the finished piece, we will work with you through every stage of the process to ensure a POP display unit that you and your customers will want to share with the whole social media world.

7. How do you effectively package and ship a POP display?

Each display requires custom packaging to ensure it arrives at its destination in one piece. The packing materials we use depend upon how fragile the display components are and the preferred shipping method. We try to find the right balance between cost and function.

Do you have more questions? We’ll be pleased to answer them.

We can’t cover all the questions we receive in one blog post, so we encourage you to ask any one of our experts for additional information. We take pride in our work and are dedicated to the highest levels of customer service. Whether you have a detailed design or just a vague idea, let us make your concept a reality.

Get Started With the “One-Stop Shop” That Takes the Headache Out of the Process

Why choose McIntyre Displays for your latest project? We have:

The experienced, creative designers who can enhance and convey your messaging.
A leading display company trusted by major companies since 1971.
The ability to handle all your custom POP display needs under one roof.
The assurance that your item will arrive undamaged.
Extensive kitting and fulfillment services.

In addition, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, we’ll fix it. In person. We won’t “dial it in” over virtual screens. We’ll be there for you.

We invite you to discover what our loyal customers have known for decades: McIntyre Displays is the perfect combination of excellence and reliability.