Going Crazy over POS Displays

There's so many ways to communicate to the consumer or customer.  Digital or social media is one of the new ways. Print Ads or TV commercials are part of the old way.


Today, I'm gonna write about those point-of-sale (POS) displays, the ones that you find in supermarkets.  


I think all those POS people are being too overzealous that they're constantly thinking up new ways to maximise advertising on supermarket space to the point where they no longer question whether these new ad units really work or not.


Case in point, flaglines. You know, those that hang from the ceilings?  Who ever reads those anyway? And if the artwork is too crammed with copy and completely messed up with all sorts of graphic elements, who on earth would bother to read such a big ol' mess?  Even nice onces, get ignored.  The only time they ever get any attention is when they're featured in the POS display merchants' catalogue which they use to convince marketers that they need those in their in-store arsenal.


Another example is those skirtings that dress up the lower portion of an island display.  Would you actually look down to read up a book's worth of copy? Would you really do that and hold up traffic or worse, get hit by someone's shopping cart?


Many marketers seem to forget that they're consumers first before they're actually brand/product custodians. If they're not gonna be paying attention to those POS thingies themselves, why have them created in the first place?


The supermarket is already a place that overwhelms the senses and it's perhaps made as an even worse experience when the shopper is inundated with these garishly colorful POS displays that sometimes protrudes from shelves (and thus, blocking shopping cart movements).  


And I think it could even make someone hate a brand of being too overzealous in their advertising.