Short term attitudes undermine in-store

At last – the cat is out of the bag on waste in the point of purchase (PoP) industry. David Benady’s article “Waste not want not” (MW February 9) hits the nail on the head, and though it may seem counter-intuitive for a major PoP supplier like SPS to say so, we too think there should be less in-store, done better.

During the past 18 months our focus has moved from reacting to client requests to proactively and constructively challenging the rationale behind them. We see that much in the PoP industry is last minute, badly connected across the supply chain and not monitored. This means wastage is rife and although we theoretically benefit in the short term by putting more ink on paper, we are the first to understand that this is no route to long-term stability and success.

As retail marketing teams are put under pressure to deliver results, the instinctive cry is “get something up in store”. Reaction is important, but the answering cry should be “what, in which stores and when?”

Where we have been able to work in close partnerships over a longer period of time, the results have been spectacular.

One of our leading retail clients provides a classic example – by working with their marketing team tying in the design and production of permanent, semi-permanent display and PoP with the above the line work, the combined campaign produced a record weekend take earlier this year. Retailers, it’s not enough to pursue efficiency, to get results, you must think about coordinated effectiveness.

James Martin

Managing director

The SPS Group

Dorset

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