Sweets — the seduction at the POS

Sweets — the pleasurable seduction at the POS

This means that, depen­ding on their mood, they buy less, but usually more or some­thing diffe­rent than plan­ned. In addi­tion to this “disci­pli­nary decline”, there is another pheno­me­non: the average shopper’s length of stay in the shop conti­nues to decrease! In plain language, this means that the time — the short moment — requi­red to perceive the indi­vi­dual offers tends to decrease steadily!

In this context one has to have high appre­cia­tion for the product mana­gers and pack­a­ging desi­gners on the one hand, but also deep regret on the other hand:

Experts of this species create “facings” accor­ding to all the rules of art and the profound findings of sales psycho­logy. The harm­ony of colour, design, illus­tra­tion and text has been perfectly achie­ved. Every viewer from the target group (and who isn’t?), who consciously looks at this product for only 5 seconds, lite­rally has his mouth wate­ring. The emer­ging desire for plea­sure can hardly be suppres­sed. The seduc­tive pack­a­ging increa­ses the desi­ra­bi­lity of the appe­ti­sing product to a maxi­mum. The custo­mer should have access to the presen­ta­tion! — So much for the reco­gni­tion!

Now for regret: The 5 seconds cont­act time are pure utopia! Even one second of “percep­tion” often remains a dream. In many cases the hurried shop­per does not notice this great product at all! — Isn’t that regrettable?

And not only that, this has also direct influence on turno­ver and profit, on regu­lar or second place­ment. It is obvious: An impulse purchase needs an impulse! — This is trig­ge­red by the posi­tive percep­tion in the super­mar­ket.

The causal connec­tion is clear: the better the percep­ti­bi­lity, the higher the chance of sending out posi­tive impul­ses. Or the brutal reverse conclu­sion: Products that are not percei­ved posi­tively have no chance of ending up in the shop­ping cart as impulse purcha­ses! From this point of view, take a criti­cal look at the presen­ta­tion of the products in the markets. The P.O.S. as Point of Sales often muta­tes into a “Part of Stock” at best. After the first products have been sold, the rest disap­pears into niches that can hardly be seen any more, possi­bly bags or thin products fall onto the “face” or — even better — are stacked flat on the shelf. Now, at the latest, the point has been reached where the pack­a­ging designer’s mood reaches zero!
Weekly perfor­man­ces filled with crea­tive sessi­ons, photo shoots and discus­sions about layout alter­na­ti­ves are simply a waste of time: No one can see your beau­tiful product design!

In order to preserve the opti­mal sales chan­ces, typi­cal impulse purchase artic­les in parti­cu­lar must be presen­ted with the facing (not in the stack!) in the best visi­ble area on the shelf front.

There are many intel­li­gent solu­ti­ons for the opti­mi­sa­tion of front presen­ta­tion today like push­feed or glide systems. Of course, confec­tion­ery is the cate­gory without limit, where visi­bi­lity is most important. What people don´t see, they cannot buy. Ther­e­fore the best results of sales increase, reduc­tion of shelf main­tanance and impro­ve­ment of shop­per orien­ta­tion are achie­ved in this cate­gory (See case studies here: POS TUNING FALLBEISPIELE). Product desi­gners must love front facing solu­ti­ons.