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POS/POP AISLE HELP WHEN YOU CHOOSE With this month’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics postponed until next year, it’s good to know that in Australia, daily competition is continuing on the track we know as the path to purchase. By Peter Howard. Admittedly, advertising isn’t an Olympic sport, but with evidence of product promotion as far back as early Greek civilisations, and promotion strategies seemingly taken from distance running, it’s a track I’m choosing to explore. Today’s brands, category managers and merchandisers are in a race, constantly jostling for position but frequently finding they’re still grouped together in the home straight of the supermarket aisle. Only a standout performance at point of purchase in those final moments of the race will ensure the winner takes the gold at point of sale. The purpose of advertising has always been to influence people to buy, and even though the advertising industry continually finds new ways of achieving this, the influencing process remains unchanged. An advertiser must first get their target’s attention, then create interest with a relevant message that builds a strong enough desire for the target to act on it. It was 1902 when US advertising pioneer Elias St Elmo Lewis first recognised the process, introducing it as AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), the four hierarchical steps advertisers must achieve before a prospect will buy. Today, more than a century later, the model is still taught in marketing with point of purchase (POP) playing a major role in its execution. In this feature we explore POP as an integrated in-store strategy with multiple touchpoints designed to influence shopper behaviour. We also talk to industry experts and look at some Australian companies that specialise in POP initiatives. Seeking attention If you were to ask a group of people in a shopping mall how much they are influenced by advertising, statistics suggest almost 60 per cent would claim ‘advertising doesn’t work on me’, but would they be right? Of course, nobody likes to feel they’ve been ‘sold to’ or unknowingly influenced, but statistics from the US show impulse buying is a huge driver for retailers, with nearly 70 per cent of in-store purchases being impulse buys and the average American spending US$5400 on impulse purchases each year. As 71 per cent of shoppers cite food as their most common impulse buy and 85 per cent of impulse buys occur when an item is on special, the opportunity for supermarkets and convenience stores to attract some of that impulse spend is certainly attractive, but are stores maximising the opportunity? Clearly, it’s important to make specials and promotional products stand out, but as today’s shoppers are being bombarded with almost constant advertising messages, standing out isn’t as easy as it sounds and requires a considered, strategic approach. Researchers estimate the average Australian adult was exposed in 2019 to between 6000 and 10,000 ads a day. That’s double the amount in 2007 and has reached the point where people can no longer take it all in. Faced with that amount of messaging, people have developed the ability to subconsciously screen the messages, selecting what they engage with and ignoring brands or messages that are of no interest. To solve the challenge of subconscious screening, some advertising is now designed to appear when it’s not expected, disrupting the target’s focus when their guard is down. 70 CONVENIENCE WORLD SEP/OCT, 2020