Signs of the Times

Sure, a picture is worth a thousand words. But a few words can make that picture far more enlightening.

It's impossible to accurately describe in-store marketing without visual support, since attracting the eye is at the discipline's core. That's why the Institute has devoted so much energy to compiling an unprecedented library of images: more than 16,000 photos of displays and signs at retail, more than 3,000 images of related marketing materials, about 1,100 research charts and diagrams.

On the flipside, there's another adage that suggests you should never judge a book by its cover, and you can't always get the full story from a picture. That's why the 100-plus marketing professionals who annually judge P-O-P Times' Design of the Times awards competition begin their task by reading: reviewing entry forms that describe a campaign's objectives, material selection, production methods and creative strategy, and comparing those "words" to pictures of the finished program. (Their final step is to view the campaigns first-hand on the show floor of the In-Store Marketing Expo, because yet another adage advises that seeing is believing.)

In presenting the annual Design of the Times Preview Gallery for 2006, we've expanded our traditional coverage to include contest declarations from the more than 400 programs entered into this year's competition. So the files in our DOT gallery don't just contain the top-line facts about each campaign (the who, what, when, where and how many) as they have in the past, but also descriptions of objectives, design and creative strategies and, in many cases, results.

So you'll not only learn about what can be seen in the pictures -- the materials used in the display, the strategy behind graphics and messages -- but what was going on behind the scenes: the mandates for brand consistency, the retailer specifications dictating size, the budgetary guidelines steering material choices, the environmental concerns affecting production. (The only information you won't find in there right now are the P-O-P producer names, which will remain undisclosed until the competition concludes next month.)

We hope the expanded coverage provides a much better understanding of the campaigns entered into this year's competition, and thereby presents deeper insight into the shopper, retailer and societal trends driving this industry forward. We encourage you to take a look.

We'd also like to invite you to the In-Store Marketing Expo in Chicago on Sept. 27-28 to get your own first-hand look at the entries because -- if I can drop one more adage on you -- "there's no substitute for being there."

Inaction Alley?
Speaking of enlightening images, the one accompanying this column speaks volumes. Those benches, brand marketer, may very well have displaced your pallet display.

Wal-Mart is undertaking a number of initiatives to make stores more shopper-friendly. Among the more significant of those are a dramatic reduction in the number of pallets and four-ways in the power aisles heretofore known as Action Alley. Checkout areas have been similarly cleansed of secondary displays. Some endcap slots are going the "vignette" route with token representations of available products.

So much for "mass" merchandising.

Peter Breen
Managing Director, Content
In-Store Marketing Institute

Members: More information here.

Image Gallery: Design of the Times Awards Preview

Browse more than 400 examples of effective in-store marketing programs in a preview of P-O-P Times' annual competition. This year's coverage includes full contest declarations (see Director's Note above), which effectively makes the gallery a collection of mini-case studies on what's working and why -- and even an overview of trends driving the industry. (Don't forget to come back next month to find out who won.)

Members: View the gallery here.

Store Check: Wal-Mart's New 'Urban' Store

Wal-Mart executives think their new store in White Plains, NY, provides an "excellent example" of how the chain can adapt to the inner-city environment. (Are you paying attention, Chicago?) A tour of the month-old discount store finds a mixture of standard Wal-Mart features, recent chain-wide initiatives and several aspects unique to the location.

Members: View the store check here.

Seasonal Roundup: Back-to-School Merchandising

Snack brands dominated in the food-drug-mass channel and Levi's earned top billing almost everywhere else as retailers vied for the all-important seasonal dollar. The Institute's coverage includes articles on more than two-dozen campaigns and over 75 related images from mass merchants, office supply chains, drugstores and supermarkets.

Members: View the articles here.

Desktop Marketing Conference: Customer-Centric Design at Retail by Martin Roberts of Grid2 International

What could a Cartier diamond store possibly have in common with a Pathmark supermarket? The answer is that both retailers have carefully orchestrated the store experience. In a presentation from the 2006 In-Store Marketing Summit, Martin Roberts, president of design consultancy Grid2 International and a member of the Institute's distinguished faculty, discusses how 12 vastly different retailers used retail design and branding techniques toward a common end: increasing sales.

Members: View the lecture here.

Welcome New Institute Members

The In-Store Marketing Institute is delighted to welcome new and renewing members to the Institute family. Below is a list of the companies that signed up recently. Welcome aboard.

• All You Magazine
• Arc Worldwide
• Barkley Evergreen & Partners, Inc.
• Bausch & Lomb, Inc.
• ColorSpace Designs
• Englander Container Co
• Grid2 International
• Information Resources - Mosaic
• Insignia Systems, Inc.
• Intellisource Inc.
• Larson Manufacturing
• Market Vision
• NBA Entertainment
• Orion Food Co., Ltd.
• Ovation
• Protool Manufacturing, LLC
• RSM McGladrey
• Symantec Corp.
• Taurus Display Corp.
• The Royal Group
• TPN
• Visy Specialties
• Warner Music Group
• WW Grainger
• Zareba Systems