POS marketing: boost your sales representation results

While the rise of digital has brought new sales performance levers to companies, physical selling remains essential in many industries. Its key concepts are often used in web marketing.

‍This is the case with our topic today: PoS marketing. Behind this acronym lies a crucial subject for retailers and brands alike: point-of-sale marketing.

 But - as is often the case in marketing! - the term is used in many contexts and can ultimately refer to completely different techniques and actions. It's easy to get lost...

‍Fortunately, Sidely comes to the rescue with this article that will allow you to understand everything in a few minutes!

PoS Marketing: Key Concepts

PoS marketing (Point of Sale), or point-of-sale marketing, brings together all the techniques and POS advertising materials aimed at promoting products directly at the place of purchase. It includes elements such as advertising displays, stands, product highlights, promotions, as well as sensory experiences designed to attract consumer attention and influence their purchasing decision.

Manufacturers, chains, and retailers thus establish PoS strategies, and field data collection makes it possible to verify that these strategies are correctly executed on the sales floor. When this mission proves complex to perform or when they lack resources, companies can choose to call on agencies specializing in point-of-sale marketing.

Example: the Starbucks brand is known for writing its customers' names on their cups. This practice is part of the company's marketing strategy to personalize the customer experience and create a more direct link with consumers. This also makes the wait more interactive and humanizes the brand.

Point-of-sale marketing is also relevant when you invest in a stand at a trade show. In any case, it depends on the existence of a physical point of sale.

PoS Digital Marketing

The primary objective of PoS Marketing is therefore to "convert" customers in the purchasing phase. It's as if you had successfully gained traffic on your website and now wanted to increase the conversion rate into new customers.

The analogy is not insignificant... Some e-commerce players use the term POS marketing to refer to online sales features, such as call to actions, banners, and other pop-ups intended to trigger the purchasing decision at the time of viewing an item, for example, a product page.

Improper terminology? We'll let you judge! 😬‍

The Objectives of PoS Marketing

Marketing at the point of sale is classified under offline marketing - and instore strategy - because it triggers levers in the consumer's purchasing environment.

Here are the main objectives of PoS marketing: 

• Boost customer engagement;

• Create a memorable experience through sensory marketing;

• Increase the average basket size;

• Develop brand awareness;

• Support product launches and activation campaigns;

• Differentiate the brand from the competition (especially in supermarkets);

• Build customer loyalty (to the brand or the point of sale).

Marketing Tools for Point-of-Sale Implementation

There are many devices to stimulate marketing at the point of sale. Retailers and stores sometimes have the privilege (loyalty card, zoning, etc.), but brands are not left out and can negotiate certain advantages, on a temporary or permanent basis.

A short, non-exhaustive list of point-of-sale marketing tools:  

• Optimization of product assortment;

• Organization and zoning of the sales area;

• Layout: lighting, scenography, etc.;

• Digital and phygital displays: interactive kiosks, videos, screens, etc.;

• Countertop displays;

• Shelf information (signage): posters, banners, price tags, etc.;

• POS advertising throughout the journey: banners, roll-up banners, shelf-talkers, headers, arches, totems; 

• Furniture: refrigerators, tables, umbrellas, chairs;

• Discount coupons;

• Advertisements;

• Planograms: shelf visualization tools (modeling);

• Sensory marketing & atmosphere: music, scents, lighting, etc.;

• Tests, demonstrations, tastings, and in-shelf samples;

• Shop in shop: mini boutique within a point of sale (e.g., partnership);

• Events (activities, games, exhibitions, etc.); 

• Promotions and special offers: discounts, coupons, bundle offers, etc.;

• Product wrapping and packaging;

• Loyalty programs and cards;

• Merchandising and its variations: dramatization, cross-merchandising; 

• Etc.

‍💡 Regarding information materials, we must distinguish between two types of systems: 

• ILV (information on the place of sale) is initiated by the store or the brand and aims to help consumers during their purchasing journey.‍

• PLV (advertising on the place of sale / POS advertising) is a system designed to encourage the discovery and purchase of a product, used by the brands themselves.

Brands and Distributors: Different Challenges to Align

Depending on whether a company distributes or is distributed, point-of-sale marketing involves different challenges.

For store chains and points of sale, certain components of PoS marketing, such as promotions, can leave an impression on consumers and thus have an impact on store traffic. Indeed, the marketing of a point of sale is inseparable from its catchment area. 

As a result, a store's marketing is always more or less local. First, because it focuses on capturing a target audience based on its socio-economic characteristics (gender, occupation, purchasing frequency, etc.), and second, because the competition from other surrounding points of sale is often fierce. This is particularly true for supermarkets, as most French people have several supermarkets close to home.

Retailers and points of sale therefore try to encourage loyalty through specific programs. PoS marketing is thus part of a territorial implementation and competition logic in a given sector. Supermarkets are also increasingly inclined to use presence management, web platforms that optimize the search engine optimization of different points of sale on the internet.

Brands, for their part, are much less sensitive to this geographic dimension. In their online marketing, they can target segments at the regional or national level and direct customers to the nearest point of sale. No need to provide the address; people know very well where the nearest Leclerc is!

Thus, brands' PoS marketing focuses on in-store conversion, with traffic issues being managed by the distributors.

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Succeeding in PoS Together

At Sidely, we often talk to you about trade marketing. And for good reason: it is essential for brands present in supermarkets to collaborate with distributors. It's no use designing awesome POS displays if your products are hidden at the very back of the store...

During your store visits, if you notice major organization and shelf layout problems, be proactive in making suggestions to department managers. The common goal is to implement strategic changes that will benefit both the distributor and the brand.

So, when you meet with your contacts—whether they are department managers or site directors—use your own data to show the results you get in other stores with better-optimized PoS setups.

But you still need to be able to measure the results at the point of sale!

And that is what we are going to look at now.

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Evaluating Point-of-Sale Marketing Results

As we have just seen, implementing effective PoS marketing relies heavily on customer knowledge. However, retailers have a real head start in this area.‍

PoS System: The Strategic Asset for Retailers

As we saw earlier: the acronym POS is often used to refer to checkout systems. These tools, also called "PoS systems" (Point of Sale), are essential for managing in-store transactions. But they do not just record and process payments: distributors also use them to track sales, analyze commercial performance, and above all, aggregate data in the checkout area (loyalty cards, credit, etc.).

Data from PoS systems then converges with that of internet users on the retailers' websites to allow them to build those famous buyer profiles.

And where do brands fit into all of this?

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How to Measure Point-of-Sale Marketing Performance?

But when brands want to benefit from this customer knowledge, things get complicated... The data is then a strategic asset that distributors only concede at a high price! 

Companies must then request access to the checkout data of the points of sale, also called sellout. These are the sales figures at the checkout, as opposed to the sell-in (what the brand sells to the buying group), which allow manufacturers to get a clearer picture, in exchange for a fee.

Sellout data is a strategic goal for brands during annual negotiations with supermarket chains.

However, having checkout results is not enough. The observed results still need to be interpreted. This is the whole challenge for brands, which must constantly visit points of sale to verify that PoS strategies are executed correctly. The challenges are multiple: with sales area managers having sales targets to achieve, they cannot afford to spend too much time conducting shelf checks and verifying merchandising.

To gain efficiency and make commercial store visits related to point-of-sale marketing profitable, brands can equip themselves with a retail CRM.

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The reward: the assurance of optimal management of sales time, and the standardization of all retail execution processes!