Make it POP: 10 Best Practices for Point of Purchase Displays

A great in-store point of purchase (POP) display stops traffic and moves merchandise. Take it from MVP. With over three decades of experience in creating high-impact, show-stopping point of purchase displays for clients like 3M Stationery & Office Supplies Division (SOSD) on behalf of such brands as Post-it®, Scotch™ and 3M, you need graphics and messaging that will hook shoppers at first sight, communicate the products’ value and compel them to buy. In today’s digital world, it’s crucial that your instore display captures your audience’s attention and promotes interaction with your brand in a tactile way.

Here are 10 best practices to help create prominent POP displays and eye-catching environments.

1. Leverage the available space to its full potential. Consider the dimensions carefully, ensuring that logos, messaging, and overall design elements are well-proportioned and readable from various distances. At MVP, our advanced 3D rendering software allows us to transform shelf and floor space into an impactful showcase for our clients’ products, maximizing every square foot for optimal efficiency and visibility.
2. Design with the products in mind. Product placement should never be an afterthought—it must be the foundation of your POP display design. With our advanced 3D rendering software, you can visualize optimal arrangements early in the process, ensuring that products are not only highly visible but also easy for customers to access.
3. Keep it simple. Short, catchy headlines work best to grab shoppers’ attention.
4. Think like your audience. Create a persona or short biography of your customer to help you understand what influences consumer decisions.
5. Align with your brand. Messaging and graphics should reinforce your brand identity and build on your other marketing materials. A set of merchandising guidelines can reinforce consistency and increase brand recognition.
6. Draw the eye. Think bold, contrasting colors and inviting graphics. Unusual shapes, aisle interrupters and add-on elements can be shoe-stopping as well.
7. See the shopper’s discovery as a story. What will they see at 10 feet, five feet or when they are standing right in front of your product display? Designing for all three of these distances will help stop, draw in and engage your audience.
8. Enlist the help of QR codes. These can be a great way to ignite interaction with your retail store display, deliver product information and gain metrics on the shopper’s experience.
9. Consider interactive elements for larger POP displays. Find out if you can demo your product within the display, give free samples or spark engagement with an experience the shopper can only enjoy instore.
10. Bring in the season. Many instore displays are seasonal and creating an experience around the holidays or back-to-school can be a great way to communicate the timeliness of your product and how it fits into a consumer’s everyday life.

Bonus tip: Trial your POP display first. In many instances, it’s possible to run an in-store test of your display to gain valuable insights before rolling out to multiple locations.

Ready to make your product displays pop? Learn how our point of purchase display services can make your products stand not only visually but verbally. Given our decades of POP merchandising experience and 3D visualization capabilities for national brand clients like 3M, and their channel partners like Target, Walmart, OfficeMax and many more, we can make your business and brand “invaluable.”

Have a question? We’d love to hear from you, please reach out to us at info@mvpdesign.com.

About MVP Marketing + Design, Inc.

MVP Marketing + Design, Inc., is an award-winning digital agency based in Minneapolis, with a Boston satellite office. With over 38 years of experience, MVP has established itself as a leader in branding, website design and development, digital marketing (including SEO, PPC, and social promotion), and videography services. The agency has successfully served a diverse range of clients, including private equity firms, investment banks, mezzanine debt providers, real estate syndicates, and divisions of the Fortune 500, including 3M’s Consumer, Healthcare, and Industrial groups, as well LMM and Professional Services firms in related markets across North America and globally.

MVP’s commitment to excellence has earned numerous accolades including multiple Hermes Awards, Communicator Awards, Davey Awards, and MARCOM Awards, among others.

MVP partners with WordPress VIP, HubSpot and Lead Forensics to offer clients value-added design, development and lead generation services.

To learn more about how MVP Marketing + Design can help your business or organization thrive, please reach out to us at info@mvpdesign.com.