There are countless components that play into consumer decisions when they are faced with products in a supermarket. For example, a mother who has visited her local market to pick up ingredients for tonight’s dinner might make her decision based on anything from past dinners she has made, to convenience, to supermarket discounts and prices. Supermarkets serve a complex consumer base in which the needs and decisions of each individual are unique. However, the world of advertising has made it possible for businesses to show their customers the best way their needs can be met at the establishment. Advertisements can come in the form of newspaper coupons and television commercials, but there is one form of advertisement that can sway a consumer’s decision in a split second: free standing signs.
A free standing sign is, well just that: a flyer stand, display racks, price tags, clear window decals, or any other form of signage that is strategically placed inside or just outside of a business. For example, car dealerships commonly utilize waving inflatable arm men as a form of free standing signs to alert passerby of deals and discount events.
So why should supermarkets care about the presence of free standing signs in their building, when they’ve paid for three television commercials, two radio ads, and a weekly newspaper coupon sheet? Isn’t that enough to draw in consumers and encourage them to spend their money at the business?
While it may be enough to compel a customer to use your supermarket, the buying potential of a consumer is not maximized until you sway their decisions from within the store, when they’ve got a cart ready and wallet in hand. Here are some strategies you can use to utilize free standing signs in your market.
Compliment your exterior advertising. Did you advertise a great deal on fresh deli meats in this week’s newspaper? Well, odds are that your shopper is not perfect, and they may have forgotten all about that coupon tucked in their wallet or buried in their purse. Your deli free standing signs can remind consumers of that “All fresh ground hamburger, buy two pounds, get one free!” advertisement they saw on their phones or on the radio, and sway them to buy more hamburger than they originally planned to.
Hark to customers about new inventory. Most shoppers wander through their supermarket aisles in a daze. They do not pay enough attention to the things they are passing by to notice when there is something new on the shelves. For that reason, using a flyer stand that points out some new additions to your market and some of their benefits (“All organic!” “Eight different flavors!” “ADA and dentist approved!”) will alert shoppers to new inventory that you are pushing to sell.
Guide your shopper to clearance sections. If summer is just around the corner, you may have a heavy focus on flip flops, bathing suits, and other warm season staples. However, many shoppers have a soft spot for sweet deals, especially those on the cold season inventory that you want gone. If you bury your red tag specials at the back of the department or store, most consumers probably won’t go through the added effort of hunting down your markdowns. Use free standing signs to maximize the shopper traffic through your expired, outdated, or out of season goods. Play up each markdown season as a big to-do to your shoppers with red balloons, exclamatory signs, and more.
Squawk about price cuts. As someone in the supermarket business would know, rises and falls in supply and demand come with the same fluctuations in pricing. While it wouldn’t necessarily be beneficial to you to advertise a price rise, free standing signs make work to your advantage when something in your stock drops in price. Whether there was a high yield of a certain vegetable this year or rice supply has skyrocketed, nudging your shoppers at something with a lower price may cause them to stock up before the cost rises again.
While the advertising needs of every market is different, using in-store signage to persuade your shoppers in the moment can raise your profits and your clientele base size.