| Bijoor concluded that POP was more action oriented,
immediacy led, more measureable than mass media advertising and was
a dynamic concept. "The conference aims to focus on the niche
that POP is looking at handling the last mile issue that hasseled
marketers are facing," he said.
Kingdon, on the other hand spoke about the different brand and
retail approaches that were taken in the UK as far as POP was concerned.
Citing the example of "black goods" (read ciggrattes,
alcohol, tobacco products), he said that since traditional advertising
of these goods was banned the companies spent millions of pounds
every year on POP advertising in the retail space.
"The role of POP is to stop the shopper, either mentally or
physically, and not to make him buy the product. The attention that
a POP attracts can then be instrumental in the purchasing decisions
of the consumer," said Kingdon.
In 2003, the total POP market size in UK, according to Kingdon,
was 1.1 billion pound sterling. Speaking to indiantelevision.com
he said that the market would grow 5 per cent this year but that
he still termed as a conservative growth expectation.
Ending on the note - "The sky is the limit as far as POP is
concerned," Kingdon said that there were certain brand visibility
requirements in the space, which if taken care of can spur sales
of products that go in for POP advertising.
AC Nielsen's Medh touched upon the research done on consumers and
POP. "India is dominated by the traditional format retailing
and hence POP is virtually invisible here. POP is only prominent
in the dark category brands and for other brands, mass media advertising
dominates the mind and pride space and also the budgets of companies.
POP is seen as a complimentary tool," he said.
He also stressed on the fact that in India the use of POP was very
unimaginative and that brands needed to work on that front.
"Almost 15 per cent of buying decisions are made on the shop
floor and hence companies should not spend in an ad hoc manner in
the POP space, because there is a huge potential for the brand in
POP advertising. Marketers should ignore POP at their own risk,"
Medh emphasised.
Radhkrishnan, on the other hand, stressed on organised retailing
and said that there was a steady growth in the organised retail
sector in India. "Anything that communicates a message is POP.
Product display, banners, posters, shelf tickets, bay headers etc
are examples of POP. One should look at the category and not just
the brand while deciding on the POP for the brand," he said.
He also said that POP formed an important part of the media mix
and that while planning for the brand, one should plan down to the
POP.
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