"RETAIL GAINS GROUND AS MEDIUM THAT CAN EFFECT CHANGE"
Retail gains ground as medium that can effect change
September 28, 2009
NEW YORK — With fewer people actually watching advertisers' television commercials or seeing their ads in magazines and newspapers, in-store marketing is taking on a greater significance for suppliers and retailers alike.
According to the Skokie, Ill.-based In-Store Marketing Institute, overall ad spending is expected to decline this year but the money spent on in-store advertising and marketing will continue to grow.
Last year companies spent almost $21 billion on in-store marketing in the United States, the institute says.
Now, as more manufacturers and retailers begin to understand the positive impact these efforts can have on sales, increasing amounts of advertising dollars are expected to be diverted from traditional media to in-store efforts.
| IN-STORE MARKETING |
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| "We're able to touch the consumer during the course of his or her day." |
"It's becoming ever more clear that retail is gaining ground as a medium that can effect substantial change for a brand," a spokesman for the In-Store Marketing Institute says.
Retailers and suppliers agree that it is often difficult to judge the effectiveness of television and radio commercials and print ads. But with in-store marketing, they note, the ad is reaching a captive audience and it is easier to measure the ad's impact on sales.
"If our ad draws them to a category, we're helping to lift that category," comments Doug Leeds, chief executive officer of StoreBoard Media LLC, a supplier of what it calls "in-store billboards," advertising sleeves that fit over the security pedestals situated at the entrances to nearly every chain drug store in the country.
Leeds and others in the industry note that billboards — part of the larger advertising medium known as out-of-home media — are the second fastest-growing form of advertising, outpaced only by ads on the Internet.
"We're seeing a real resurgence in out-of-home media," StoreBoard Media president Rick Sirvaitis says, noting that his company's in-store bill boards offer a nonintrusive way to reach shoppers.
"The advertising community is always looking for the best way to approach the customer, and we're able to touch the consumer during the course of his or her day without really interrupting their routine."
Advertising in drug stores, those in the industry note, is becoming increasingly critical for suppliers because the trade class has become an important part of so many people's lives.
"Drug chains have almost become convenience stores for many people," StoreBoard Media's Sirvaitis says. "They are visited by more people and attract a much broader range of shoppers than ever before."
Advertising executives point out that consumers' changing shopping habits have helped fuel the ongoing shift from traditional advertising to more personal forms of marketing.
"The days of mass marketing have rapidly been replaced by one-to-one marketing," David Wendland, vice president of Hamacher Resource Group Inc., which offers business development programs for the health, beauty and wellness industry, noted earlier this year.
Retailers, he added, want marketing efforts that provide consumers a combination of savings and in-store incentives. "Savvy marketers realize that if they place the right message into the right person's hands at the right time, it will influence purchases," Wendland said.
