How do you convey in a display that the pencils on display are made from recycled newspapers? While back office marketing people would create a poster to tell the story, out at newsXpress Knox, one of the team decided to use a rolled-up newspaper to tell the story. They rolled a newspaper and used this to cap a display promoting the OBON pencils. The display looks terrific. I’ve seen people drawn to it to find out what the newspaper has to do with pencils. Next to the packs of pencils are two loose pencils and a sharpener – so shoppers can actually see the newspaper.
An interactive display like this can work for many products we sell in newsagencies. Retail theatre is important to make products appealing and, in some cases, understandable.
Too often in newsagencies I see displays which were out of date twenty and thirty years ago. We need to innovate in our product presentation if we are to compete in today’s retail environment. After all, everything we sell is available elsewhere.