Brands are starting to pay much more attention to the messages that they give to shoppers at the shelf edge.

One example is from Tim Cofer, President of Europe at Mondelez, the owners of Cadbury’s and other snack brands. Tim told Marketing Week  “If we are not absolutely brilliant at the point of sale then we will not win.”  Other brands are also putting a much stronger focus on the shelf edge and a number of retailers are talking to us about their own brand products too.
Tim summed up the growing importance by saying:  “We can put out all the brilliant advertising we want on television and the Internet, but the single greatest point of exposure a consumer has with a brand is at the point of sale. Sales are all about execution in-store and we need to become a powerhouse at this to be successful as a new business.”
One of the trends that we have identified as part of this increased focus on the shelf edge is that brands and retailers want to be able to use different reasons to buy in different stores for the same product. A message that works well in Liverpool might not work well in Norwich.  Retailers want the flexibility to test different reasons to buy at the shelf edge and are talking with us about how that can be delivered.
The technology is available now and that’s why several retailers have put upgrading their ticketing and signage systems as a priority in their 2013 budget plans.