All the Store’s a Stage. And we are merely players.
It struck me the other day that retail theater is just about the only live theater that any of us have experienced over the past year. (For anyone not familiar with the term, retail theater can be defined as the large, shopper-stopping thematic displays that brands create in order to secure floor space for incremental product display and huge sales boosts.)
That may be sad for the soul of the country. And it’s tragic for a vast variety of arts organizations (more on that later). But at least it provided some sense of entertainment for shoppers who, during the pandemic, may only be venturing out of their homes for the weekly trip to the grocery or big box store.
In addition to designing and producing displays, my company, Origin Agency, conducts a retail audit twice a year throughout the country and provides it to our clients as an added value service. Because most of our clients are wine and spirits companies, we focus on those categories. We’re kind of like “retail theater critics”. We seek out, photograph and analyze the effectiveness the displays we see and extrapolate to identify industry trends.
Our 2020 audits were smaller and more focused than in prior years (we didn’t feel comfortable activating our whole national network of shoppers during a pandemic), but we were able to get into enough stores to see some interesting trends and some really impressive POS. To create retail theater and set “stages” for their products, brands built BBQ grills, football stadiums, seltzer-filled coolers and haunted houses out of paper. They created surf waves out of hard seltzer boxes, golfers out of beer cases, docks out of vodka cases, wreaths out of whiskey labels and Christmas trees and snowmen out of bourbon barrels. They molded vacuform 3-D baseball gloves and giant margarita glasses. All of these worked to get display for their products, draw shoppers eyes, give the stores a festive mood, and boost sales.
Smart marketers looked at Americans’ unusual shopping habits and pivoted quickly to adapt to consumer behavior. They changed their campaigns, moving away from large party or bar scenes and toward simple, small outdoor gatherings. They focused on giving shoppers interesting home cocktail ideas.
Many times throughout my career, I’ve been worried that in-store POS was a dying business. (Consequently, Origin has diversified our offerings.) But POS keeps surprising me. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. There are only so many ways to capture the consumer’s attention in a sea of similar products. Those last 3 feet of the shopper’s journey are vital to making the sale. And that sale is the only metric that directly impacts the bottom line. Not clicks, not likes, not advertising awards, not search engine rankings. Sales. Because of that, I think POS will remain a key tool for marketers everywhere for the foreseeable future.
Now, back to those arts organizations. In recognition of the fact that it is fundamentally unfair that retail theater companies did OK last year whereas REAL theater companies foundered, Origin Agency is donating $750 each to the Repertory Theater St. Louis and the local Black Rep to help support the companies and actors who lost their livelihoods last year. And we ask that, if you had an OK 2020, you consider supporting your local arts organization, as well.
http://www.repstl.org/
http://theblackrep.org/
