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Being Ahead Of The Competition Requires Clever Visual Merchandising

By Alicia Morton


The overwhelming reliance on vision is expressed in many ways, such as the axiom seeing is believing. Almost every living animal uses its sight as the primary sense for survival. This is true of human beings as well, and sharp retailers use this information to their advantage. Moving products that have been difficult may be as easy as readjusting the visual merchandising.

From automobiles to tax returns, advertisements cover just about every company and product or service ever invented. Billboards, magazine, newspapers and of course television are packed as full of enticements to purchase as each venue believes the public can tolerate. The companies producing them are willing to pay a lot of money for one simple reason; it works.

Before people buy new things, they usually do some research to get as much information as they can to make a good decision. And while many pride themselves on such fact checking before buying, even that effort has already been influenced by what they have seen in a commercial. Knowing the general idea of a product or service then focuses the research on known entities, usually acquired from an ad.

Video advertisements are an art form, and companies spend an enormous amount if time, energy and resources on them. The time honored practice of placing attractive models in juxtaposition with products is based on the concept of consumer identification. Capturing the attention of the target customer with a pleasing image or idea is the goal.

In retail, the notion that what is easily seen is going to be purchased more readily than something that must be searched for is reality. The attention to detail extends all the way to the physical positioning of items for sale. Certainly consumers everywhere have seen the cardboard advertisements right at the entrance to a store, touting whatever new or on sale item the management is attempting to move.

Figuring out where to put an item in a retail store is a complex exercise that retailers take very seriously. Perishable food items are almost always displayed on single shelves at about waist height, and well illuminated. Items which are subject to impulse purchases are most likely to found where consumers have to line up and wait on their way out of the store.

Even where a product is placed on shelves is not left to chance. If the product is mainly used by men, it will be placed on a shelf about five feet four inches high. Products that are more likely to attract women will be placed on the next shelf down, in the respective sweet spots that are most comfortably seen without moving the head up or down.

No matter how diligently consumers study their products and services, they are still vulnerable to product positioning. Even without consciously acknowledging it, what we see affects our decision more than any other data we receive. For retailers, the notion of visual merchandising is one of the most important aspects of marketing.




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