Visual Merchandising Companies and the Psychology of Visual Merchandising

• July 24, 2012
• Topics:
  • New Partners
  • Visual Merchandising
  • Visual Merchandising Companies

Visual merchandising is not as simple as popping up a display promoting your brand and products. There is a psychological aspect to visual merchandising that must be considered if you want to optimize the success of your visual merchandising.

Consumers often make purchasing decisions based on emotion. Psychology is a science of the human mind and human behaviour. The dictionary defines psychology as the science dealing with the mind and mental processes, especially in relation to human and animal behaviour. The connection between what your customers think and feel and how you market to them makes an incredible difference in how effective your visual marketing display is.

The retail industry is very competitive and visual marketing is a major way that brands differentiate themselves from one another. Even if your products are unique, all brands have competitors and you must differentiate to stay competitive. Some retailers and even brands see visual marketing displays as merely cosmetic and don’t understand how they directly impact brand loyalty and sales. Visual marketing is one area that all brands should allocate budget funding to because with all of the choices available to consumers, visual marketing displays continually remind consumers that your brand is available in-store.

The best visual marketing displays will capture the attention of the consumer and translate into increased sales and so they must attract the customer. This requires more than art direction. The best visual marketing focuses on the phycology behind what motivates your target customer. Your visual marketing display is not about you, it’s about your customer.

Your visual marketing displays are even more successful when coupled with an in-store sales representative or demonstrators, whose role is to engage passers-by and talk with them about your product or even offer them a sampling or discount voucher enticing them to buy. This is especially crucial with respect to new product launches.

Some of the most successful visual marketing campaigns are successful because the brand has had the foresight to work with a visual marketing company to ensure that their displays are distributed at retail effectively. Visual marketing companies that handle display builds and sales support are able to make sure that visual marketing displays are set up at key retailers and that there are sales support representatives that work for the brand and not the retailer available to engage and capture consumers.

Often brands will invest in visual marketing displays and then the employees at the retailer will place them in a place that doesn’t give them the exposure that they need to be effective. Where your visual display is set up in-store is very important because an optimal location will ensure that more customers see the display.

Visual marketing companies help brands overcome this challenge by attending the retailer with the visual marketing display and influencing where it is placed in-store. They are also able to alert the brand if a retailer is asking that the visual marketing display be placed in an area where it is not going to be effective.

Understanding the psychology behind visual marketing and working with visual marketing companies are the two best ways that a brand can have more success at retail, boosting sales and increasing their brand exposure.

For more information about the psychology of visual merchandising or to find out about our solutions for visual merchandising and in-store marketing, please call Marketsupport at 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.