'Check' Your Displays

Minneapolis — MarketingLab's Rich Butwinick saw a need for a service that evaluates in-store displays and provides actionable and cost-efficient insights for marketers. Enter SellCheck, a service that Butwinick says can maximize the effectiveness of shopper marketing tools. SellCheck uses 3M-owned VAS (Visual Attention Service) technology along with evaluations from industry experts to test images of various types of shopper marketing communication, such as displays, endcaps, shelf sets, packaging and even websites.In development for the past two years, the SellCheck service is said to be able to evaluate and improve existing POS, aid in the creation of new displays, and potentially increase retailer buy-in. "Great in-store materials are a blend of art and science," says April Carlisle, leader, shopper marketing Center of Excellence, at Procter & Gamble, one of SellCheck's half-dozen CPG test partners. "SellCheck couples a scientific way to measure the noticeability of elements with the creative input of how to change up the POS to get maximum impact. I think there is a key opportunity for both agencies and manufacturers to step up the level of qualification of in-store materials similar to out-of-store media assets."VAS uses scientific analysis to quickly analyze an image and show which elements will grab attention in the first three to five seconds. The expert evaluations come from a panel of experts who use MarketingLab's proprietary Four C's of "command attention," "connect with shoppers," "convey information" and "close the sale" – essentially a checklist for developing effective P-O-P. (The Four C's are used as judging criteria for the Path to Purchase Institute's Design of the Times competition.)Butwinick says MarketingLab clients have seen their sales increase 10% to 100% by using only the Four C's. It was those clients' successes and the reactions brand manufacturers and retailers had to the Four C's at seminars and with the Design of the Times that led to SellCheck's creation.All panel members have more than 10 years of industry experience and have been qualified through a Four C's training and testing process. There were six members prior to SellCheck's March 1 debut, and Butwinick says that number will expand.For a fee ($800 for one image, with bulk rates available), marketers upload an image at Sellcheck.com and input the communication objectives of the piece. It's OK to upload images of prototype displays, Butwinick says, but he recommends they be imposed on an in-store environment for better evaluation. The image is run through VAS, and that data is passed on to at least two members of SellCheck's panel, who then use the VAS information along with the Four C's to further evaluate the image against the desired objectives. SellCheck can test nine different types of communication (e.g., endcaps, shelf sets, packaging).Within 24 to 48 hours after uploading an image, SellCheck emails a seven-page report that includes a "heatmap," a visual sequence that shows the most likely path the human eye will follow when viewing the display, and a Four C's scored analysis with comments and recommendations. "The speed component is critical," says Butwinick. "It doesn't work to say this will take two weeks to deliver." An executive summary highlights how the image indexes against similar tested images. Part of the two-year testing phase included creating a scoring database to help users benchmark vs. successful executions.Butwinick says it's important that the advice not only validates what works but offers suggestions for improvement. "We knew SellCheck could not just be heat maps and eye-tracking. Those are only tools to an end result, they are not the end result. Actionable insights are what leads to better POS and increased sales."To test SellCheck, Shopper Marketing submitted a Pirate's Booty "Pirates of the Caribbean"-themed display from Sea Cliff, N.Y.-based Pirate Brands. The display eked into the "excellent" category on the Four C's analysis, receiving a score of 29 out of 40. (See images.) The panel rated it lowest in "connect with shoppers," finding that the Johnny Depp movie poster almost overpowered the brand. Comments included: "Utilize the skull and bandana as the visual link to the movie. Let the shopper focus on one ship 'mast' by eliminating the movie poster and integrating the movie linkage into brand message as a sub-priority." Butwinick says that although there are some good elements of the display, there are components that could be optimized and thus spur more sales.

'Check' Your Displays

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