Fuji Photo Film: Picture Perfect P-O-P

There are few products at retail that by their very nature can drive consumers back to the store several times as a result of a single purchase. Film and one-time-use cameras represent a unique product category that can repeatedly increase store traffic, due to film processing requirements. However, this is also a category that thrives on impulse sales, so keeping film products top-of-mind with consumers is essential.Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc., Elmsford, N.Y., is staying in front of consumers by pushing for secondary display placements at retail. And retailers are supporting multiple display locations because increased store traffic increases the likelihood of additional store purchases."Film and one-time-use cameras are great traffic builders," says Brian Hammock, brand manager for consumer film. "By putting products in secondary locations, the consumer not only buys that product initially, but then brings it back on another trip to drop it off for photo processing and then returns one more time to pick up the prints. We have a special story to tell the retailer because we're one of the few products that can drive that many trips back into an account [where the consumer has the opportunity] to buy not only our products but others as well."In addition, secondary placements can help to increase the profit margins of some retail departments that post modest returns. For example, bakery and dairy departments generally have a 3% to 5% margin, whereas film and one-time-use cameras can be considerably higher, says Al Day, brand manager for one-time-use cameras."For one-time-use cameras, our impulse rate is about 70%, so it's key for us to have this particular product located in all areas of the store," Day says.Maintaining Brand ConsistencyApproximately 85% of the company's displays are temporary and made of corrugate, while the remaining 15% are made of wire, metal, plastic and other permanent materials. With such a high percentage of temporary displays, new displays are constantly shipping into the field."We certainly have a lot of brand equity in the color green," says Hammock. "Our pieces all look like a family of products and display pieces and they are designed to go out into the marketplace that way."The company integrates all of its advertising themes into its display programs. Also, all displays are designed to convey a similar corporate look across all product lines. "We try to keep our camera displays in the same line as the film displays," says Margaret Toub, assistant product manager for optical products. "Since film and one-time-use have a lot more displays out there, we try to make sure ours match so it's a family look.""Last year, we went to a new campaign, 'Capture everyday in brilliant color. Get the picture with Fuji Film.' We had that integrated into all of our P-O-P," says Day. "We keep that tagline throughout everything we do across all of our product lines."According to Hammock, one of the company's current display trends is to include header cards that depict picture-taking events that deviate from traditional celebrations. Graphics feature everyday photo opportunities, like a mother and daughter baking cookies. This not only promotes sales of film and cameras, but it also raises opportunities for secondary placements all around the store, such as in the bakery aisle. The company has built simple, gravity-fed tubes that hold 10 one-time-use cameras in a sleeve for this type of merchandising that can be easily added to any store aisle. "It allows us to cross-merchandise without actually putting any product on the floor," says Day. "They're critical to the one-time-use category.""With a lot of our P-O-P header cards, we try to convey product shots and, most importantly, pictures," says Hammock. "Our demographic is basically women with 2.2 kids, so to speak, and we're going after those families. Our P-O-P tends to show moms and kids and that sort of lifestyle -- everyday events, whether it's at the Little League game or baking cookies or talking on the phone. We try to convey that picture-taking is an everyday event, not just for weddings and special occasions."Most displays are designed to accommodate varying product assortments. The company works to ensure that it has the appropriate product mix on the displays in each market channel and retail chain. "We do displays that are film only, one-time-use only, or a combination in our larger displays," says Hammock. "We look at our Nielsen syndicated data and create product mixes based on sell-through to determine what our mix is in the marketplace. Then we sell-in a display that reflects the sell-through in the marketplace."Due to the large volume of displays and the frequency of shipping schedules, the company doesn't produce many customized displays, though custom header cards are sometimes made. The company designs displays for different size accounts in different market channels, from supermarkets and drugstores to non-traditional outlets like clothing stores and gift shops. Most customization is done through custom-tailored product assortments, which are based on sell-through figures."If we did that [visually customize displays] for every account or gave every rep the ability to do custom displays, we'd be inundated," says Day. "It's not economically feasible. We take the data on a nationwide basis and put the product mix in a display that will sell the best in that specific channel. That has worked very well for us."The display process begins when sales reps determine that there is a display opportunity in the field. Salespeople meet with key accounts to schedule display programs for the coming year. In cases where new SKUs are being introduced to the marketplace or a new display presentation is being proposed, the company will survey accounts to gauge their receptiveness. "Currently, we're working on a new SKU and displays that are geared more toward the teen market so we're looking at different channels of distribution -- record stores, electronics stores, clothing stores," says Day. "We went out and surveyed the market and then pulled in some vendors and said, 'This is what we're looking at. Can we do something in a wire rack or a clear rack -- something a little different?'"Fuji's internal creative services department designs approximately half of its P-O-P; the rest is outsourced to a small pool of hand-picked firms. The company has worked to keep its vendor list as short as possible for a variety of reasons. "Most of them have a long history with our company and are familiar with how we go to market," says Hammock. "We sometimes have to deal with very short lead times and they are now used to that. We feel that if we have fewer vendors, we have more control. They're doing more business with us and, therefore, we're more important to them. Since they're used to working with us, if we conceptually come up with an idea or we have a need and we're not really sure how to accomplish it and go to market, they're familiar enough with us that they can also help us with creative and design.""I think it's like anything else when you're doing business -- you find the people that you work well with and who work well for you," says Day. "We don't want 14,000 vendors. We work with the ones that we work well with."The company's core group of suppliers includes: Applied Printing, Moonachie, N.J.; Display Technologies, College Point, N.Y.; Lloyd & Ulman Inc., West Palm Beach, Fla.; Marketing Concepts Inc., Johns Island, S.C.; and Marketing Directions Inc., Somerset, N.J.Timeframes for display projects vary, but generally take three to four months from conception to completion. "We go in and meet with the vendors and we'll go over different ideas. That probably takes about a month or so," says Day. "They have to produce it and that generally takes a couple more weeks. Then they ship the right P-O-P to the right distribution centers, where it's then sent on to our customers."Special ConsiderationsAlthough the company tries to design its displays to accommodate a wide assortment of product mixes, there are times when P-O-P needs to be more specialized. For example, one-time-use cameras have different usage patterns than film used in traditional cameras. This means that the merchandising must reflect this usage and highlight the convenience of the product. "The nature of the business is that 50% of one-time-use cameras are all shot at one event, while about 6% of an entire roll is shot at one time with film," says Day. "It's much more event-driven and it's based on convenience, which is why you want it displayed everywhere."The company's Advanced Photo System (APS) products also require some special attention in-store. The features of the APS system and its ability to take different-size photos are highlighted on displays to differentiate it from standard 35mm film. Also, the number of units on each display is designed to reflect the market share that APS products have in the consumer film industry as a whole. "Due to the fact that APS is about 10% or so of the film business, we build smaller displays that the have fewer units on them so the retailer can turn it in a timely manner and they don't become dust collectors," says Hammock.Though the company doesn't conduct any formal analysis of a particular display's effectiveness, brand managers are in constant contact with the salespeople, who study their accounts and report back to keep everyone abreast of sales trends. The salesforce often takes pictures of displays in the field so the brand teams have a good understanding of how display programs are being executed at retail.Syndicated data is also analyzed to determine sell-through numbers. Though this doesn't help assess the effectiveness of an individual display, it does reveal how effective the overall merchandising was during a selected time period.

Fuji Photo Film: Picture Perfect P-O-P

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