Maxell Offers Free Tape, Poster on Displays

Maxell's "Blow Away" icon of a man in a chair being pleasantly blasted by high-quality sound has been a fixture on posters in dorm rooms and young adults' bedrooms for nearly two decades. In September, the Fair Lawn, N.J.-based audiotape manufacturer introduced a corrugated floor merchandiser designed to "blow away" consumers with a double offer of a free tape and a free poster at the point-of-sale.The top portion of the display features four-color graphics, including the "Blow Away" icon on the header card, and holds brickpacks containing either four XL II 90 audiotapes or five UR 90 audiotapes, plus one free audiotape each. It fits onto a black corrugated base also featuring the icon and a well for the posters.Designed in-house at Maxell, the displays were produced by Wil-Mac of Conyers, Ga. "With more than 10,000 booked, this will clearly be the promotional event within the magnetic media categories for the fourth quarter," says Peter Brinkman, Maxell's national marketing manager. "It's very dynamic on the retail floor because its height makes for great sight lines. Consumers can easily see the image of the icon, and nothing attracts audiotape consumers like that specific visual."Maxell has aimed for "a wide range of different retailers in different trade channels," Brinkman reports, including mass merchants, record shops, specialty electronics retailers, chain drugstores and supermarkets.The marketing rationale, Brinkman says, was to "create energy in-store while offering a self-contained premium," and he reports that the response has been "outstanding. The retailer wins because it increases foot traffic, and consumers get a treat: the man-in-the-chair poster, which is approaching collector status and is a very high-demand item."Retailers nationwide are shipped the merchandisers "completely self-contained and easy to assemble," says Brinkman. The shipper package includes the floor display, 40 posters and 32 "brickpacks" of audiotapes in combinations dependent on the retailer's order. Weighing less than 10 pounds, the display when assembled measures 2 feet wide by 5 feet high by 2 feet deep.Unique to the promotion for Maxell is the offer of two free items with no coupons or proofs-of-purchase required. "Previously, consumers could send away by mail for a poster, and we've offered a poster as one of the prizes in a frequent-buyer program, but never before have we brought the program right into the retail environment and offered it with a free tape," Brinkman notes.

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