Microsoft Unifies P-O-P Look with Vista Launch

Redmond, WA -- With the release of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 in January, Microsoft debuted a new in-store campaign that streamlines all of its point-of-purchase materials under one look. This massive undertaking involved more than a million pieces of P-O-P at more than 20,000 U.S. retail locations. The task to create a cohesive in-store presence fell to Parisa Zander, group manager of worldwide visual merchandising for Microsoft Retail, and her small team. "The charter of this team was to create one look and feel for Microsoft worldwide for these campaigns," she says. "If you were to go to any region in the United States, you would see a similar look and feel in those stores and also see a very similar view in Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America -- globally, there is one look and feel for Microsoft."Since taking over the team two and a half years ago, Zander has been working toward integrating Microsoft at retail. "We wanted to bring all of the different sub-brands together under one umbrella so the consumer gets one consistent message as he goes from each in-line display, endcap and even to the Web," she says. "As our products continue to grow and become more complex, the message has to become cleaner and simpler."Microsoft thought the Vista launch would be the perfect time to debut its unified look because the launch was one of the largest Microsoft has done in the past decade. The inspiration for the look came from Windows Vista and its new packaging. The new look promotes Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Vista and Games for Windows. From start to finish, it took her team 18 months to bring this vision to fruition. Since Microsoft became a worldwide group a year ago, Zander and her team helped launch the campaign at U.S. retailers and also "had a hand in what the rest of the world was going to look like," she says. To execute the new look, Zander's team tapped IDL Worldwide in East Butler, PA, and Artitalia Group in Montreal. "We've been inspired by what we call our Vista wave in our P-O-P," says Danell Loftin, lead worldwide visual merchandising manager for PC products. "We brought in certain elements like the nice, sexy curves, gestures and wave to our headers and shop edges, not only across our Vista and Office products, but across all of our Games for Windows and hardware products, too."In all of its fixtures, Microsoft incorporated elements of this new look in permanent, semipermanent and temporary displays. The look also crept into Microsoft's communication materials by picking up the blues, oranges, and yellows from the in-store pieces. "It's not only the messaging, it's color, shapes, materials -- all these subtleties help to link everything together," says Loftin. Microsoft worked with U.S. retailers to develop custom fixturing, headers, endcaps, powered endcaps to run a touchscreen demo display, trays and in-line graphics, among other P-O-P. "Retailers today are becoming very particular about what's going in their stores," says Loftin. "We had to customize certain elements for all of our retailers."Microsoft used a curved shelf edge for both the in-line system and the endcaps, in addition to a curved header for both sections. "Our number-one objective was to really secure the software in-line sections of stores because that's where this campaign will live the longest," says Zander. To secure and define that space, Microsoft developed a tray extension with swappable module pieces to fit each retailer's space constraints. The team also produced P-O-P graphics that were easily customized to accommodate retailers' co-branding requirements. Retailers carrying the new Microsoft look include Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Target, Wal-Mart, Nebraska Furniture Mart, J&R and Microcenter. Microsoft anticipates endcaps will stay up for about six months and trays for up to four years.