Schultz' Forecast: P-O-P Will Drive Brand Value

"As we head into the 21st century, nothing is more critical in marketing than the brand. Unfortunately, we have mistreated it badly: discounted it, changed it, ripped it off because we don't understand it or how to communicate well with it ... In the future, P-O-P managers must act as 'keepers of the brand' because P-O-P is what will drive brand value."So said Don E. Schultz, professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, and president of Agora Inc., in his session "Can P-O-P Really Build Brand Value?" at The P-O-P Show in Chicago this past spring.In answer to the question posed by his presentation's title, Schultz replied an emphatic "Yes," telling his capacity audience that P-O-P must in fact begin taking a leadership role in marketing "because it all comes together at the point-of-purchase. If your P-O-P doesn't work, then all the money you've spent on the brand is wasted."According to Schultz, the increased importance of brands and P-O-P is due to a transition in the marketplace that began in the 1960s, when marketing came into its own to address the re-emergence of competition. The 1970s saw the rise of the quality movement and the global marketplace, followed by the 1980s' dominant themes of cost-cutting and re-engineering. In those decades, the focus shifted from marketers to the marketing channel, with retailers gaining more control.The 1990s have brought "the greatest revolution since the industrial revolution -- the digitalization of the world," Schultz said. The Internet is only the first sign of this revolution, which is shifting technology, information and focus away from marketers and channels to customers. To survive, he says, organizations in the 21st century must become "customer-centric" by adopting an "outside-in" planning strategy.Said Schultz, "Marketing must become an interactive system that listens to customers before communicating instead of a system that operates from the inside out. We need to understand what and how the customer wants to buy -- not how we want to sell. And in this new marketplace, the brand is all-important because it's the only differentiating factor you have between products."For most companies, the danger in this new scenario lies in assuming that the organization owns and defines the brand. In actual fact, the brand exists only in the mind of the customer and has value only if customers are willing to favor it through purchase or use. As proof, Schultz cited the examples of New Coke (which lasted all of 37 days) and Volkswagen (whose U.S. sales plunged after it dropped the popular "Bug" in 1976).If the brand lives in the customer's mind, then P-O-P's place at the end of the marketing chain makes it the most important vehicle for summarizing what a brand means and positioning it so that customers can respond. "Think of yourself not as the P-O-P manager, but as the 'brand contact manager,' with the ultimate power to reinforce positive brand associations -- or destroy them," Schultz advised. "For example, an endcap is a summary of the brand that must communicate instantly. That's much harder to do than making a 30-second commercial."

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