Steppin' Up

There's good news and bad news for footwear marketers who rely on P-O-P. Consumers are buying shoes like never before. A more casual work environment for both men and women and a general upsurge in consumer interest in footwear are driving a proliferation of styles.But while there seems to be a new shoe store popping up in every mall these days, the P-O-P real estate inside is getting tight. More and more retailers are abandoning the traditional "white shoe wall" way of retailing, opening the door to more P-O-P creativity, but making it harder for marketers to get and hold onto merchandising space.Faced with a variety of retail distribution channels (independents, specialty stores, national chains, department stores, wholesale discounters and company-owned stores), marketers must use P-O-P to project the message that their selection is special, says Greg Dutter, editor in chief of Footwear+ magazine, New York. "A well-merchandised, unique selection of shoes that are brought to life with P-O-P will sell," he says. But in the explosive world of shoe retailing, marketers have to keep their P-O-P message one step ahead.The Main MessageWhat's the message companies are trying to send? "P-O-P needs to support the brand," says Richard Spanjian, executive vice president of sales for Nashville, Tenn.-based Pentland North America. "When consumers walk into a retail store, only about 25 percent of them really know what they want to buy -- by style, by color, by size. If you don't make a good brand statement, you may lose a customer."Tracy Sellers, marketing communications manager at Asics Tiger Corp., Fountain Valley, Calif., agrees: "We've kept it very brand-image oriented because we found that retailers want a clean presence on the wall," she says. "They don't want a lot of different images.""When P-O-P gets too shoe-specific, its lifecycle is very short," says Spanjian. "That's another reason why on secondary brands, we need to have P-O-P that talks to the brand and creates the image in-store versus being so specific that when the shoe is sold out, new P-O-P must go in."Bill Boettge, president of the National Shoe Retailers Association, Columbia, Md., adds that the brand name can often serve as a compass for customers. "In self-serve environments, how do they judge one shoe against another and determine what is a good product or which is the better value? If they have heard of the brand, that is extremely important," he says.For other companies, the message depends on the particular shoe being highlighted. This focus is typically on two aspects: its technology (the features and benefits of a shoe) or the "lifestyle" imagery associated with it. Keith Anderson, visual marketing manager of Rockford, Mich.-based Wolverine Footwear Group, manages a number of brands: "One brand might require a lifestyle presentation and another may require more of a technology orientation. We try to be true to the brand and represent it properly.""Whenever there's something very unique about the construction or comfort features specifically, I think our efforts are to tell that story," says Gunter Alberts, general manager of visual merchandising for Florsheim Group Inc., Chicago. "When it's more of a fashion/lifestyle product, the message is more the design of the product." Jeanne Tauser, visual designer at St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Co., agrees: "You first want to define your customer when designing your brand, and then show that lifestyle in the display as much as possible."As fashion trends change, some executives are faced with changing consumers' perception of their product. Trudy Larson, senior marketing manager, Candie's, Purchase, N.Y., says, "Part of what our P-O-P does is [communicate] that we are a casual lifestyle brand. People have a misconception about us -- they remember our identity from the late '70s and early '80s -- but that really is not Candie's today. We tell women that our shoes now fit into the casual lifestyle that is becoming more prevalent in work and at home."Gaining Space"The biggest challenge still is to gain real estate -- a larger chunk of that wall and floor," says Wolverine's Anderson. "That's what we're always trying to do.""Getting the retailer to place the P-O-P is the hardest thing," agrees Jeff Scheid, national marketing manager for Portland, Ore.-based Dr. Martens. "We automatically ship it to them at no charge, but the difficulty is following through and making sure that the accounts are properly displaying it."Despite the space constraints, Harold Ruttenberg, ceo and chairman of Just For Feet, a retail chain based in Birmingham, Ala., says, "Manufacturers are trying to get P-O-P in because it is an important part of their selling point. We have virtually 50 vendors coming in every month or so with new P-O-P. It's critical for us because it changes the look of the store and gives direction on new or hot-selling merchandise."Skechers takes an active approach to placing P-O-P, says Scott Greenberg, director display merchandising, Skechers USA, Manhattan Beach, Calif. Every week his company sends approximately 8,000 invoices to retailers that include postcards touting a P-O-P item (anything from floorstands to blow-up frames). Skechers will send that item out if the retailer responds. "These postcards have become a phenomenal way of moving our P-O-P right out onto the floor -- we never sit on it more than a month or two in our distribution center."Account SpecificAlthough many companies still produce stock P-O-P items, most are finding that retailers want a look that's unique to their store. "The dedicated projects are more complicated because there are colors to match and specific ways to lay the store out," says Greenberg. "With so many different types of stores, store formats and retail players, the P-O-P really gets complicated.""I think today, probably more than ever, customization of P-O-P by distribution channels and by the accounts within those distribution channels, is going to take place," notes Pentland's Spanjian. "Retailers don't want the P-O-P or in-store displays to compete with the atmosphere they are trying to create. We can't make a display for 'all these stores' anymore because all these stores won't necessarily let you put in what you think is great.""We have some items available here that we can provide to certain accounts," adds Asics' Sellers. "Unfortunately, if what we have is limited, we need to take a look at the stores we're putting them in and determine how we can help the other stores out with their merchandising. Maybe that means providing them with graphics until we can get them a floor display."The Concept ShopMany shoe retailers want to break up the traditional way of merchandising -- a sea of shoes -- and are embracing the concept shop. Manufacturers are happy to put forth the extra money in materials and development because, as one industry executive notes, "the retailer is investing more in the presence of our brand.""We make our own store-within-a-store," says Greenberg. "It's P-O-P on a grander scale. The retailer is about to give us major real estate in their store, and we're going to make it as nice as humanly possible. The idea is to 'Skecherize' it, so when you step into this section of the store, you're in 'Skechers land.'"Candie's Larson believes that as retailers "see the impact that concept shops have on the sale of the product, they are becoming more and more willing to participate." In department stores, Candie's concept shops include tables, armoirs, risers, logo signs and a graphics presentation.Florsheim is making inroads with the idea by offering nesting tables with interchangeable signage and graphics. "A lot of retailers are open to [the concept]," Alberts says, "because they can see that the presentation of the product stands out, is cohesive, and in most cases, has an upscale look compared to what a lot of independent retailers may have."Retailers like the idea, too, as long as they can devote the space. "We allow them to do their own thing and create a whole environment within Just For Feet," says Ruttenberg, whose 20,000-square-foot stores have about 15 concept shops in each location. "It works for us, but most of our competitors are in small stores and cannot do those things. Every quarter our vendors come in and change the look and the focus."Tried and True MerchandisingAccording to most industry executives, there are some elements that can make any piece of P-O-P stand out from the rest.Motion. "Anything that is motion-oriented and is displayed prominently is the most effective," says Wolverine's Anderson. "It doesn't seem to matter whether that is a countertop unit, a wall unit or a floor unit." Ruttenberg agrees: "Anything that moves, anything that's animated, is always good." He says that each of his stores now feature two or three video walls.Bigger is better. "As our brands gain prominence," says Anderson, "retailers are now asking us to do things that are larger and more permanent. We're not only competing in terms of product now, we're competing for their space with newer, bigger, flashier P-O-P.""It takes a combination of large, bold graphics and well-designed, functional display units to create a consistent package that reinforces the brand and its image," says Alberts. "Something that is big, bold and clearly communicates the message (without getting too complex) is definitely the most effective.""There's more emphasis on fixturing and less on temporary P-O-P," says Dr. Martens' Scheid. "The countercard is still important, but it tends not to get used. The retailer is looking for stronger, more permanent signage."Modularity. Brown Shoe uses a lot of custom risers and modular units that can be reconfigured. With more shoe makers out there, Tauser says, each company is getting less space on the tables. Her company creates sets of 12-inch, 9-inch and 6-inch risers. "If you can't display horizontally, go vertical," she says.Self-service P-O-P. The customer is still very value-conscious today, notes NSRA's Boettge: "As much as we retailers dislike it, bookcase selling, or putting all the boxes out with the shoe on top, is still a big way of selling footwear today," he says. "Manufacturers are trying to get more hangtags and more information on the shoes, but the debate goes on if the hangtags are supported or if the salesperson should know about the shoes."In self-serve stores that don't offer much interaction with the sales staff, P-O-P -- and sometimes the packaging -- plays an even greater role. "Educational cards become very important so the athlete understands why we're putting a certain technology in the shoe," says Asics' Sellers."We try to educate through hangtags and packaging," says Wolverine's Anderson. "We use packaging to explain any technologies that may be built into the footwear. And the box has to properly represent the personality of the brand, whether it is a high-tech look or more rugged."The Six-Month SwitchMost companies still maintain that the two biggest strategic seasons for new introductions are spring and fall, but the need for tactical updates and new information seems to be chipping away at the calendar.While efforts at Brown Shoe, for example, are focused on permanent P-O-P that stays in stores for an entire season, Tauser says that its graphics are changing every time the company is running a promotion or sale."The prominence of brands now seems to shift even within the scope of a year," notes Wolverine's Anderson, "so retailers are going to be more apt to want to switch the brands they are giving high prominence to.""With more styles introduced, P-O-P is going in and out more quickly," says Asics' Sellers. "That's unfortunate because it gets pretty expensive. We want to be able to provide the proper educational tools for both the salesforce and the customer. With the continual updates, we always have our fingers crossed that the information is going to get updated as the new products come in."Up with the TimesMarketing executives seem to agree that the P-O-P industry is keeping up its end of the bargain as far as advancements in materials and technology. "We can do more than before because [P-O-P producers] are always introducing something new in materials and technology," says Brown Shoe's Tauser. "If it's a good shoe, we're using P-O-P as one of the strongest selling points once it goes into stores. Sometimes we're restrained by size, and it takes innovation to overcome that."With the popularity of permanent merchandising on an upswing, Dr. Martens' Scheid says there is less reliance on materials such as corrugated and more emphasis on metals and wood. They are more expensive but they also last longer and make a better impression.As Anderson notes, "The fact that companies have people whose full-time jobs are to visually present a brand at retail" has improved the quality of shoe P-O-P. "They are able to focus on it, to understand the brand better and to make sure the brand is properly represented," he says. "With every tweak of a brand's personality, you have to change the way it is presented at retail. It almost becomes a competition in and of itself between brands to come up with something that the retailer wants in his store and to get it prominently displayed."Skechers' Greenberg likes to think of his job as analogous to the company's footwear designers: "Just as they search for the latest materials for shoes, we try things like new powder-coating methods. A lot of manufacturers think everything has been done before and it's just a matter of changing it. There is some truth to that, but there are still a lot of ideas to be tested -- and there's nothing like updating something that was big in the past with new materials."

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