Vizio Makes Sound Decisions

Irvine, Calif. — When consumer electronics manufacturer Vizio was preparing to introduce its new 21-inch 2.1 sound stand last summer, the company’s marketers knew there would be a unique challenge in producing an in-store piece around the audio system’s subwoofer. Vibrations from the speaker could weaken the display, or worse, the display housing could muffle or distort sound quality.Both scenarios were major concerns as Vizio sought to roll out semi-permanent units to 685 Sam’s Club stores and select Costco locations, fulfilling an in-store vision for the brand that senior director of merchandising Victor Shu and his team work hard every year to create. “We use a broad range of consumer studies, market insights and mystery shop data, along with retailer insights and requirements to shape our P-O-P and merchandising strategy,” says Shu. “The display is an integral part of Vizio’s in-store marketing efforts year after year, especially for products such as the sound stand that encourage customer interaction.”“Their sound engineers are literally the ears of the company. They listened to the sound quality and gave it their approval.”Vizio entrusted the design project to Burbank, California-based Origin, but sound quality wasn’t going to be the only challenge for the P-O-P firm. The manufacturer’s in-store budget for the sound stand required senior account manager Matt Weston and the Origin team to get creative. “We were given a budget that was certainly challenging,” Weston says, “so we had to design into that cost. What we were able to accomplish was a premium display, and certainly an upgrade to what they’ve done before. We were able to use new, upgraded materials while maintaining Vizio’s budget constraints.”The necessity to use different materials for the 2.1 launch relates back to the issue of in-store customer interaction with the product and the possibility that very high volumes could potentially compromise the stability of the display. “The key requirement was that whatever we created had to ensure there was no vibration from the speaker, even when turned up to the max,” says Weston. “We couldn’t use metal hardware because it could come loose.”Origin tested other options until it came up with a one-piece, urethane foam base with a medium-density fiberboard back panel. “After we were happy with the foam and we did our testing,” Weston says, “I took it to the client. Their sound engineers are literally the ears of the company. They listened to the sound quality and gave it their approval.”The collaboration of Vizio’s research and Origin’s innovative design paid off. According to Weston, the display had a compliance as high as 65% to 75%.Weston attributed the success in placement to the fact that the 25-inch-wide by 18-inch-high display shipped nearly fully assembled. “We shipped it with the product already mounted to the display base,” he says. “All [retailers] had to do was attach the header to the base with three screws and plug it in.”On top of that, Weston says Origin hasn’t received a single report of units damaged during shipping or failure on the store floor. “That’s especially pleasing,” he says. “Even the push buttons we used looked great and have proved to be resilient to everyday wear and tear.”The displays began shipping to stores in August and were slated to remain for six to nine months. Shu said the full success of the display would be evaluated based on five criteria: design and implementation; durability; cost and timing; compliance rates; and sales impact.Weston says that the development of the display could have a lasting impact on Vizio’s future in-store efforts. “The urethane foam was a resounding success,” he says. “We were able to use it to make something that looked great, sounded great and was really easy to set up.”

Vizio Makes Sound Decisions

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