When it’s time to make a big statement, it’s hard to beat a big ol’ sign. Take for example: the jumbo neon “Garage Sale” poster nailed to a telephone pole. Is it a coincidence that your neighbor Joe got the biggest poster at Walgreens to construct his sign? Not likely. He knows that large sign = visibility, and for Joe, visibility= less junk in the garage by Sunday afternoon. The idea that as far as signs go, “bigger is better,” applies for anyone looking to expose a product. Take, for instance, the other extreme of the advertising spectrum. Look from neighbor Joe, to the billion-dollar corporation.

When Burger King was constructing its famous “Smoking Whopper” freeway billboard, did an advertising executive say “It’s good, but do you think we could scale it down a bit”? Not likely. A bigger, steamier Whopper on a large freeway sign meant more visibility, and in turn, more hungry motorists escaping the traffic for a quick Whopper their way. Their way, because it was their idea to hop off the freeway. They got the idea from that big, delicious sign.

How big is too big?

As effective as billboard advertising can be, the ad is nothing without relevant and dynamic content. Constructing a fake Whopper on a billboard is brilliant as long as the burger looks appetizing. It should go without saying that a lousy looking burger won’t suddenly gain appeal when advertised on a large scale. Conversely, putting highly captivating advertising on a small, poorly placed sign is arguably worse than the big, ugly sign. Surely a huge hideous billboard is preferable to a little poster that no one sees! At least the billboard is getting exposure.

Location, location, location

Billboard and large sign advertising are perfectly suited to attract the mobile consumer. You can turn down the car radio during commercials, but when you’re sitting in rush hour traffic, there is no escaping the billboards that dot the length of freeways (and even major surface streets). These high-traffic, high-visibility areas are optimal for billboard advertising. The reason is twofold:
• When the consumer is stuck in traffic, they are staring at your big beautiful billboard! They’re not going anywhere, and neither is your ad. This extended exposure often exceeds the typical 30 seconds of a television commercial or 15-second radio spot.
• When traffic is moving smoothly, the driver has little to distract him. Presented with a visually enticing (not to mention large) piece of advertising on the roadside, the driver is at leisure to absorb the content of the various road-side adverts.

The best of both worlds

When there is a marriage of large size and quality content on a billboard the results are phenomenal. A kinetic ad campaign splashed across a 14′x 48′ billboard can not only arrest consumer attention, but also leave the consumer considering the impression of your ad. Effectual advertisements will be complex enough for the passing motorist or pedestrian to continue to digest the contents of your signage after they have passed it. Make the content clever, the product clear, and showcase it on a large scale. The results from a high caliber billboard will not disappoint.

Building A Better Brochure

It’s certainly a good thing that the copy store is open 24 hours, because it may be a while before you can make your escape. Who knew there was so much involved in producing an enticing brochure? It sounds simple enough. Get paper. Throw on some relevant pictures. Write about the pictures. Sprinkle in some clip art. Fold it up. Done and done - or so you thought.

Enter the copy store. Under the white neon lights, your thousands of options are illuminated. You just stopped in to run off 200 copies of your little creation. Now, however, you find yourself confronted with opportunity to produce not just a brochure, but a real work of art . Precision folding-machines are capable of creasing your creation in a half-fold, tri-fold, or z-fold configuration. A consultant is available to provide support for layout and design services. There is an explosion of paper choices: colors, weights, finishes, and sizes. Maybe it’s time to rethink the original, wimpy version of that brochure.

Wow.

So you make some changes. With the decisive skill of a Starbucks regular, you order up your new, improved publication: 100% cotton paper. In Navajo white. Printed via four-color press. And make that 400 copies, not 2. This has become more than a Tuesday afternoon project - your brochure is a masterpiece. A high-quality, high-gloss, z-folded masterpiece. It costs more than you first planned, but as you well know, it takes money to make money. Your brochures will be placed in other people’s businesses. It’s important to attract attention to your publication. With the brochures on various side tables and counters of local businesses, it’s imperative they look great. After all, you need to grab the public’s attention away from whatever drew them to the business, and to your dazzling brochure. Grabbing that attention shouldn’t be hard, though, with such a superb specimen. Let’s be honest - this is Brochure Hall of Fame material. You might even get a raise out of it. Seriously. It’s that good.

Delivering the Masterpiece

You’re ready to go. You stride confidently, carrying 50 brochures to your first drop-off. Find the designated location…oh, it’s at the back of the shop. Not to worry, your brochure can’t be overlooked, even all the way back here. Sliding the stack from its protective paper sleeve, you finally deliver your product to its destination. Wow. It looks like…well…a pile of brochures. The problem is obviously the other messy piles of highlighter-yellow, tri-folded flyers that are strewn around. They make the whole brochure area look like a publication landfill! This is unacceptable. This brochure riff-raff is detracting from the professionalism of your product. You need some way to elevate yourself. Er, your brochure.

The Solution

What you need is to feature the brochure. You’ve gone to the trouble of creating an outstanding product. Try using an organizational product tailored directly to your needs. Specialized plastic products designed to exhibit your promotional materials are an excellent way to give your brochure (or even sign!) that final touch. Rise above the unprofessional atmosphere of a messy, brochure-laden table. A showcase in clean, transparent plastic will organize and elevate your presentation. You went to the trouble of creating a superior (genius?) product. Doesn’t it make sense to present it in a superior (genius?) way?

Just as quality of food and service is important to a restaurant’s success, so is the restaurant’s representation of those foods and services. Ambiance and attitude may be elemental in the design of a restaurant, but at the end of the day, patrons are there to eat. A restaurant menu is the most obvious tool in exposing the customer to the culinary experience they want. Just as important as lighting and table settings, however, are the few pictures of menu items placed on restaurant tables and in the menu itself. These select photos give the diner an expectation that sets the tone for the entire meal.

Playing To Your Strengths

Have a great halibut? Make killer mac and cheese? Show it off! There is nothing greater for a restaurant than a new loyal customer. To get a new loyal customer, you have to give a great first impression. The best way to do that is to play to your restaurant’s strengths. Put pictures of your restaurant’s most well-known and well-loved menu items on display on menu covers and signs on tables. When a new or indecisive customer can’t decide between many appealing menu items, looking at a picture often helps the customer choose.

Be Consistent!

There is nothing more disconcerting than getting a meal that looks different from its picture. I have a spectacularly picky friend who once sent her chocolate chip pancakes back to an IHOP because they didn’t look like the pancakes on the sign (for the record, it’s the authors opinion that it’s pretty absurd to send chocolate chip pancakes back because “in the picture they have sprinkles”. And no, my friend isn’t an eight-year-old. This happened while we were in college). A lesson can be learned from my high maintenance friend: it can be upsetting to get a meal that looks different from the picture. However, the conflict surrounding her missing sprinkles is very easily avoided. As we all know, getting a meal that is EXACTLY what you wanted is wonderfully satisfying. A customer that sees what they want in a picture is the easiest customer to please. They won’t get their meal and be disappointed, because they knew what they were in for when they ordered it. The customer is pleased, and the restaurant doesn’t have to worry about meals being sent back because it’s not what the customer expected.

Creating Customers for Life

Customers may or may not choose their meal based on your menu pictures or restaurant signs. They will take the pictures of your food into consideration, whether it’s conscious or not. Be smart! Take pictures that make your food look delicious. There are companies who specialize in photographing only food. It’s their job to make your food look supernaturally good! Take advantage of their expertise. Your patrons may not order the food in the picture, but they will appreciate seeing that what you offer is high quality. Even having a small number of photos placed on tables and in menus can do wonders for a restaurant. Displayed prominently and tastefully, mouth-watering photos of your restaurant’s offerings can enhance the dining experience, and when you create a positive dining experience, as long as your customers’ orders looks like they do in the photos, they will enjoy coming back for more.

Imagine you have just finished your shopping and are standing in line at the checkout counter. Without being able to stop yourself, your attention is drawn to an eye-catching display offering a new product at a great price. You thought you had found all the items you intended to buy, but the fascinating product being advertised next to the register has piqued your interest. How could you pass up an opportunity like this? You must buy this product. It is simply too enticing not to and is available within arm’s reach! There is no need to lose your place in line and search for the product in the far reaches of the store. The product and related promotional materials are right there in front of you, displayed in an attractive manner that makes it so irresistibly appealing there is no turning back. The next thing you know you are contentedly paying for your goods, fully satisfied with the decision to make a last minute purchase.

Now it’s time to change perspectives and look at this situation from the point of view of the seller. You have just succeeded in securing a profitable sale by utilizing a point of purchase display for your product. How exactly does this phenomenon happen? How can a simple point of purchase display convert into increased sales for your business?

Attract Attention

There is no better way to entice people to buy your product or use your service than with an impressive, attention-grabbing display. A primary goal of any successful business is to outshine one’s competitors. What better way to achieve this than by using an elegantly designed display that brings your promotional literature to life! Often times, checkout counters can appear cluttered and disorderly – but you can use this to your advantage. A well-designed display will standout among the jumbled mess and make your product appear even more enticing. More importantly, however, if you succeed at capturing your customers’ interest, your chances of acquiring a sale are even higher.

Enhance Product Recognition

You may have the best product out there, but if nobody knows about it, the likelihood of your product being purchased is low. Placing an attractive point of purchase display next to the merchandise it is promoting is an optimal solution. If you are trying to get a new and innovative product out there, a point of purchase display will help you build and market your brand. It will also make your brand more memorable than your competition’s because yours is the last thing customers see before making their final purchase and leaving the store. Displaying point of purchase materials will help customers remember you and the products you sell.

Boost Product Sales

Want to be let in on a little known reality about buying behavior? Over 70% of decisions regarding what to buy are made at the point of purchase. With this in mind, if you hope to increase product sales, it is imperative you capitalize on the tendency for people to engage in last minute impulse buying. The most effective method of doing so is by using point of purchase displays that target the consumer when they are making the decision to buy.

This innovative means of promoting your product, combined with strategic placement of the display at the checkout area or other location where customers make purchases, will increase your number of sales opportunities, and ultimately, increase the profitability of your business.

Five years ago, I decided to take a big risk and follow my life-long dream of opening a restaurant. I wanted it to specialize in the home cooked, southern comfort food my momma always made for me as a child. After a large investment of time, energy, and money, Mamma’s Kitchen finally opened six months later. I could not believe it, but it was an immediate and unexpected success! We were barely able to keep up with the influx of new customers and the hordes of first-timers who were fast becoming regulars. Although I was overjoyed with the success of the restaurant and the wonderful feedback I was receiving from patrons, a few months after opening the place I wanted to try something new.

I thought it would be fun to change up the menu every week by offering weekly specials. Here is where I ran into an unexpected challenge. When I first began offering weekly specials, I simply wrote the specials on a chalkboard that hung on the wall. The problem was nobody bothered to look up at the board and most customers were unable to see it from where they were seated. It was a complete failure! Next, I tried including paper inserts inside the regular menu we pass out to each customer upon seating. I assumed this was the method used by most restaurants so I thought it was worth a try. Little did I know how ineffective it would be! Since the specials were printed on paper, they were often torn, spilled upon, ripped, crumpled up, or simply thrown away by accident. This means we were passing out a new insert for almost every patron that came in the door! Not only was I wasting paper, I was wasting money. The weekly printing costs became exorbitant and I couldn’t keep it up. There had to be a better way to handle it.

After spending weeks of exploring different marketing options, I decided to look online to see if anything jumped out at me, and right away I found great tabletop sign holders. They were inexpensive, easy to use, and overall, seemed like the perfect solution. Now that I have started using them to display my menu specials, I am noticing the benefits they bring to my restaurant every day. First, using sign holders to feature my menu specials make it much easier to replace the special each week – all I have to do is change the paper inserts. The cost is minimal and I am able to try out am new designs and layouts all the time. I’ve noticed the sign holders look great with bright colors and lots of pictures – and people are actually reading them and trying new options on our menu! I have had the same gentleman come in for lunch every Wednesday for six-months and order a vegetable potpie every time. Now he orders a new special whenever he comes in, and he is here three or more times a week.

Regular customers look forward to sitting down and reading what is new for them to try, and I have had several people comment on how the new sign-holders do a nice job of displaying our specials. One regular patron said, “Great idea! I would have never tried your roast beef sandwich if it wasn’t for that mouth-watering picture.”

What is more, these sign holders have six sides to them, allowing me to fit everything I need to without a problem – so I can include several different “specials.” It really works out for my customers and me – they enjoy more options, and I enjoy more sales. Occasionally I notice a customer will pull out the paper, and write a message about how great the food is. I love it! It makes me happy to see these little notes and it makes other customers confident in what to order. Overall, I am so grateful for having discovered this way to promote the delicious weekly specials at Mamma’s Kitchen.

Without these sign-holders, I don’t think I would be experiencing the recent boost in business!

As cliché as it sounds, first impressions make lasting impressions. In any new encounter, you are evaluated, and it often takes under three seconds for an initial judgment to be made. Moreover, the impact of this first impression is often irreversible, and, in business environments, the appraisal process can have even greater impact. That is why it is essential for businesses wishing to attract new clients or customers to do everything in their power to ensure a good first impression.

Brochure Holders Help Create Effective Promotional Displays

The task of making a good first impression may seem daunting at first, but it is quite doable, and it starts at the simplest of levels: effectively displaying your promotional materials. When potential customers walk into your business or office, the three-second evaluation process will have already begun. A business that has its brochures and fliers strewn about the office, lying on desks, or hidden away in drawers, has failed to capitalize on an easy way to impress new customers. Their promotional materials are rendered useless because they are not available for viewing. Moreover, a disorganized office does not reflect well on your business – and may defeat the purpose of a promotional display in the first place!

On the other hand, a business that has its information and brochures elegantly displayed in counter-top and/or wall-mounted brochure holders has anticipated the need for organized and available promotional materials. This business is ready to impress new customers right off the bat! High quality brochure holders are an eye-catching type of display for any office or business. Even from fifty feet away, they enables you to attract clients’ attention, creating the opportunity for them to seek out more information about your business and the products and/or services you offer.

Making a Lasting Impression

In order to ensure a lasting impression on clients and customers, it is important that your promotional materials are easily accessible to new clients. The worst thing that could happen is that a potential client comes into your office, you successfully impress them, but they mistakenly leave without taking any of your company’s promotional materials, simply because the display was not in their direct line of vision. Despite the positive evaluation of your services, you may have lost a potential client because you failed to display your promotional materials effectively! In order to guarantee new customers do not leave without your brochures, implement strategic brochure holder placement. This means making sure materials are available in prime locations: near the exits, on desktops, and in the reception area.

Businesses should not underestimate the impact a first impression has on a potentially new client or customer. By taking steps to ensure you are presenting your business in the best possible light, this is a goal easily attained. Using your promotional materials in a way that supports a client’s experience in your office or place of business, and enhances his or her evaluation of your company is the first step in making a good first impression. The best way to do this is through elegantly designed, organized, and well-placed brochure holders that attract clients’ attention and make promotional materials easily accessible – and something they won’t want to leave without!

Employee input is critical to maintaining a happy and healthy work atmosphere, but today’s employers are sometimes unsure of how to get honest feedback out of their workers. Often employees don’t want to give suggestions or offer criticism in fear that it will reflect negatively upon them.

Eating out in a restaurant is always a special treat. And sometimes, when we’re feeling particularly indulgent, we want a taste of something sweet after we finish our meal. The problem is, the menus are long gone, and we have no idea what’s available. On top of that, our server is a little lackadaisical and doesn’t tell us the dessert specials, so we end up leaving the restaurant and stopping at DQ on the way home.

This is a very real scenario that happens all the time. And, if you’re a restaurateur, you’re losing out on business. Obviously, you can’t leave the menus on the table for the whole meal as they’re usually too big and bulky. And, you can’t depend on your staff to mention the desserts because humans are fallible. A good solution is to invest in some point of purchase marketing.

Ready to Order

Point of Purchase (P.O.P.) marketing is exactly what it sounds like. It’s marketing to a consumer right when they’re about to purchase their other items. Often, it entices them to buy things they didn’t know they wanted in the first place. A good use of P.O.P displays in a restaurant is to invest in some acrylic sign holders that list the current specials.

Having an acrylic sign holder on each table is a cheap, effective way of boosting sales and subtly marketing to your consumers. If people are wavering on the idea of dessert, a tempting picture already displayed in a sign holder on their table will probably push them into making the purchase. In addition, it also plays on the fact that people are very visual. Sometimes your consumers might not even know they want dessert, but if the acrylic sign holder is already there with a delectable image, then they might start considering ordering something when before it wasn’t even on their radar. The ability to up sell to your patrons with the sign holder will definitely have a positive effect on your bottom line.

Acrylic Sign Holder

One other benefit to utilizing an acrylic sign holder in your point of purchase efforts is the fact that it’s easily changeable. If you have any seasonal desserts or some type of monthly special, it’s simple to switch out the insert and you basically have a brand new advertisement.

Acrylic sign holders can help increase your restaurant’s business by upselling to your patrons in a cheap and effective manner. And, ultimately, it is your customers that will end up being satisfied!